O.K. ... I'm a Batman Fan. As a tike, I liked the TV show (though now it seems painful to watch). I actually own an original signed script (by Adam West) of the show (a gift from my best bud). I spent most of my paper route/lawn maint money on (mostly) DC comics from 1974-1977.
Puberty had me drift away from comics...but even still; One of the first songs I learned on the Bass was the theme from the TV show (albeit "The JAM's" version).
I got pulled back in to comics again when Frank Miller penned "The Dark Knight Returns" in 1986. I dived back into comics and added more DC, Marvel, Dark Horse and many independents to my collection...but only one character did I purchase religiously...Batman. I stood in line to see "Batman" and did not go away wanting (though Jack could have lost a few pounds before filming...a chubby Joker just isn't in my mindset). I shook off the pending feeling of doom I had after "Batman Returns" watching Danny DiVito's perversion of the Penguin....and was completely disappointed in both the efforts of Mr. Kilmer and Mr Clooney.
Fortunately for me, the gang at WB animation did some fantastic work on the Animated Series that more than made up for the miserable last two movies. Kevin Alteri, Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett paired with the the perfect voice casting of Kevin Conroy, Effrem Zimbalist Jr, and Mark Hamil truly made a benchmark in quality for Super-Hero based entertainment..which has only been improved upon with the Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League series.
So now it's "Batman Begins". Can't gripe for the cast (Michael Caine would have been my pick for Alfred the first time around). Gary Oldman is a tad invisable for "Captian" Gordon, methinks John Cusak would have been the way to go. I was wondering why Lucius had been kept out of the other movies, they couldn't pick anyone better than Morgan Freeman (I've loved this guy since "The Electric Company"). I'll wait to judge on Mr Bale...as I was totally off the mark when I thought Mr. Keaton was going to tank in "Batman". Originally they were talking about doing "The Dark Knight Returns", but I think WB didn't want to go there without another Superman movie in the can. The Script thus far sounds like a "lifting" of Year 1, Year 2, and a couple of subplots from "The Batman Chronicles", I really don't know what to expect.
A year and a half ago I wasn't even going to consider this movie until I was sure Joel Shumacher was going to have NOTHING to do with it. But they seem to want to do it right (I can only hope).
No comments:
Post a Comment