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After reading a selection of the reviews, I was expecting the worst.
Batman is my favourite comic book character, one of my favourite fictional characters in any media. The Batman has been portrayed as a pulp detective, a shining beacon of american wholesomeness, a madman, a near-mythical legend, a protector, an avenger, and even a broken man in a wheelchair or grieving for one of his murdered sons. He has been feared, adored, hunted, copied and abandoned.
The Batman has been featured in comics (first appearing in May 1939 in Detective Comics #27), video games, TV shows, music albums, novels, newspapers, magazines, on cereal boxes, on clothing, posters, adverts, trading cards, and, of course, in film.
The films worry me. I worry about how people will react to my favourite comic book creation - how they will think of him. The films reach a far, far larger audience than the comic books ever could. For most people. the films define Batman. Many people were first introduced to Batman by the 1966 TV shows and film which gave us the camp masked avengers Batman and Robin dancing to groovy tunes, sliding down poles and bashing the bad guys with the huge 'POW!' written sound effects on the screen. This is a far cry from how the Batman was meant to be. One of Batman's creators, Bob Kane, stated:
"Being an ardent mystery fan I visualised Batman as a mysterious figure of justice symbolised by the hooded bat costume, designed to instil fear into the hearts of the underworld" (1)Quite different to the 60s Batman. Then along came the 80s and 90s and gave us Michael Keaton. My kids call him 'Tiny Batman' when compared to the Batman of the comics. Wasn't Kim Basinger taller than the hero? Besides the physical difference, the two Tim Burton films did get some things right: the anger was there, sometimes; the loneliness (we see Bruce sitting in the dark, alone in his mansion, as if simply waiting for the bat signal to light) and the modern idea that Bruce Wayne was a mask that the Batman wore rather than the other way around. At the end of the day, however, Burton hits the nail on the head when he states:
"This is way too big a budget movie to worry about what a fan of a comic book would say." (2)The two films after this, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, are films that I have seen once and will never watch again. Director Joel Schumacher, for some reason decided to influence Tim's darker Batman with the silliness of the 60s. George Clooney's nipples and close-ups of Robin's Bat-butt? I'm not sure who could have enjoyed those films.
Then, the Nolan trilogy! I remember thinking, This time, they've almost got it right: the fierceness, the determination, the intensity of a man who is so obsessed, so driven by his own loss, that he beats criminals to a pulp with his fists as a hobby. What they didn't get right was the fact that he relies on armour instead of martial arts, and there was a distinct lack of detective work from a character born in a book called Detective Comics.
So, would I ever be happy with a Batman in the cinema? Denny O'Neil, the editor of the Batman line of comics between 1986 and 2000, doesn't believe it is wise to make a literal translation of a character between media. in an interview I conducted with him in 1996 he said:
"Basically, different media have different tools and different demands. You are never well advised to make a literal translation...likewise, a novelist's tools and not those of a film-maker. Although comics and film have some things in common, they have an equal number of things not in common. Comics are static, comics depend on an odd grammar that combines written words and static images. Film has very many more resources - actors' voices, motion, camera motion, motion within the frame, music, certain cutting techniques, zooms, so on, that are denied the comic book writer. So...the trick is always this: you take the idea, in this case the idea of an obsessed crime-fighter who operates at night and has assumed the persona of a bat. And you don't try and recreate it literally in the other medium, what you try to do is translate the way a...somebody might translate a poem. Take the idea and recreate it in your own idiom using your own tools in the language of your medium." (3)WB handed the DC Universe over to Zack Snyder when he made Man of Steel in 2013. Before this, he tackled DC's much loved Watchmen series of books. Watchmen is one of my favourite films of all time mainly because, despite what Denny O'Neil believes, it is almost a literal translation of the comic books (yes, apart from the pirate shipwreck sub plot and the fake alien ending - both of which are missing from the film).
Now Zack is back with Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. The credits state that the writers were Chris Terrio and David S Goyer. Goyer worked with Nolan in all three of the trilogy so he's no stranger to the Batman character. He's also no stranger to the works of Frank Miller judging by how heavily he relied on some of Frank's ideas when working with Nolan.
This latest film, however, should have given a credit to Miller. The film I saw today was based around his greatest achievement: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns published in 1986.
In this 199 page comic book, an old, suicidal, semi-alcoholic, Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement to aid Gotham in the city's darkest hour. So too in this latest film: With the manor in ruins and a Wayne Enterprises building destroyed by Superman (in graphic 9/11 style) Wayne suits up and goes after the Kryptonian. We see Bruce struggling out of bed and checking the booze bottles on his bedside table. Alfred scolds him about leaving an empty wine cellar for future generations of Waynes, and then reminds himself that there probably won't be any future generations. In fact, it's almost word for word from this page in the 1986 book:
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| Frank Miller - The Dark Knight Returns (DC Comics, 1986) |
The bat suit is straight from this book too. Paid critics, who haven't done their research, have described the suit as 'clunky' and, desperate for something to link it to, have compared it to that worn by The Owl in Snyder's Watchmen. In fact, Miller designed the older Batman's suit to draw power from Gotham itself when he was fighting Superman.
Oh yeah, did I not mention that the whole idea of Batman fighting Superman with sonic cannons, Kryptonite gas and the powered suit comes directly from this book too?
So far, Snyder is doing what he did with Watchmen and being faithful to the source. And I'm loving it! Early in the film, Batman rescues a group of people who end up being terrified of him and calling him a Demon. He moves faster than the police can follow. He attacks with an almost unrestrained ferocity, breaking door, noses and arms and in a whirlwind of violence. Just as it should be! I have a special edition of The Dark Knight Returns and it includes notes and sketches from Miller himself. It makes for fascinating reading:
"Interrogates criminals by scaring the piss out of them, not by roughing them up. If he fights, it's in a way that leaves them too messed up to talk. Violence must be fierce, quick, surgical when it happens. He doesn't threaten, not literally - his presence plays more on guilt and primal fears than on rough stuff. No room for indecision as Bats [Batman] and Wayne doesn't exist. Natural grace, sure - but no ballet. Goes to great lengths to be at the right place at the right time, to inspire mythic image - when violent, very economical. Must damage with least movement. Figure should never appear weightless." (4)And that's just how Snyder has portrayed the new, older Batman. The mood is serious, dark, fitting for a film about loss and all its many effects on those left behind.
Eventually, this dark and bloodthirsty Batman defeats Superman and is ready to deal the killer blow. And it's at this point that the film starts to lose its way. Lois Lane explains to Bruce that Superman has a mother called Martha, just as Bruce did. Prior to this, Bruce was convinced that Superman was responsible for deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands and that he was a threat to the entire planet. But because their mothers have the same name, within ten seconds (not an exaggeration!) the two heroes are united as best friends against a common enemy - Lex Luther.
So then we have Doomsday being created by Lex, a nuclear missile, a massive fight that seems to go on forever and then Wonder Woman. I've never read a Wonder Woman book so I can't really comment on how faithful this version is. In the film she is very thin, drives fast, was in WW1 and has a shield. She drops in for the big fight at the end. I don't know why. Maybe she just really likes Gotham?
However, up to the 'Martha is my Mommy' point, I was really enjoying the new Batman film.
We are given three separate teasers during the film in the form of files that Bruce has collected - footage of Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash. All in readiness for the upcoming Justice League films - very exciting! (Where was Green Arrow?)
The movie looks and sounds great. Snyder makes these superheroes look like gods, especially Superman as he descends slowly from the heavens. Snyder sometimes arranges his players so that they appear to be in a painting, particularly at the death of superman.
The music is great, Zimmerman doing his usual hero marches and quiet/loud/quiet dramatics. The guns sound awesome and the explosions make you jump. Even in the Electric with its inferior sound system, the film sounded fresh and modern.
For the first half of the film when they were actually fighting each other - it's got to be a 9.5 out of 10 action film.
For the film as a whole - an 8 I think. Go see it, especially if you know a bit about DC comics!
(1) Coulton Waugh - The Comics (New York: MacMillan 1947) p262
(2) Simon Garfield - "Batman versus Hollywood" in Time Out: July 1989, p54.
(3) Denny O'Neil - from an interview I conducted with him in February 1996.
(4) Frank Miller - Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (DC Comics, 1986, 2002)
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