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Batman, Batman -- How I do Love my Batmans
Batman was my first true television love. Back when I was seven, I just loved Batman, Robin, and their battle with all those diabolical villains. When I was older, I realized that Batman was a spoof and I still loved it. Great that it could work for a literal-minded seven year old. Great that it could amuse her when she got older. Adam West and Burt Ward linger in my heart with the warmest affection.
I loved Tim Burton's Batman with Michael Keaton. Mostly because batman was back and I am and always will be pro-batman girl. I liked the serious tone, along with the cartoonish tone from the original show. I'm not sure they worked together very well, though. I loved that first Batman movie a lot, but more as a really cool failure than as a spectacular success. The sequels just got worse from there.
I really like the new Batman with Christian Bale. Oddly, I've only seen the first one once. It's a bit long and takes itself too seriously. But I like Dark Knight a lot. It makes you think a bit. It's definitely got some of that essential darkness that the TV show didn't have and that Burton couldn't quite blend with the cartoon sensibility..
Folks, these are three very different approaches to the source material which is batman. If you want to take one of them and canonize it and say the other two don't measure up, that's your perogative. But I'd like to be free to like all the batmans. I don't want to live in a world where embracing Christian Bale means I have to renounce Adam West. I want to live in a world that celebrates them both and which recognizes that the source material for batman is just that rich that it works well as serious brooding drama and as spoofy cheese.
Batman and Robin is a bad movie because it doesn't have the zany cheese of the series, or the weird combo that Burton tried. It's not a fun movie, or a serious movie or any kind of good movie. So of course, it's worse that Dark Knight. But NOT because it fails to be properly serious. Batman the series is NOT worse than Dark Knight. It's just different. Difference is good.
To the argument in question, season 8 might well be an abject failure -- but at least let it be a failure of Joss to do justice to his own schtick, not a failure to do something he isn't even trying to do. And please don't tell me that for any given set of ideas there is One True Way. (Or less snarkily, any subject worth doing well is worth doing in multiple tones. Literature is a conversation, not a dictatorship).
I loved Tim Burton's Batman with Michael Keaton. Mostly because batman was back and I am and always will be pro-batman girl. I liked the serious tone, along with the cartoonish tone from the original show. I'm not sure they worked together very well, though. I loved that first Batman movie a lot, but more as a really cool failure than as a spectacular success. The sequels just got worse from there.
I really like the new Batman with Christian Bale. Oddly, I've only seen the first one once. It's a bit long and takes itself too seriously. But I like Dark Knight a lot. It makes you think a bit. It's definitely got some of that essential darkness that the TV show didn't have and that Burton couldn't quite blend with the cartoon sensibility..
Folks, these are three very different approaches to the source material which is batman. If you want to take one of them and canonize it and say the other two don't measure up, that's your perogative. But I'd like to be free to like all the batmans. I don't want to live in a world where embracing Christian Bale means I have to renounce Adam West. I want to live in a world that celebrates them both and which recognizes that the source material for batman is just that rich that it works well as serious brooding drama and as spoofy cheese.
Batman and Robin is a bad movie because it doesn't have the zany cheese of the series, or the weird combo that Burton tried. It's not a fun movie, or a serious movie or any kind of good movie. So of course, it's worse that Dark Knight. But NOT because it fails to be properly serious. Batman the series is NOT worse than Dark Knight. It's just different. Difference is good.
To the argument in question, season 8 might well be an abject failure -- but at least let it be a failure of Joss to do justice to his own schtick, not a failure to do something he isn't even trying to do. And please don't tell me that for any given set of ideas there is One True Way. (Or less snarkily, any subject worth doing well is worth doing in multiple tones. Literature is a conversation, not a dictatorship).
no subject
It probably won't surprise you that Nolan's Batman is the only one I've ever liked. To be fair, I've never read the comics, so I'm probably missing a lot of iterations, but Adam West never did it for me. I found it boring and too silly. I didn't bother with the 90s movies because they looked awful. When I was in middle school (around when Batman and Robin came out), one of my friends was really into Batman, probably in no small part due to George Clooney, but it was this whole thing with her. We all had to have superhero code names and stuff, and I never understood what the big deal was. I wasn't really into superhero stories at all (again, having never read comics), though I did watch Lois and Clark.
It wasn't until I saw Batman Begins that I went, "OH. Now I see why everyone loves Batman so much." It finally clicked. It's the only version that's ever worked for me (though after this I may give the Burton movies a try).
It's a lot like my experience with Doctor Who, actually. I mean, I liked the first four seasons well enough, but I didn't really see what the big deal was, and I wondered if maybe I was missing something by not having seen Old Who. And then I watched the fifth season, and it just clicked. I got why everyone loved it so much.
no subject
Dr. Who hasn't clicked for me either, though I assume that's because I haven't figured out yet how to see it right. I look forward to seeing season 5 -- but I also plan on giving the first four seasons another go. I'm patient on stuff like this. Learning to love opera and jazz took me ages. But I love when that light goes on, so I'm usually willing to wait on it.