batman & robin | the m0vie blog

Like a Good Kick in the Side: Sidekicks and Superheroes – a Childish Combination?

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Darren

Let’s be honest, a lot of the early superhero movie adaptations – from Richard Donner’s Superman to Tim Burton’s Batman – played fast and loose with the source material that they were drawn from. There wasn’t really the same sense of fidelity that one sense at work in modern comic adaptations, the sense that modern audiences are geeky enough to accept concepts like superhero nostalgia or deconstructions of comic book heroism without having to “sanitise” them for mass consumption. There’s a sense that there’s relatively little that can be deemed “too geeky” or “too corny” for a mainstream audience, at least not if done in the proper manner. However, there is one concept which still seems a little too “out there” for popular audiences: that of the kid sidekick. Captain America: The First Avenger cast its sidekick as 27-year-old Sebastian Stan, rather than the teenager of the comics. Why are we so embarrassed by this one element of superhero lore?

Compare and contrast...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: batman, batman & robin, batman forever, Bucky, captain america, captain america: the first avenger, child soldier, comic books, Comics, dick grayson, ed brubaker, Grantmorrison, mark millar, richard donner, robin, Sebastian Stan, sidekick, teenage, tim burton | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Batman Forever

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Darren

Was that over the top? I can never tell!

– Edward Nygma, aka The Riddler

Yes, Edward, that was over the top.

“Yeah, Tommy, you got something juuuust here….”

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: batman, batman & robin, batman forever, burton, chris o'donnell, ed nygma, edward nygma, gothic, harvey dent, jim carrey, joel schumacher, neon, non-review review, review, robin, the riddler, tommy lee jones, two face, val kilmer, warners | 4 Comments »

The Art of Bat-Deduction…

Posted on April 14, 2010 by Darren

My copy of Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin hardcover should be shipping from Amazon today. In recognition of that fact, and in acknowledgement of Grant Morrison’s description of his book as the Adam West television show filtered through the lens of David Lynch, I give you perhaps my favourite moment of 1960s Batman, from Batman: The Movie. Batman and the Boy Wonder have just been attacked by a shark, leading to the infamous “Bat Shark Repellent” scene, and the Caped Crusader (because it’s just… wrong to call Adam West’s version of the character the Dark Knight) must figure out who was behind the plot:

Batman: Pretty fishy what happened to me on that ladder.
Gordon: You mean, where there’s a fish, there could be a Penguin.
Robin: But wait! It happened at sea! See? “C” for Catwoman!
Batman: Yet — that exploding shark was pulling my leg!
Gordon: The Joker!
O’Hara: It all adds up to a sinister riddle… Riddle-er. Riddler?

And the scariest part? He’s 100% right. They don’t call him the world’s greatest detective for nothing.

On the phone? That's justice...

Filed under: Comics, Movies, Television | Tagged: adam west, bat shark repellent, batman, batman & robin, batman: the movie, detection, detective, grant morrison, logic | 10 Comments »

(Big) Daddy’s (Hit) Girl: Kick-Ass Controversy & The Art of Completely Missing the Point…

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Darren

Last week I remarked on how ridiculous it was that people were getting freaked out by the use of a certain c-word (and, no, it’s not a misspelling of the words “kick ass”) by a certain pint-sized assassin in a certain superhero spoof movie. In said article, I had the audacity to state that – although I wouldn’t agree with it – I could understand if they were upset by the gratuitous violence the little kid commits, rather than her choice of language. It appears my appeals to sanity within the moral guardian community has been somewhat answered and various commentators have begun decrying Kick-Ass for the way it treats and portrays Hit Girl, the eleven-year-old sidekick to wannabe Batman by the name of Big Daddy.

Opening Soon: The Nicolas Cage School of Parenting - Enroll Now!

Note: This article contains slight spoilers for the movie and probably bigger spoilers for the graphic novel. You have been warned. But don’t worry, if you want to wait to see the film, this article will be here when you get back.

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Filed under: Comics, Movies | Tagged: all-star batman and robin, batman, batman & robin, big daddy, comic books, hit girl, kick-ass, lecturing, mark millar, moral outrage, morality, Movies, robin, sidekicks | 8 Comments »

Backlash to Mickey Rourke’s Whiplash…

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Darren

I’m on a bit of a comic book binge this week (it helps that Hollywood is churning out so many of the damned movies), and I couldn’t help but not with a wry smile on my face the internet response to the first pictures of Mickey Rourke as the villain (or “a” villian, given the ambiguous roles played by Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson as a business rival and catsuit-wearing spy) in the new Iron Man film. There had been a lot of gossip about whether the loud-mouthed Oscar-nominated actor would be playing Whiplash or Crimson Dynamo. From what fans are saying about the image (appearing below), it appears he’s playing a weird amalgamation of both… and a few more to boot. Though most of fandom appears to have taken this pastiche in their stride, there are a few cynical souls remaining out there who are a little ticked off to see these characters revamped in such a strange way. However, mixing and matching and distorting is by no means anew thing when it comes to adapting iconic characters to the big screen.