"Batman: Dead End" is an eight-minute short film that saw its world premiere at the San Diego Comic Convention of 2003. In the days and weeks since its premiere, rumors and buzz over the film have swept through the legions of comic book and science fiction fans who are desperate for a return to the days of Batman the Dark Knight, the obsessed avenger, the caped crusader they know from "The Dark Knight Returns," "The Killing Joke," and "Batman: The Animated Series." The aftertaste of "Batman and Robin" is still hard to swallow, even after six years; and the fans are wondering if the success of "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" may inspire Warner Bros. to get off its corporate posterior and give them the Batman they want. Hence, this film -- made by fans, for fans (and also to show off the filmmaking talents of director Sandy Collora).
The plot of the film isn't much to speak of: Batman encounters his arch-enemy, The Joker, in a scene that suggests that the writer (and director) spent the past fourteen years since Tim Burton's "Batman" thinking of a way to outdo the disappointing climax of that film, where the Joker confronts Batman and says "You made me!," while Batman replies "You made me first!" This Joker is certainly scarier and more insane-looking than Jack Nicholson portrayed him, and I would have preferred the film to have more of him. But after this one scene, the Joker is suddenly taken away and Batman finds himself engaged in a duel to the death with an alien from outer space (whose identity I won't reveal, for those who haven't seen the film and are curious). It ends with a cliffhanger.
The film certainly looks nice. The opening scenes of Batman pouncing and landing on the street, his cape flowing around him, are taken directly from the comic books. Then again, so is Batman's costume (no "yellow circle" here). The back lighting gives the film a dark, mysterious feel, and the fight scene is okay. I'd prefer to have seen more characterization than one word-for-word remake of Burton's film and a fight scene. Nay-sayers may point out that this film is only eight minutes long; nonetheless, a decent screenwriter can put a lot of character development into the space of six or eight minutes (look at the best Bugs Bunny cartoons, for instance).
Comic book fans have been going ga-ga over this film, and copies have rapidly moved across the Internet. Fan comments have been enthusiastic, with the general agreement being that it kicks major arse over Joel Schumacher's "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin" (a British fan commented, "In eight minutes they managed to do exactly right what Joel Schumacher got wrong in four hours"). I suppose that if we took only the good fight moments from Schumacher's movies, got rid of the extraneous stuff, and condensed it down into eight minutes, we'd have a nice-looking film that fans would love as well (though along with many more hard-core fans, I'm glad this Batman doesn't have the body armor with nipples).
"Batman: Dead End" is a very nice-looking film, but it betrays its Hollywood influences by being long on style and short on substance. It's amusing and very nicely filmed, and it's a jolt of caffeine for hardcore comic book fans still suffering from the aftermath of George Clooney and Arnold Schwarzenegger. If "Batman 5" (whatever the title turns out to be) decides to follow the path this film takes when (if) it sees release in 2005, it could hardly be worse than what we've seen so far, and it may indeed be a step in the right direction.
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First Online Church of "Bob"
http://www.modemac.com/
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