nerdy.mango A Blog By Milk & Mango

First, I want to say sorry for my shotty attendance on the blog. I had to finish a project for my internship, but luckily I am finally done with it and can devote more time to what really matters: super heroes and video games.

I understand that I might be a little late with this review, but... I'm going to talk about 'Batman: The Killing Joke.' First I'd like to say, if you haven't seen the movie I suggest that you go watch it, especially if you're a fan of the original graphic novel written by Alan Moore. Personally, I loved the movie. I enjoyed the opening act that focused on Bat-girl and, the Joker-esque, Paris Franz, because it shows just how special and unique the relationship between the Joker and Batman really is. The story further proves that there is only one person that can handle someone even remotely like the Joker, and if anyone tried to go up against as "Joker" they'd lose themselves in the process. So in that regard, I felt as though the opening act was perfect, and if they stopped just expanded on Batgirl's conflict with Paris Franz, then the reviews wouldn't have been so poor. But, to help give Bat-girl more relevance in the main story they decided to give Batman and Bat-girl some serious sexual tension. And granted we have seen stories where there is obvious sexual tension between the two, but it's never been so palpable that they actually have sex! I, like I assume most of you were doing, started yelling at the my computer screen: "No! You're supposed to be a bat-family! This is incest!" Then after I paused the movie and cried for about an hour in the corner of my dorm room, I decided to continue the movie, and it was amazing, practically a panel for panel replica of the original graphic novel, but better, because of Mark Hamill's performance as the Joker. The second half of the movie was almost enough to help me forget the atrocity committed in the opening act.

Also, something I noticed during the film, but wasn't able to articulate until reading the IGN review (which I thought was a little harsh by the way), was the fact that DC really dropped the ball on establishing Bat-girl as a strong female character. Through out the entire first act of the movie she seemed less concerned with fighting crime for the sake of justice, and more concerned with impressing Batman, perpetuating the trend of over sexualizing female heroes in comic books. The worst part is that it really didn't add to the story it just seemed gratuitous and unnecessary. Honestly, if they left out all the weird sexual tension and focussed on the conflict between Bat-girl and Franz then everyone wouldn't be calling it a a 'bust.' But, unfortunately, that mistake almost completely overshadowed the rest of, what was an amazing movie.

So, in our opinion we give the movie an 7.5, because despite the weird sexual tension and poor representation of Bat-girl as a super hero, Mark Hamill's joker is always amazing!

If any of you are like me, then you were probably wondering when we would see another solo Batman movie, seeing as, after 'Batman v Superman,' Warner Bros. and DC have established a new DC cinematic universe with a new Batman, played by Ben Affleck. And this universe was drastically expanded by the announcement of 'Suicide Squad.' So, how does Batman fit into this universe, and what storylines will they follow for Ben Affleck's Batman? The next solo Batman movie will be starring, and directed by Ben Affleck. He is also writing the screenplay with DC co-boss, Geoff Johns. When questioned about the release date of the movie Affleck had this to say:

"I think they [Warner Bros.] have a date for it. Although, I don’t know if I would necessarily be able to make that date because I don’t have a script that’s ready yet. So that’s my -- my timetable is I’m not going to make a movie until there’s a script that I think is good because, I’ve been on the end of the things when you make movies when you have a script that’s not good yet and it doesn’t pan out."

I could not help but laugh while reading this statement, because he is obviously talking about the highly criticized 'Batman V Superman,' which was considered by many to be a failure. Also while reading his statements all I could think about was the "Sad Ben Affleck" 'Batman V Superman' interview. And if you have not seen it, I suggest you watch it; it is definitely worth watching (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_OGe7l-WPQ).

Affleck is trying to keep from falling into the same trap as 'Batman V Superman,' by taking his time with the script and making sure everything is perfect. Some of the issues people had with 'Batman V Superman' were that it was confusing, and at times boring. The production of the movie seemed rushed and sloppy, as they were trying to jump start a DC cinematic universe that could rival Marvel's already well established cinematic universe. So, in doing so DC tried to force a ton of information into one movie, consequently causing the flow of the movie to suffer. Between Bruce's premonitions and the introduction of four new super heroes, it was very difficult for average fan to keep up with plot. While I do think it is important that Warner Bros. and DC realize their mistakes and corrects them before filming another movie, I also think they can be hurting themselves by taking too much time writing the screen play for the next solo Bataman movie. They are way behind Marvel and need to catch the "super hero movie wave" while it is still here, and also trying to create the perfect script can lead to another bad film.