As a lifelong Batfan, I am thrilled that my favorite comic book character has been adapted for both the big and small screen so many times. I thought the 1960s Adam West series (still my favorite, for both sentimental and stylistic reasons) was the very apex of Batman's cinematic incarnations, the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher blockbuster movies notwithstanding. I liked those too, but for my money, by far the best 1990s screen version of the Caped Crusader was Batman: The Animated Series, which gave us fans definitive moving versions not only of Batman himself, but his matchless rouge's gallery – especially Man-Bat, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, and Bane. You may recall that Two-Face, my favorite Bat-baddie, was given a cartoonishly campy sendup in 1995's Batman Forever with Tommy Lee Jones hamming it up, totally missing the character's dark, dual nature, which was memorably explored in the ideal animated version. Christopher Nolan rectified this "insult" in live action terms with the best Batman movie to date, The Dark Knight, in 2008, featuring a suitably tortured Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent. Now Nolan is pressured to top or at least equal himself with the final film in his epic neo-noir trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, which pits Batman (Christian Bale) against Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Bane (Tom Hardy), the latter having suffered severe short shrift in the fun but frivolous franchise-killer Batman and Robin (1997). Julie Newmar is still the ultimate Catwoman to me, sorry Anne (and Michelle), but Hardy can easily make Bane as formidable as he was in the comics. However, I am disturbed he's not wearing his trademark lucha mask, as he does in his Batman: TAS appearance, which is much more faithful to the source material. Bane's new serial killer face gear is certainly intimidating, but I still miss the lucha mask. Thankfully, this recut, re-imagined trailer using images from the animated series temporarily rectifies that single aesthetic drawback, while skillfully meshing the two greatest exponents of Batman On Film in Hollywood history, or at least West of Adam. Otherwise, I can't wait to respond to the latest cinematic Bat signal on July 20.
Related posts:
- "Christopher Nolan on YouTube": risen star
- "The Dark Knight" YouTube channel: Bat's entertainment
- "Batman: Death Wish": holy fanboy wonder!
- "The Very Real Adventures of Batman & Robin": pow! zap! poof!
- Barely Political: The Key of Awesome presents "Batman!"
