Batman Movies on the Bat Brain

I rewatched the Batman movies starring Christian Bale recently. It ocurred to me though I thought I’d seen them all before, somehow I had missed the first one, Batman Begins. Maybe I was on medications that wiped my memory if I saw it because everything seemed new and surprising. I watched it on the streaming app that’s currently called “max”. It used to be HBO, then HBO Now, and up until recently HBO Max. I don’t know what is going on with them to cause such annoying inconsistency.  

The Dark Knight was the best movie of the three. I remember the headlines about the shooting at the Aurora, Colorado movie theater when it came out, that have inspired a ritual for my daughter and I whenever we go to a cinema- we always hug and say goodbye to eachother beforehand in case some maniac dude is planning his killing spree during our specific showing and we don’t escape (we even did this before the Barbie movie this summer). It seems like the last Christopher Nolan directed Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises should have a better title, but maybe I’m nitpicking. It also seemed to be longer than the others I’d watched, and I was ready for it to end well before it did. Whenever there were protesters blocking traffic in every street, throughout these films, those were my favorite parts. 

Last year I binge-watched the HBO (max!?) series Pennyworth, it was great. There was so much happening, the 1960’s and 70’s style and interesting characters really hooked me. Sometimes when a show goes on a long time it gets too weird, so I wasn’t very upset there was only 3 seasons before it was cancelled. There’s no shortage of programs to watch anymore! My childhood was before the internet and the only media available was quite bleak (The Batman series from the 1960s played on Nick at Night but only at very specific times and constantly interrupted by ads). So I loved that Pennyworth was much deeper fare though concerned with a similar time period and also had a campy style not unlike the old Batman show.

I think it was summer of 2022 when I watched The Batman, the one with Robert Pattinson, when it came to some streaming service. I wanted to like it more! The actors were great and I was invested in the story.  It was just excessively long and visually, in terms of lighting, kind of dark. Someone on that app formerly called Twitter claimed it’s because the “editing process” was somehow disrupted by Covid-19, so I imagine it could have been better if there was more time or whatever creative energy put towards the movie after it had already been filmed? It’s over 3 hours long, that’s rarely necessary, in my opinion. Maybe someday there will be a fan-edit to polish The Batman someday, it’s the only way I can picture re-watching this version

The most recent Batman movie I watched was something new on Prime Video called Merry Little Batman. It was ok. It’s meant for children so I’m not going to be critical about it, it’s meant to watch and celebrate a pseudo-Christian holiday I guess, so again let me not bother to criticize. I never watched the Lego Batman and haven’t seen any of the animated Batman series through all these years (there aren’t many animated shows that I like now that I think about it).  

When my daughter was in high school we watched a series called Gotham, and it was very entertaining for us. The costumes, makeup, and ridiculous plot lines were lots of fun. There was a cable-knit sweater young Bruce Wayne wore, I’m still obsessed. He had a different version in black, white, and even grey if I’m remembering correctly. It was really impressive. A knitting designer made the pattern available for $6, FYI, if you have a knitting hobby. I think I’ve seen most every Batman movie by now? It seems unnecessary to write anymore about the titles I’ve skipped over at this moment, but I’ll mention Batman Returns (with Michelle Pfeiffer playing Catwoman) is probably the top favorite for me, and I am definitely going to see the Joker: Folie à Deux at some point next year.

In some ways the character Batman sucks, he is a billionaire who could probably help heal the suffering of Gotham with his enormous bank account better than the weapons and technology of bat gear. There are so many iterations of the character though it’s still fun to watch. I have no strong feelings about the actual animal, the bat. I know they carry diseases, but some species are also very adorable and all of them play an important role in the ecosystem.

Since I live in a very snowy area of NY, on days when I decide to wear my full snowsuit I find myself reminded of Batman, and that is the main connection I feel towards a powerful character. I’m not fighting villains, just the bone-chilling low temperatures and vicious winter weather. I love to wear black! I’m no vigilante though, just a low-key kind of admirer. Instead of cape my long hair whips around.

Some problems in my life ranging from annoying to potentially devastating really have me indulging in more escapism than usual. I’d love to hear any suggestions or your critiques about this, and thanks again for reading the blog entry I felt inspired to write.