Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Batman and Robin

  • What We’d Like to See From DC Studios Initial Slate

    What We’d Like to See From DC Studios Initial Slate

    As Hollywood gets ready to go on break, James Gunn and Peter Safran‘s initial vision for the first wave of DC Studios film in the all-new DC Universe has been communicated with the big bosses at Warner Bros. Discovery. Since then Gunn revealed that a Superman film, written by him, will be a top priority for the new studio while indicating that he and Safran plan to share part of the new slate with fans sometime early in 2023. While we wait to find out what the game plan is, here’s a Christmas-time wish list of what we’d like to see.

    Richard John Grayson

    For too long DC’s takes on Batman have made the mistake of robbing Batman of one of the most important relationships he’s ever forged. Dick Grayson hasn’t made an appearance in a live-action Batman film since 1997’s Batman and Robin and instead has been shuffled off to streaming land where some half-assed version of him exists on Titans. Gunn has said Batman is an important part of the stories DC Studios wants to tell. Dick Grayson is an important part of Batman’s stories. If DC Studios wants to be taken seriously by fans of Batman, this is a huge first step.

    The Brave and The Bold

    The Brave and The Bold is the Marvel Team-Ups of DC Comics, but to a lot of readers, it calls to mind one of DC’s most beloved pair of bros: Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. 2023 will see the oft-delayed The Flash film finally hit theaters, CW’s The Flash is ending following its 701st season and there’s been exactly one terrible live-action version of Hal Jordan to date in 2011’s Green Lantern film. Given that it’ll be a few years before DC Studios’ new slate starts rolling out, pushing out a new version of Barry Allen might not be as big of a deal as it seems in 2022. Even though he’s been out of the spotlight for a while, Hal Jordan probably doesn’t need an entire film’s worth of origin. Give these two a buddy film and get them involved in the bigger narrative ASAP.

    J’onn J’onzz

    The Snyderverse certainly could have used more J’onn J’onzz, a character who was nearly criminally underutilized over the last decade. J’onzz, better known as Martian Manhunter, has been around since the Silver Age and is an OG Justice Leaguer. Moreover, including him in the first wave of films allows DC Studios with someone who can narrate whatever version of the history of the DC Universe they wish to tell because, over his 225 million years, J’onn J’onzz has seen some things.

    The League, the Whole League and Nothing But The Leauge

    If Gunn is making a shared cinematic universe, there will ultimately be a Justice League. Not too many people outside of Gunn and Safran know what they have in mind for the first wave of films, but it’s likely that at some point, a League will come together and there’s no reason that it can’t be comprised of the original 7. Aquaman, Batman and Wonder Woman may or may not need solo projects ahead of a Justice League film because they’ve all been more recently present than Superman, Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern; alternatively, maybe all 7 original members need solo projects. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that the 7 OG JLA members have NEVER shared the screen in live-action and that’s something we’d like to see Gunn remedy in the near future.

    The Hall of Justice

    The Justice League is coming and they need a sick HQ. The Hall of Justice, which is based on the real-life Union Terminal building in Cincinnati, Ohio, has never been in a live-action DC film. By the time the new slate reaches the end of its first arc, it would make sense for the heroes to have established an HQ and this one is as iconic as it gets.

    Some Off-Beat Heroes

    The Trinity will likely be the foundation of the DC Universe. Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern will likely be there, too. Hopefully, Martian Manhunter makes the cut. However, if there’s one thing Gunn should be proud to carry over with him from his time at Marvel Studios, it’s the fact that he took a group of off-beat, unknown heroes and turned them into a globally recognized brand. So bring on Metamorpho! Throw Red Tornado into the mix. Plastic Man probably has some free time on his hands. What’s Animal Man up to these days? With the ability to introduce characters not only in films but also through streaming series, get some of these off-beat heroes into the mix. 3 years ago, nobody knew who Peacemaker was and now fans are eagerly antipating the second season of a streaming series starring John Cena as the butt of an ongoing joke.

    The OG Leaguers can’t do it all themselves (they totally can, but they never do), so throw some of these guys into the mix and give them a shot at becoming beloved by a new generation.

    A Lex Luthor That Can Be Taken Seriously

    This one is tough because while Gunn and Safran will want to break away from the stigma of the Snyderverse’s absurd take on Luthor, there’s arguably no more sensible villain for DC Studios’ first wave of films than Luthor. The character has been done to death on TV and in films, but never in a way in which he posed a threat to the entire Justice League. He doesn’t have to be the villain of Gunn’s Superman; in fact, he probably shouldn’t be. However, establishing him and then letting him grow into the type of character that could be powerful enough to threaten the entire league would set him apart from any previous version. And that version of the character probably includes…

    The Legion of Doom

    If anyone has the balls to bring this ridiculous team of villains together, it’s James Gunn. Though numerous iterations of the team have since appeared in the comics, the OGs first appeared in 1978 in the 16-episode Challenge of the Superfriends animated series that aired on ABC. The original team, which operated out of Darth Vader’s helmet, aka the Hall of Doom, was led by Luthor and consisted of rogues from all of the principal Leaguers galleries. Bizzaro, Black Manta, Brainiac, Captain Cold, Cheetah, Giganta, Gorilla Grodd, Riddler, Scarecrow, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy and Toyman all plotted to take over the world and failed again and again. DC Studios may not be able to pull all 13 of these baddies together and it doesn’t have to. But a JLA vs Legion of Doom movie would certainly garner some attention and one-up Marvel Studios in the sense that they have somehow failed to put together a live-action Masters of Evil 14 years in.

    There’s so much more that Gunn and Safran should try to accomplish as they build out the DC Universe, but the hope is that they’ll have the time necessary to do so. Great live-action versions of the JSA, The Question, The Spectre, the Green Lantern Corps and Damian Wayne all deserve to exist. But those characters probably don’t get the treatment they deserve without a solid foundation in the first wave of DC Studios’ slate. A safe, solid slate with some surprises thrown in. Let’s get it done, DC Studios.

  • REVIEW: ‘Batman & Robin’ Is a Masterpiece If You Have Taste

    REVIEW: ‘Batman & Robin’ Is a Masterpiece If You Have Taste

    The fourth and final film of what was originally the Michael Keaton-led Batman franchise is famous for being a disaster. Twenty-five years later, the 1997 Batman & Robin is still looked at as one of the worst – if not the worst – superhero movies of all time. Countless things are wrong with humanity, but this might take the cake. Batman & Robin is, quite possibly, one of the greatest films the genre has ever produced and easily one of the most enjoyable things one could possibly do on a Wednesday night after a bottle of wine. I have no problem comparing it to The Godfather or Citizen Kane, maybe because I haven’t seen them. But I can say for certain that Batman & Robin is a cinematic masterpiece for anyone with taste. 

    Batman & Robin doesn’t mess around – it is about Batman & Robin. George Clooney’s Bruce Wayne alongside Chris O’Donnell’s elderly Dick Grayson is a masterclass in the exploration of complex character relationships. From the moment the Batman & Robin logos form a bond in the opening credits, the movie screams “two’s a party, but three’s a crowd.” It is incredibly weird and uncomfortable that the two of them spend most of the movie fighting over Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy, especially considering Robin is supposed to be…a kid? Realistically, that man looks 57-years-old, so this secondhand embarrassment of a dynamic is a little less creepy. Not really. But this nails-on-chalkboard-adjacent feeling is one of the many unique experiences on the emotional tapestry that is Batman & Robin.

    Otherwise, Dick spends the film in either adolescent angst or midlife crisis demanding respect from the man who brought him straight home after witnessing the deaths of his entire family to throw him in a suit with detailed nipples and give him a moped instead of Batmobile. To be fair, considering he could be 74-years-old, it is hard to blame him for being angry that he is treated like a child. But still, much of his motivation to stray from Bruce revolves around their shared interest in being erotically murdered by Poison Ivy without consent. Is there any better way to show that two men can have an emotionally close and healthy relationship than to bond over the downfall of an attractive evil woman? No.

    Past that, whatever train wreck Poison Ivy was is better left mostly unacknowledged, among others (Bane). The real villain of Batman & Robin – the future governor of the State of California when it was filming – is, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze. There is so much to say about the guy, but it’s pretty simple: he is great. He looks amazing – even if his personal traveling hockey team is less impressive – he only speaks in ice pun so that you don’t forget he has ice powers, and his background motivation is relatively fleshed out (his wife is floating in a tube). Mr. Freeze (and Poison Ivy as well to be fair) has global-destruction-level ambitions. It is not entirely clear why someone trying to reverse climate change on the entire planet has such a Gotham fixation, or why the New Jersey National Guard never gets involved when the City is constantly overrun with overindulgent mass murder with no defense but squabbling homoerotic father-son rubber-suited bird people.

    At a certain point, you realize that Alicia Silverstone’s Batgirl/Barbara Gordon is also in the movie. She is not necessary. None of this is strictly necessary, but anyone watching Batman & Robin is just trying to be involved in a Mr. Freeze/Poison Ivy/62-year-old Robin plot smoothie. Frankly, no one cares if she breaks out of a mansion to go street racing or soul-crushingly guesses passwords to top-secret information given to her by Alfred: “ALFRED”. She also ruins the “three’s a crowd” analogy because the moral of the story is apparently that three makes a happy Bat Family, but getting into “keeping it in the family” is maybe too much right now.

    Batman & Robin does give a touching ode to Michael Gough’s Alfred, the only consistent part of the four-movie franchise. Gough is basically the only person who was willing to see Batman all the way to the end. Even when you said, why is Batman fighting penguins? Gough was there. Even when you said hey that’s not Michael Keaton .. or Val Kilmer! Gough was there. Even when you said why is Robin 47-years-old? Gough was there. 

    I know what you’re thinking. Why am I reading this review at all? More importantly, how has this gone on so long without mentioning how Batman & Robin sparks more joy than Marie Kondo could even dream of? If you cannot enjoy nature or tents, or fires, or nights, then yes, Batman & Robin – the campiest piece of media that has ever been produced – is probably extremely painful. I wouldn’t know, because even though I’m normally not the biggest fan of camp, I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did while watching this movie, and it is the most fun I’ve had with a movie in a long time. When I said this movie was for people with taste, I meant that anyone who can laugh alongside this movie is in for the time of their life. 

    Every single frame of Batman & Robin is cornier than 300 dad jokes combined. It is entirely consistent, and it has no crisis of identity. Everything matches. The sets match the costumes which match the characters which match the dialogue and on and on. There is no way in Mr. Freeze’s frozen hell that it is unintentional. The dialogue and delivery throughout the film are also the worst and corniest you can possibly come by. You have to work hard to stay at O’Donnell’s impressive level of convincing the audience this is the worst acting they have ever seen. 

    The only tragedy of Batman & Robin is that it can’t be summarized coherently. It just absolutely makes no sense but in the best way. Poison Ivy dressed as a gorilla does a sexy dance 20 feet in the air at a benefit where costumed Batman and Robin are acting as props to a crowded auction that they intentionally lured a mass murderer (the sexy gorilla) to. The action level in this movie compared to its predecessors is off the charts. The Dynamic Duo flies around in ways that make Olympics gymnastics look like walking. At one point, they surf the air. Not much to add to that. Robin is 49-years-old, and he owns it. There are gender-neutral but extremely aggressive closeups of Bat people putting on their suits. I would say you can’t make this stuff up, but clearly, someone already did. And for that we give thanks. 

    True, director Joel Schumacher has indeed publicly apologized for how bad Batman & Robin is. And listen, if you want high-quality cinema, character development, storytelling, dialogue, or logical thinking, look elsewhere. This is not for you. It will probably always be a mysterious and unhygienic-looking cocktail of joy, but it is pure joy if you have a taste. Were the 1990s hard on Batman? Sure. But Batman has his 56-year-old Robin by his side and if that doesn’t make you smile, nothing will.