Batman: The Animated Series- Terror in the Sky

 "Who wants to live with a monster?"

These episodes are twenty minutes long, not a long time. So, by now quite a way into the first season, with the Animated Series no longer being new, we've seen which types of storytelling works for such short episodes. And this episode may well be the poster child for the type of episode based on a twist.

I suppose some may have guessed the twist- that this new Man-Bat figure was not in fact Kirk Langstron and- after all, we had an early clue / bit of misdirection that it had to be either Langstrom or Francine- but the most ironic candidate possible. But I certainly didn't, and found the episode to be hugely satisfying in terms both of plot and character. There's a bit of romance, a bit of intrigue, a bit of old fashioned Dark Knight Detective stuff from the Batman.

All this, and lots of great visuals in the snow, peril with a plane, and a heartwarming final scene. Great stuff.

Batman: The Animated Series- On Leather Wings

 "I only toss butlers, Alfred..."

And so it begins.

I'm watching these in production order, as I'm, reliably informed the broadcast order ill all over trhe place. I'll do a season for now, then see how it goes, but it has to ber said this is quite my period. It's 1992, before Bane and Azrael and Tim Drake and whatnot: I know the lore pretty well at this point.

And you know what? This is excellent stuff. Confession time: I started watching the first episode of the '90s X-Men cartoon some months ago in preparation for X-Men '97, and, despite my fond memories... it was bloody awful. I may or may not try again at some point. But this, at least, is superb.

The plot is straightforward- a mysterious bat-like figure is stealing pharmaceuticals and the police blame Batman, but it's actually Man-Bat. Simple. But simple is needed, as this is the first episode and we only have twenty-two minutes to tell the story. We 're introduced tothe early '90s, slightly acerbic Bruce-Alfred dynamic. Commissioner Gordon is world-weary, plagued by politics and the delightfully annoying Harvey Bullock... and then there's a brief glimpse of the district attorney, one Harvey Dent, whom I'm sure will remain a very... singular fellow.

The characters, the dialogue, the angular animation- all are very good indeed. And it all oozes just enough of the Tim Burton style- the music, the Batmobile design, while being very clearly its own beast. And the title card at the start- it seems inspired by the movie serials.

A necessarily functional start, but a good one. Let's see where this goes.

Batman Forever (1995)

“It's the car, right? Chicks love it."

 Incredibly, I've never seen this until now, after 23 years.After the two gritty Tim Burton films, which I'd seen at the cinema and enjoyed, I wasn't impressed by the prospect of a film that dialled down the atmosphere and just tried to tell an exciting story.

So did I enjoy it? Well, yes, it's a fairly good Hollywood blockbuster action film, and it's even pretty good with the Batman mythos- we get a pretty good Robin origin with the Flying Graysons and the character is made not to look silly, which is no small achievement, even if the fact that the Flying Graysons all wear costumes while performing that Dick's eventual Robin costume will pretty much mirror means that it's pretty obvious who Robin really is, so Bruce's secret is shot too. But then, in this film at least, it pretty much is anyway.

I also like both Tommy Lee Jones' performance as Two-Face and the fact they only did his origin in flashback. But the Riddler, well, Jim Carrey is really annoying and the riddles are a bit perfunctory, the character seemingly being really about those silly brainwave machine thingies; this doesn't really feel like the Riddler.

Also, Joel Schumacher's directorial style is so very generic Hollywood compared to Tim Burton's unique and very fitting style, and even Gotham itself suddenly looks just like an ersatz New York, complete with Statue of Liberty, rather than the Gothic, Expressionist nightmare we've become used to. This is connected to the first two films only by Pat Hingle, Michael Gough, and the design of all of Batman's stuff. And Brude actually gets a girlfriend and still has her when the film ends- what's going on?

Plus Val Kilmer is, if not awful, not great either, and not a patch on Michael Keaton. This just isn't the same introverted, brooding character. But then this isn't really part of the same series of films in any meaningful sense. It's pure Hollywood spectacle, done well but with no real depth or meaning.