[Andrew999]

You know what - fan films are getting better all the time.

Check out this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0x_YjkgFjc

Sensibly, they've kept it short at 25mins - sometimes fan creators make the mistake of trying to stretch every idea out to a full-length movie - not this time.

[paw broon]

Oh yes, this is a good one.  Thanks Andrew.

[Captain Audio]

Excellent casting.

[The Australian Panther]

Not a bad little effort.
One thing. Not restricted to this fan movie. Why does Batman now have to be portrayed as being more 'buffed' than Arnold? I much prefer the Neal Adams 70's leaner, meaner Batman.

Look at this promo for the Justice League Snyder Cut re-release.
Batman makes Superman look like a wimp.  Why?

Why is 'Zack Snyder's Justice League' four hours long?
https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/justice-league-snyder-cut-length-why-is-it-four-hours-long

Cheers!

[Captain Audio]

Not a bad little effort.
One thing. Not restricted to this fan movie. Why does Batman now have to be portrayed as being more 'buffed' than Arnold? I much prefer the Neal Adams 70's leaner, meaner Batman.

Look at this promo for the Justice League Snyder Cut re-release.
Batman makes Superman look like a wimp.  Why?

The muscle bound look is mainly the thick ballistic armor built into the suit.
There's a very early Batman story in which its revealed that his suit included quilted silk body armor.
Its never mentioned again in any of the older stories,
I don't remember the number of that issue , it involved a master criminal using a dirigible . The Batman is struck by several bullets from a machinegun and thought dead but he was saved by his armor.
Thick layers of silk can stop low velocity pistol caliber bullets. Silk body armor was popular before and during WW2 but lost favor as higher velocity bullets proved too much for it.
I've always thought the Batman should have taken advantage of the spider webs found in the Batcave to have  body armor made from woven spider silk, which is actually stronger than Kevlar fibers.

As often as the Bat takes falls and hits the pavement at speed a good layer of padding is a must to avoid disabling road rash.

This brings to mind the time Alfred had to fill in for the Bat by wearing a suit fitted with padding to make him look cut and buffed. The boots had springs built in to put some spring in his step like Spring Heeled Jack.

[crashryan]

I watched this and was amazed at the quality of this "fan" film. Not only was the visual end excellent, but the acting, usually the weak link in non-professional productions, was quite good. Except that Batman's expression crossed into caricature. If he'd pressed his lips together any harder he'd have swallowed them.

That said, I hated the film itself, for the same reasons I stopped watching commercial Bat movies. Especially the obsession with, one might even say worship of, madness, evil, and human depravity. Ever since Alan Moore and his damned Arkham Asylum there has been an endless game of "can you top this" with writers working overtime to make each script darker and nastier than the one before.

The way comics have evolved since the abolition of the Comics Code has given rise to an unspoken rule that to be "adult" (adult in the sense of not childish, not meaning porn) a story must be brutal, pessimistic, and ugly. Anything less is looked upon as naive or juvenile.

I never liked the TV Batman, but I'd almost rather watch reruns of that than another "effing insane Batman" movie. By the way, will someone please give the poor guy a cough drop for that raspy throat?

[The Australian Panther]

Crash,

  That said, I hated the film itself, for the same reasons I stopped watching commercial Bat movies. Especially the obsession with, one might even say worship of, madness, evil, and human depravity. Ever since Alan Moore and his damned Arkham Asylum there has been an endless game of "can you top this" with writers working overtime to make each script darker and nastier than the one before.

Agree absolutely! And you weren't the only one who hated the film because of its darkness. I eventually saw, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice [on free to air TV] and considered it - apart from the darkness, a second-rate, predictable and boring B-Movie. Seriously disappointing. Consequently I have not bothered to watch the Justice League film. I have read much about it and seen much of it in clips and that is enough. In General, I have been seriously disappointed by the DC movies. Have avoided Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey. Saw Aquaman on a small screen on the back of the seat in front of me on a plane. And I think I saw the Wonder Woman movie on free to air TV interspersed with ads. To use Paw's delightful phrase, the DC movies are  'All Fur coat and na knickers'
For me, with a lot of current Superhero and thriller movies, I see the trailer, count the cliches and lose any desire to see the movie.
I do intend to see Black Widow when it is eventually released, even tho most of the trailers are a collection of cliches. But it will be fun, and not particularly dark. And Bloodshot was excellent.         

Apparently, Moore now regrets his 'Killing Joke' Joker story. Which can be considered a turning point. 
Jeff Johns seems to be the one who has taken DC down that path, starting with some of the arcs in his Justice Society, a series which overall I quite liked actually and then with the Blackest Night event. And DC hasn't gotten any better from there.

Cheers!   

[Andrew999]

I absolutely agree, Crash. It's cheap and easy to equate adult with violent, brutal and degenerate. How quickly they've fallen into that trap.

For example, I'm currently enjoying the first season of Doom Patrol - fun characters and surreal situations - except that it's peppered with bad language in almost every frame. I wouldn't let a child see that.

DC needs to take a long hard look at itself.

[gregjh]

Firstly let me say this was excellent, the most impressive fan movie I have seen since the space marine job.

You guys have got me thinking re: cliche characters and "adult" content. As adults, we appreciate comic book characters for different reasons than we do as kids. As kids our comic heroes are simply "good" and "cool" and "tough". As adults, they are flawed, challenged, tested, hurt physically and emotionally, driven and relatable. I consider violence and a fear of violence to be part of that challenge, but there's no reason why it can't be used as cheap writing and lazy "pushing the bar" like any other substitute for talent or imagination.

And yes, DC has fired more blanks than hits. Batman Vs Superman was so easy to do right, you take two of the biggest heroes of all time, give them a reason and build up to a titanic encounter, letting the actors and characters fill the screen with their charisma and style as every comic fan in the world, young and old, got to see their dream contest. Instead, they decided this would be a perfect time to rush in the introduction of the Justice League, throw in a mid-ranking villain (Doomsday) and force political correctness by making Wonder Woman the leader of the attack against the bad guy.  The sequel was the same, they tried to do way too much, which was the reason for the Syndar cut in the first place.

[paw broon]

I sort of agree with you greg but I would add that I still enjoy an old fashioned, simple, relatively straightforward superhero story. I really dislike the violent, brutal, degenerate "adult" material, as Andrew puts it. I'm not ashamed to admit that I watch bits of these films, that I happen to enjoy, not nearly the whole thing.
hat said, I've seen only a few of Marvel and DC's output right the way through.
Batman Superman was too dark and completely lacking in appeal for me. The odd bit or two of Justice League I'll watch now and then.  Same with Wonder Woman, although I think it's a much better superhero film than most.
I still prefer, much prefer, some of the DC animated films.
Killing Joke has come in for some pelters here, and I think they're well deserved. The one good thing about the book was it sold piles and helped our shops finances. I'm going to read again the Marshall Rogers drawn Joker/Batman issue/s? - the smiley fish story? (my memory's getting worse) because I seem to remember really enjoying that period.  Could be the art of course. While I'm about it, i'll dig out the Alan Davis issues, they were lovely to look at.