Who Was The Best Film Batman?

Firstly this is just my view based on all the live action Batman actors appearing in films. So animated or tv series and old historic Batmans of black and white era are excluded. Mostly my reason for this is because they are vastly different mediums two which the story was told and well they chose good actors to portray this role for that time. So putting them in the same category as the live action film category just didn’t seem fair. Secondly this is just my thoughts on this subject and thus I’m open to more debate on the matter. I am not a big Batman fan, I don’t sit in in the realm of canon law from the comics. Purely looking at this from a film perspective.

So let’s begin to which I am going to go backwards in time. Starting from newest to oldest.

Robert Patterson

After watching The Batman there was two thoughts I had about it. 1. This feels like the logical conclusion for a sequel to the Gotham TV series. 2. Robert Patterson was not a good Bruce Wayne. Which is not necessarily the actors fault. Whilst in the Batsuit I could totally by Patterson as Batman. But then as Bruce Wayne it just felt completely off for his character. it’s almost like we saw the Bruce Wayne from the Gotham TV series grown up and it was also influenced by The Gritty vibe of the Joker movie. And somewhere in this mix, this radically different but early days of Batman just didn’t sit right with me. Like an uncanny valley effect nothing seemed right about this film yet they followed the core idea. All I could say about that film was “it was inspired by” because you could see Gotham, Joker, even Christopher Nolan’s influence in the story telling of Batman. So this felt almost like a fan film or parody and it set the wrong vibe. I think Patterson should of been given more time to prep for this movie as I feel he was given wrong directions for this film. The fact they are making a sequel to this film leaves me feeling “Meh” as I’m just not excited about this franchise of Batman.

Ben Affleck

The problem I have with Ben Afflecks Batman was that it was set in the Justice League World. Batman is complex, his real costume is that of Bruce Wayne and that’s something that’s slightly unhinged about the guy. He is Batman 100% of the time and Bruce Wayne is but a mask he wears when he’s needed for public. Now I like Affleck as an actor and I feel this was such a wasted potential for him. He played somewhat the Iron Man Robert Downey Jr role in the DC Justice League movies and it didn’t work. What we the viewer needed was more context to this Batman and what would of helped this is if Ben Affleck was given the chance to have at least a trilogy of Batman films to develop his character before the Justice League came about. The justice league just lacked chemistry and you didn’t feel any of these characters would ever join together. This is not Afflecks fault, again it was the studios use of the character that kind of betrayed the actor portraying Batman and it also betrays the complexity for Batman for the character being displayed.

Christian Bale

I don’t look at Christopher Nolans Batman Trilogy as one of the greatest trilogies of all time. Batman Begins, Dark Knight was its best two films and suffered badly with its third movie. Nolan wanted to make a conclusion to his trilogy and I feel that this one decision clouded the films ability to tell the story. So Dark Knight Rises kind of sucked because the focus was on story and conclusions and didn’t offer enough fandom moments that made the two films before it iconic. Onto Bale himself, I think Bale portrayed Bruce Wayne and Batman almost to perfection. Just one element was missing that would of been the cherry on top. That was a crazy and humorous side to Bruce. Not in Batman for. But in Bruce form. As I said Bruce is just a mask for Batman as he’s batman 24/7. The only time I felt this to be present was only subtly in Dark Knight but then became non existent in Dark Knight Rises.

George Clooney

Clooney gets too much hate for this role when it wasn’t his fault. Bad script. Bad director, and someone was on LSD at the time when they thought this looks visually good, Batman & Robin film is the product of when too many people interfere with an established order. When you strip away the very terrible movie. Clooney was a perfect choice for this role. He is very similar to Keaton. In fact if Clooney had been in Batman Forever you’d probably be more forgiving of him playing Batman. I’m frustrated with this one because Clooney is a good actor and the fault isn’t him but that of the director.

Val Kilmer

Kilmer is a tricky category because he was the first to take over the role of live action film Batman and he is vastly different to Michael Keaton. Was he good as Bruce Wayne and Batman? Absolutely but if he did Batman and Robin after Batman Forever then I think it wouldnt of been good for him. Batman Forever I think is actually better than people give it credit for. It’s still a continuous story from Tim Burtons Batman era as the script was adapted from Burtons third movie idea. So it was great for this transitional phase because it’s literslly between Burton and Schueler era but it’s just downplayed by the laterd influence. Just didn’t sit right. But Kilmer could of been a good franchise of Batman but it just should of been a completly new universe for it.

Michael Keaton

So Burton had it right, for its time period as well. He crafted us a Batman that you totally believed in. Something that didn’t happen till Christopher Nolans films. I will only agree with one thing that the studios said which wanted to make toys. batman returns albeit very iconic was too dark. The first movie with Jack Nicholson’s Joker was perfect, then it went full Burton by the sequel and well it was too far away from thr mark. Enough to say, don’t make a third movie. Which is a shame, because Burton should of been allowed to make a trilogy and if he just lightened up a little with Batman Returns we may have seen the third outing. But one thing he did get right was Michael Keaton’s casting as Batman, as Bruce he was distracted and not really present which was good because as I said before Bruce is just a mask, he’s Batman. Batman pretends to be Bruce Wayne in public and Burton portrayed this very accurately on many occasions.

So after my analysis, who was the best Batman actor? It’s a mix of Michael Keaton and Christian Bale they both hit the role almost perfectly and thus no contest they both sit at the top spot.

As for the worst, sorry but Robin Patterson takes that spot.

As for the rest, they was just wasted potential and could of been really good. And not a reflection of the actors that portrayed them.

It’s not a matter of who acted the worst because they all acted well but the problem comes from director and script, if both or one is bad then it’s VERY notiable. So it’s not the actors fault.

What’s your thoughts

Come On Barbie Let’s Go Party

Most would probably think my interests in film are bias to superhero movies. Not true, I look at all genres of films and I love a good comedy.

But I was a bit perplexed by a Barbie Movie. Personally I feel it wasn’t marketed very well. The first I knew of a Barbie movie was when it was released at cinema and went head to head with Oppenheimer.

And there is something incredibly sad about that. See I’ve watched the film but it wasn’t something I was intending to watch. Mostly because it was advertise very well as a comedy. And the themes of the film suggest that this film should be for everyone. So I’m perplexed by they promoted it in such a way to exclude and encourage more people to watch.

Anyway. So what lead to me watching this film. Weirdly YouTube – seeing that Ryan Goslin talk positive about it and then seeing what cast they had in this film. And nearly everyone wanted to be in it. It intrigued me.

So YouTubing some clips from the film and seeing a Stella comedic performance from Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling I felt this film needed abit of justice. Thus I went to watch the film.

And yes, it’s good. It’s funny, it has an important message and that message hits everyone. I saw reports that the film had become a piece of woke propaganda but it is simply not that. Instead it explains the problems of the world in a palatable narrative that works well even for story telling.

The whole film is really a piece on Identity and finding out who you are and being comfortable with who people are. Whilst being funny in many many scenes.

This film has a good vibe. And I highly recommend it to people of all.

My only criticism is there needed to be more Allan one of the funnest characters in the movie was sparsely used and should of appeared more but let’s hope for a sequel where him and midge for that matter kind of shine.

I’m short Barbie is a good 2023/24 film to watch for a humourus take of a toy franchise

Films That Was An Influence On Me

I wanted to do something different, I wanted to give you not a top 10 but 10 films that personally changed my life. Here they are.

1. Jurassic Park – This was the very first movie I ever saw at the cinema. Previously the only way I was ever able to watch a new release was a blockbuster video rental. At the time my family couldn’t afford such luxury as going to the cinema but as years went on we was able to see our first film. That was Jurassic Park. Now I was thinking about this, Jurassic Park is such an iconic film. A master class of story telling and imagination. If this had not been my first cinema movie, would I have continued my passion for film? So I credit this movie for being at the birth of my interest in watching films at the cinema.

2. Million Dollar Hotel – it took me nearly 5 years to track down what this film was. It appeared on tv one day in the early 00’s and it was one of those late night, film that’s on in the background as you surfed the early days of the internet. But this film took my attention. I always liked films that was a bit artistic and different and something about this film just stood out. It had so many good cast members. Directed by Mel Gibson, you had Jeremy Davis as the lead who has featured on many tv shows including Lost, Lucifer & Hannibal. It also had Mila Jovovich of resident evil fame, Peter Stomer of Lost World Jurassic Park and prison break – such an iconic film. So how did it change my life. It took me 5 years to track down this film as I forgot the name of it and well I had only remembered fragments of the film. But using the internet and researching about films and trying to track down history, helped me to explore the world of film making. You learn about set designs, trivia production, locations. This film is responsible for me delving deeper into the production of films. Such a great film shame such a low rating.

3. Short Circuit 2 – this film wouldn’t normally be on a list like this more of a top 10 films I like, but in recent times this film was one of the first films that I personally enjoyed but not realised how the casting of an actor in a controversial role is what makes this film questionable today. But for me, it’s like I didn’t know, I really didn’t know until someone pointed it out. And his is and still is a treasured movie of mine. So why this changed my life is that it gave me a perspective, a view point about what people find offensive or controversial. Even if the films intent was pure it still has something not quite right about it. Now many tv shows with controversial scenes or actions have been removed over the years and I don’t think this is the way forward on this. You can’t just sweep away history because it offends someone now. It happened. And it should serve as a reminder that it did happen and how we can improve for the future. Deleting history is a waste. But alas controversy is a big issue and the question on how to handle it is never straight forward.

4. Fight Club – I don’t agree with the plot of the movie, or the characters actions throughout, but there was something relatable to the main character played by Edward Norton in the film. The internal comments was too real. The writer (chuck palanki) knew very well how to portray inner dialogue. When we watch a film, we see it from the characters perspective but every now and there you can see the parallel to your own life. Fight Club was the first movie that did that for me, I was able to see my mind operate from the weirdest of thoughts wether silly or bizzare and a internal dialogue playing them out. Trying to make sense of them. There has been more films I can relate to, better films at that. But fight club was the first relatable movie.

5. Oceans 11 – take all the elements of James Bond, mix it into a heist movie and add a dash of celebrities. Ocean 11 is a modern mystery film. You never know exactly where to look because how it’s going to end is now how you have been lead to believe. This film introduced to me the idea of clever misdirection writing. When I was younger, I was learning psychology, this lead into hypnotism and then deception which is a tool of the trade for magicians. I became fascinated with this complex series of events that had to occur to make the end effect . Now it’s one thing to be a magician because you have an act practice it till perfect and then present it. But to make a film that most will see only once, include a deceptive nature and make you shocked by the end. Bravo. It wasn’t just about this for this film. It was the style, the use of characters. Basically this film is one of my inspirations for when I write my own stories. Just the richness of multiple characters playing there role in one film and they all play an Important part. That makes for brilliant writing.

6. Scream – a lot of people dislike scream as a horror movie, but as a horror movie that was not its intent or purpose. Wes craven made this film to teach the new generation of classic horror films. Instead of trailing through a tone of old horror films explaining old cliches just watch scream it has them all and explains it to you why there there in the first place. It’s a film that teaches you about how they made classic horror films. Disguised as a horror film. It is a source of reference for me and I use it as a litmus test when I ask people if they liked the movie. If they simply disliked it then they didn’t understand it’s purpose but if they bring up what the movie was about then I know that person has good taste in films. I wish we had more films like this, a somewhat celebration of film history but alas we don’t have this for other genres, maybe someday we will.

7. Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou – I had watched Wes Anderson films before in the past and never really got the artistic view until I saw Life Aquatic. I was already a fan of Bill Murray and I am no stranger to artistic films. But what changed it for me was watching life aquatic it was the beauty of the design of the set. The world, a artistic world that Wes anderson made, there are thousands of directors out there. But only a small few have a design. Like you know a Tim Burton movie because, you know a Kevin smith film because, baz lurhman, Luc Basson, Wes anderson their are simply some directors that have that unique look. I may do a post on this some point in the future. But anyway life aquatic really awoke the notion of style, what is your characteristics. In other words, it gave me the idea of how someone makes something into a brand, there brand.

8. Little Shop Of Horrors – I never thought I’d like a musical. If someone asked me did you like musical films or theatre… I’d think of cats, and hairspray, Jesus Christ super star and phantom of the opera and I’d be like no, musicals are not my genre. Till one day I saw Les Misrable and thought “that’s a well done movie” so why isn’t les misrable the film and not little shop of horrors. Well seeing Les Misrable and finding it enjoyable unlocked a flood of movies I had scene that was musicsl orientated but I just simply dismissed and Litttle Shop of Horrors was the first of that list. Not only had my school put on a performance of this from the 1988 film, I actually played the role of the dentist in the school play. Every time I watch this film it brings back warm memories, plus the wonderful Rick Moranis was in it. But yeah, little shop of horrors, Rocky horror picture show, several Disney cartoon movies like Aladdin or Lion King… I completly dismissed the whole musical element from my life because my mind associated it with films I disliked, and not the films I actually did like.

9. Ghostbusters – pretty iconic film how did this change your life. Well I never got to see this at the cinema especially as my first film was Jurassic park at the cinema. But I have seen this film multiple times. But that’s not the reason this makes this list. It’s more to do with jobs. See at the age of 16 you get a guidance councillor and they ask you want you want to be when your older. I had no clue, no idea. I was smart but no business venture of interest, it’s because I had learnt that if I was to capitalise on one of my hobbies the. I would hate that hobby over time and I didn’t want to lose that love for it. And if I took a job I hated I would be Misrable. So I figured the perfect job for me would be a job that I find easy to do, I can be quiet sociable and it’s not something I necessarily like doing but the money pays well enough to justify doing that job. That’s the bare minimum of the employment I went into, and had done for 18 odd years. But the question that always played on my mind is, what would of been my perfect job. Till one day it hit me, I was watching ghostbusters and I realised. A ghostbuster is my perfect job. But the problem then is this is a fictional job and doesn’t exist. But that was irrelevant because despite realising Ghostbuster was the perfect role for me. It the aspects of the Job, that I liked. It was a role that had gadgets, you work as a team. It has a sense of importance, and it’s very niche. So now I know what I need out of a job that would make me happy. Ghostbusters gave me the elements I needed to understand what kind of job I wanted to do in life. Sadly ghost busting isn’t real but at least I know it’s a job like that which would suit me well.

10. Die Hard – oh come on how can die hard be influential, I thought about this long and hard, I have multiple examples I could use. But die hard is in my top 3 of top films of all time so I thought why not. How die hard and may other films I’ll mentioned in a minute. Influenced my life. Is the art of a perfectly crafted film. There are so few films that are so perfectly crafted that you can watch them again and Again and again over and over and you never get bored of them. This is because there so perfectly crafted you can watch them a million times over and on the million and one times you see something new. Some notable examples are Jaws, The first Matrix Film, Terminatir 2, both Alien and Aliens the ultimate crafted film doesn’t need a sequel but these films are so well crafted you can watch the. Forever and never get bored. My question for you is what we’ll crafted film would you put here?

So there you have it. A bit of a personal journey into my history with theme as I honour some of my Al time classic films,

How did Agent Coulson survive? (The Avengers)

One of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Marvel Movie Universe is how Agent Coulson survived with people jumping to large conclusion as to how it was done, maybe he’s an android?, is he The Vision? alien technology…etc.

But i have a different theory on how he managed to cheat death. So here is my post “How did Agent Coulson survive after the events of The Avengers”

Despite the somewhat reasonable explination given in the most recent episode of Agents Of Shield, it was still left a little bit vague and from comments ive seen on news websites reporting the story i found people are wanting a more detailed explaination. Something to pinpoint what exactly happened to Agent Coulson.

But i believe the evidence has been stairing your in the face from the very begining. Before i go into how i think he survived, i want to raise some facts about the Marvel Movie Universe first.

Phase One – as you know The Avengers or Avengers Assemble took place after the events of the previous set up movies “Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, Incredible Hulk & Thor” Shield was a presence in all these movies. Lets look at some of the factoids that was created in this universe in the set up movie. Lets start with Captain America: The First Avenger.

Howard Stark, the inventor – Howard was a technological genius and some of the stuff he invented was used by captain america later in the movie, also the father of Tony Stark what you have to remember is that Howard was helping his country with the war so he was already involved in a military background. So Howards Technology and Howard Stark himself most of worked with Shield at some point. However Shield does seem to be a seperate entity to the army, being that Shield is pretty much a spy agency they would of either had access to the information or stole it. Either way Shield now displays an advance learning of technology that is not in the public domain.

Then there is Captain America, the super soldier serum… What we know about this is that they was trying to create this formula for many years but we also know that at its current state during ww2 was that it was unstable and the only successful candidate was Steve Rogers. Everyone who has been involved in the super soldier serum (in the movie universe) has become radically changed by its formula Red Skull, Abomination in theory you could also say The Hulk. But what do we know about this serum? 1. as of ww2 it was kept by the american army. or at least some of its research. Captain America was able to be suspended in animation although shield wouldnt know this until they dug up captain america. The serum seems to make 1. people strong, 2. can cause people to go into suspended animation. we will come back to this later.

Lets move to Iron Man

Both Iron Man films at the time displayed that Tony Stark had inherited his fathers technology genius. But we then start to see that Tony Stark becomes a person of interest for Shield – Infact it is Agent Coulsons first appearance in the movie universe. As of  the second movie, Tony was asked to be a techical advisor for shield and thus in the avengers movie he had already built the helicarrier and of which would of been filled with start technology. Which is probably why he found it easy to hack the system. So we can assume that the technology that Sheild has is of Starks level already.

Finally lets look at Incredible Hulk and Ruffleos Hulk from Avengers. Going back to the serum and also gammer radition that created the Hulk, i would be safe to say that shield would know the ins and outs of Bruce Banner, They built the Hulk Chamber on board the shield vessle and black widow seemed to know what to expect from the hulk during there encounter in the film. A comment that Ruffleo said in the avengers movie was He tried to kill himself with a gun in his mouth but the hulk spit it out. The hulk has some form of healing ability like wolverine in this movie universe. So taking that into fact Bruce can never die. The Hulk wont let him.

So lets go back to The Avengers and Agent Coulson? How did he survive?

Well my theory is that Shield had been experimenting on the Super Soldier serum for many years although there only one successful candidate Steve Rogers only reappeared of recent years. So the only formula they would of had at the time was the one the abomination had and hulk i guess.

Said serum seems to give super strength, can shut down the body in suspended animation and also has healing properties… are we getting close here? A comment made in the agents of shield episode which sort of explained how coulson survived and why they operated on his brain… it was because they didnt want him to turn into something else? something else? what like a hulk or something?

It may not be the right answer but thats the answer im looking towards 1. its reasonable, 2. it already exists in the marvel movie universe.

But you know marvel, they always put in some sort of clue or hint at it… but alas its not like we saw Coulson being a huge fan of Captain America and having his trading cards?

again it is all conjecture based on the ideas already laid out by the movies so far. So what else is missing? well we didnt talk about Thor – from Thor The Dark World we find that the Asgardians have superior medical technology. And when you look at how coulson died, Thor was not present when Fury gave that speach about working together with Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.

So anyway thats food for thought.

one last thing if he was given hulk serum with restrictions, it would make sense why Mary Hill said he could never find out.

Avengers Assemble My Ikea Cabinet

So, about a week ago i watched Avengers Assemble and i said to myself i would write a review of it but never got round to it on my other blog so i thought id post one on here.

As much as i would like to say i liked the movie, there was elements that annoyed me which stopped me from fully enjoying a movie of such epicness. It all starts with with The Incredible Hulk staring Edward Norton. Now i have never been a fan of recasting if the films are going to be in a series of films that follow on from each other. But i will say that Mark Ruffalo played a brilliant Bruce Banner and Hulk in The Avengers Movie, if we could go back in time and have him place Bruce Banner in incredible hulk or have Edward Norton in avengers i would of been happy. I know its only a small detail but it plays havoc with my OCD.

Now as for the movie itself, i felt it was slow starting and introducing each character wasnt done smoothly enough. Although the characters had better development later in the film i just found the first 20/30 minutes of the film rather boring. But after that the film gets epic.

One of the things i felt spoilt the film was the chitari or whatever the alien race was called. There the ultimate avengers comic books version of skrulls with no back story. The real villian of the film was always Loki – his round 2 if you will from his story in the movie Thor. He is the master of deciet and can make copies of himself however couldnt create an army of himself to take over the world? instead he relies on an alien race to do that for him. Pretty lame especially when i thought Loki was brilliant in it.

One of the things i felt was wrong with the movie, especially when Captain America is supposed to be the leader of the team. He kind of felt like the weakest member of the group. All the characters were off taking down giant alien ships, or thor with his lightning, hulk smash and where was Captain… hiding behind a shield? is this the same Captain America we saw in the first avenger film?

Other than that i thought the film was awesome. It was kind of like Transformers 3 with a more complex story line… LOL watch out Michael Bay as Josh Whedon can produce the same scale movie with better character developement.

I rate this movie 4 our of 5 stars, which is an Awesome Rating!