The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?

Year 8, Day 102 - 4/11/16 - Movie #2,302

BEFORE: Some time in the late 90's, there used to be guys selling screenplays on the street - most were for popular films that were in wide release, but sometimes, if I dug through the stacks, I could find a screenplay for a film that never got made, for $5.  Best of all, there were two guys selling these things, and I guess they weren't working together, because they had different stuff.  So for $10 total I bought two screenplays from one guy and traded for three more with the other guy.  I got a copy of James Cameron's unfilmed "Spider-Man" (this was before the Tobey Maguire films), "Roger Rabbit 2: The Toon Platoon", and an alleged draft of "Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness", and an early draft of "Watchmen", back when Terry Gilliam was thinking of directing it.  

And as part of the deal, I got a copy of the Kevin Smith screenplay for "Superman Lives" - now, this was before you could find such things on the internet, because we didn't have much of an internet back then.  I think we had e-mail, but the web was still in its infant stages.  So these were paper transactions, but I'm sure you can find all of these screenplays on-line now, if you're so inclined.  

Linking from "Starring Adam West" seems difficult - but not impossible.  Ralph Garman was also in "Jay and Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie", which sounds like something I need to check out at some point, with Kevin Smith.  Or "Yoga Hosers", they both appeared in that as well.

THE PLOT:  A documentary about the proposed 1998 "Superman Lives" feature film that would have starred Nicolas Cage.

AFTER:  I'm really kind of split on this one.  Generally, I'm against all attempts to show how movies get made, because in my mind, movies are like laws and sausages in that famous quote.  Many films can't resist tooting their own horn about how their great special effects were achieved, but that also destroys a lot of the mystery and magic.  I try not to watch many "behind-the-scenes" extras.  Plus, we shouldn't go digging around in the trash of Dickens or Shakespeare or Stephen King and try to figure out what stories they DIDN'T write.  If any of those writers didn't release something, it's fair to assume that there was a reason for keeping that project from publication.  

However, this is a geek film about a super-hero movie that seems to have gone wrong, so I have to admit that I'm curious.  And I own a copy of the "Superman Lives" screenplay, so it could be noteworthy to find out why it never got off the ground.  And it's extremely topical, considering the release of the recent Superman film, 17 years after this project was abandoned, which contains some of the same story elements.  What would the franchise have been like if this film had been released, and would be still be living now in the rich comic-book movie culture that we're currently enjoying?  

This doc examines what could have been the next film in the Superman franchise after "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace", and how a series of seemingly sensible (at the time) decisions added up to the equivalent of a pop-culture abortion.  I apologize for that imagery, but what else would you call a project that was conceived, but not brought to full term?  And as we've seen in the media last week, the issue of abortion is a complex one, no one's really sure who to blame for it.  (Couldn't be men who don't wear condoms, now could it?  Nah, that's crazy talk.)  

A lot of heavy hitters got involved with this euthanized (is that any better?) project - Kevin Smith wrote the first two screenplay drafts, producer Jon Peters (who worked on the 1989 "Batman" film) got involved, and he wanted to hire Tim Burton, who had revived the Batman franchise after a long, fallow period in film/TV.  And this was just a few years after DC Comics had run the "Death of Superman" storyline, which had pumped up sales, even though it was through a very obvious ploy to do so.  Superman #75, the death issue, was one of the highest selling comics of the 1990's, I still have one copy sealed inside the black bag with the bloody "S" logo.  There were four impostor Supermans running in the books for about a year before they devised a storyline that would bring the real one back - turns out he was only "mostly" dead.  

From the writers to the directors to the studio executives, and on down to the concept artists, the art directors and the wardrobe department, the blame for failure goes around and around like a big circle-jerk, with everyone pointing the finger at someone else.  Kevin Smith blames Jon Peters, Jon Peters blames Tim Burton, Tim Burton blames budget constraints, but no one's willing to admit that the final film could have sucked, big time.  Meanwhile, the director/interviewer just keeps nodding his head.  

Oh, a few come close, some of the lower echelon crew members say, "I spent six months trying to polish that turd."  And if you read between the lines, "trying" means that they didn't succeed, so at the end of whatever time period was involved, it was still a turd.  And this supports my theory that when it comes to movie franchises, the directors are currently given too much power.  A top director like Tim Burton, or Zack Snyder, can change the story around however he wants in the name of making it hip and fresh, throwing out all the continuity that has come before.  

The only people who could possibly be in charge of a director would be the studio executives, but even with these franchise films, it seems like most of them are willing to throw a bunch of crap against the wall, so to speak, to see if anything sticks.  They'll only shut a director down if he's WAY out of control, but someone with Tim Burton's reputation is usually given free rein.  Which to me seems like quite a problem, if no one is able to say "No" to a director about what he can and can't do.  There was just an article in Variety about how Kevin Feige, as president of Marvel Studios, fulfills this role on the Avengers films, but there's no one at Warner Brothers doing this for DC-based films.  This is why there's no consistency between the Christopher Nolan "Batman" films and the recent Zack Snyder film - there truly is no one minding the store.   

So, I ask only one thing of people out in the blogosphere - if you disagree with my rating on "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", take a look at this documentary, or at least take a moment to consider that a Superman film could easily have been much, much worse. We could have seen Nic Cage as a long-haired, introspective Superman, fighting a Thanagarian Snare-Beast (giant spider) in the first act, and Lex Luthor physically merging with Brainiac in the 2nd act to release Doomsday from Brainiac's alien menagerie on his flying skull ship.  

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you work for, I guess), Warner Brothers had a string of flops that year, and they couldn't take a gamble on a superhero film with a budget over $200 million, so the whole project got scrapped.  Who knows, maybe Tim Burton could have made something worthwhile with the pieces we get glimpses of here, but my gut says this was a bad idea from start to finish.  But I guess we'll never know for sure.

NITPICK POINT: There's been much talk over the years about changing the Superman costume so the "red underwear" isn't part of the mix.  They finally succeeded in both the recent movies and the comic books, by going with an outfit that's solid blue between belt and boots.  (Great, now it looks like he's wearing footy pajamas...)  Actually right after the last comic reboot, Superman wore regular pants, like jeans, and they slowly transitioned him to the full blue unitard.  But I have to take issue with the "underwear" definition.  OK, so there was a different color on his briefs than his legs, but by definition, "underwear" is on the inside of clothing - if you wear it over something else, it becomes "outerwear", so the verbal argument against it is invalid.  If anything, it used to look more like a red Speedo bathing suit than underwear - but his legs weren't bare, so that's not really accurate, either.  

Also starring Nicolas Cage (in archive footage) (last seen in "City of Angels"), Kevin Smith, Tim Burton

RATING: 4 out of 10 polar bears

Starring Adam West

Year 8, Day 101 - 4/10/16 - Movie #2,301

BEFORE:  Time for a documentary break, now that I hit the latest 100-film milestone.  A few more documentaries have come into my possession, but for now I'm only going to focus on two, one about Batman and one about Superman.  You know, to tie in with this week's theme.  

Many linkings are possible tonight, thanks to the appearance of voice-actor Tom Kenny, I can easily link from Maurice LaMarche to Kenny via "The Boxtrolls", a movie that I'm waiting for some channel to run.  I could also have gone from Carlos Alazraqui to Kenny via "The SpongeBob Movie".  

THE PLOT:  A fan-funded documentary about the creative and turbulent life of Adam West and the fan-supported quest to recognize the beloved actor with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

AFTER: It's a wonder to me that anyone goes to work in the movies (either in front of the camera or behind it) and comes out with their head screwed on straight.  Because you'll either spend your time struggling to get work, which could create self-doubt and depression, or you'll be successful, which leads to a whole other set of problems like self-entitlement and ego.  Adam West struggled for a while in Hollywood, then hit big with "Batman" on TV, which was ABC's most popular show for a time, but then was hopelessly typecast and spent a few years struggling to "escape the cape" and left the business for a while. 

Years later, he did a comeback publicity tour of sorts, appearing on Howard Stern's radio show, Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" and Craig Kilborn's "Late Late Show", all sort of poking fun at his own image, eventually landing the role of the fictional Mayor Adam West on "Family Guy".  And all the time, there was something compelling about that deadpan-yet-dulcet voice that never lets on if he's completely serious, or in on the joke.  

It seems like he started out naive, one of many hopeful people who came to Hollywood with (less than) a dollar and a dream, arriving when it was a boom-town for TV westerns, and anyone who could ride a horse (Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen) could find work.  But when the next financial crisis came, or Westerns fell out of favor, the work dried up and the only Westerns being made were the "spaghetti" kind (made in Western Italy, that is).  

But the man born as William West Anderson also had experience running a TV station for the military, as well as a background in theater, announcer work and children's TV, so he knew that there would always be work somewhere in the industry, even if it wasn't on camera.  He even worked as a milkman in New Jersey for a while, before moving the family to Hawaii in search of TV gigs.  

There's someone I know of in the animation industry, not personally but through my boss's Facebook (and I'll withhold the name here) who's always going on about how hard it is to find work in the industry, while also complaining about roommate problems and a general lack of funds.  His posts bother me greatly, because he doesn't seem to understand that while you're looking for the job you want, you sometimes need to take another job, just to get by.  I worked as a theater usher while looking for film production work, and if you've ever swept up popcorn from a cinema floor, you know that's not a great gig.  But it paid the rent for a while, so you do what you have to do.  (Also, for the record, spending 8 hours a day on Facebook is probably not a way to solve those problems...)

Getting the call to play "Batman" turned out to be a blessing and a curse, because it brought West fame and the love of the fans, but then also made him something of a pariah to casting agents.  Being typecast not only as Batman but as the star of a very silly superhero show hurt his career for a long time, and it was only years later, when all those kids grew up, that he started to feel the love from the fans.  People still watch that show, and to many people of that generation, he's the one and only Bat-actor.  

The documentary shows his family members and a few prominent fans rallying to get West his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - turns out there's a lengthy series of forms to fill out, plus someone needs to cover the cost of maintaining the physical star on Hollywood Blvd.  But considering that the street is filled with people dressed like Marilyn Monroe, Chaplin, Superman and Batman, it seems like West's star should fit right in.  

There's also a look at Adam's artwork being shown in a gallery (hey, you have to develop some skills to fill all the down time) and making autographing appearances at San Diego Comic-Con and Wizard World in Anaheim.  Interactions with the fans are always potentially dicey, but I'm guessing that 99% of them are usually positive, from genuine thanks to fawning praise, maybe once in a while someone's just there to get a signature they can re-sell, but most genuinely care about the actor or their connection to the show.  (From my experiences behind a booth, I've realized there are three categories of convention people - industry insiders, genuine fans, and true weirdos.  The last category is the smallest, but they waste the most of my boss's time, so once identified, I've learned to just smile and nod.) 

The message is clear, and also inspiring - there will probably be good times and bad times in one's life, the best you can do is to realize that things will probably equalize out over time, and if you're lucky, you can be successful and still stay sane, even if you have to move to Idaho for a while to remain so.

Also starring Adam West (last heard in "Chicken Little"), Burt Ward, Ralph Garman (last seen in "Two for the Money"), Seth MacFarlane (last seen in "A Million Ways to Die in the West"), Lee Meriwether, Wally Wingert, Nina West.  

RATING: 5 out of 10 sit-com guest appearances

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2

Year 8, Day 100 - 4/9/16 - Movie #2,300

BEFORE: Nearly the whole cast of Part 1 carries over into Part 2, as one would expect.  I'm now 1/3 through the year, with 200 slots left, but with 140 movies still on the list to fill them.  At this point, I'm not sure if I can finish the project this year, considering how slowly my list is decreasing, which at this point is not at all.  

THE PLOT:  The Batman has returned after a 10-year absence. The Gotham authorities want to arrest him. An old foe wants a reunion. The Feds want the Man of Tomorrow to put a stop to him.

AFTER: They really upped the stakes in the 2nd part of this story - I guess that would be issues 3 + 4 of the original comic.  Once the book stopped showcasing those weird mutant gang-bangers and their "future-speak" (sample: "Slice and dice" and "chick-chick-chicken legs...") there was room for a lot more, like an older Catwoman who seems to be back in the prostitution business, the doctors who reformed "Two-Face" setting their sights on the Joker, a one-armed Green Arrow, and the new police commissioner finally realizing why Gordon never took down the Batman.  Oh, and I nearly forgot about the giant topless Nazi woman, apparently Joker's girlfriend, who wears red swastikas over her nipples.  Classy.  

And there's also plenty of evidence to support that this takes place in an alternate-reality 1980's - the president looks a lot like Ronald Reagan, who's sending troops to an El Salvador-like island called Corto Maltese, and the Joker gets booked for an appearance on the "David Endocrine" show, which is a thinly-veiled Letterman show, complete with a Paul Shaffer look-alike.  I bet Joker kills on that show, really just slays 'em.  That audience will be dying - with laughter!  

A lot of the original comic, and a lot of this film, is told via various news anchors and talk-show hosts weighing in on the issues of the day.  Lois Lane is not among them, but an older Lana Lang is apparently now managing editor of the Daily Planet (probably there's some backstory there) and she's one of those anti-Batman people - naturally, she's more of a Superman fan.  There's much debate over whether Batman is ultimately responsible for villains like the Joker, some say Batman's mere presence led to the viciousness of Gotham's villains, but also, since he won't kill them, doesn't he become responsible for the people they go on to kill later?  I never quite understand this point of view - so you're saying you want a man dressed as a giant bat, who patrols the streets of your city, to also be a killer?  You think that somehow Batman is soft on crime?  Being anti-crime is all that he's about?

You'd probably think that billionaire Bruce Wayne would vote Republican, and that middle-class Clark Kent would be a Democrat, but something tells me the reverse is true.  Kent grew up in Kansas, which is red-state territory, and he seems to champion the little guy, but from someone that powerful, it seems a bit like lip service.  Plus his attitudes seem more conservative, almost puritan - I'm thinking Superman is secretly a Republican.  Bruce Wayne?  Total liberal, don't let the fat wallet fool you, it's just for show.  Remember, he's anti-gun and makes massive donations to charity.  (And Wonder Woman supports the Feminist agenda, and Oliver Queen?  Green party, of course.)  

Speaking of Superman, or as Green Arrow calls him, the "boy scout", here he seems to be the President's go-to man for solving problems, like nuclear missiles, or a vigilante Batman.  Which seems a little weird, because the Senate and the press in "Batman v Superman" took Superman to task for interfering with foreign policy.  Guess that little issue of authority got worked out by the government hiring Superman - well, he does stand for "truth, justice, and the American Way" after all.  And even though Batman and his Sons of Batman gang (formerly the Mutant gang) are all that keeps Gotham from descending into chaos, the President still needs Batman taken down.  

Yep, it's Batman vs. Superman again, maybe for the last time.  Batman uses all of his technology, and some Kryptonite, in the big clunky bat-suit, to take down an already-weakened Superman.  This battle was a huge inspiration for the confrontation in the recent Zack Snyder film.  Turns out you can defeat Superman with tech and smarts, that guy's relied on his superpowers for far too long.  

Starring Peter Weller, Ariel Winter, Michael Emerson, David Selby, Paget Brewster, Grey Griffin, Townsend Coleman, Dee Bradley Baker, Michael Jackson, Maria Canals-Barrera, Maurice LaMarche, Yuri Lowenthal, Michael McKean, Tara Strong, Frank Welker, Gary Anthony Williams, Carlos Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker,  (all carrying over from "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1"), Mark Valley, Robin Atkin Downes (last heard in "Batman: Year One"), Jim Meskimen, Tress MacNeille, Conan O'Brien (last seen in "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty").

RATING: 6 out of 10 funhouse mirrors

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 1

Year 8, Day 99 - 4/8/16 - Movie #2,299

BEFORE: My wife's away for three days at a management training seminar in Chicago, so for me, it's a weekend full of drugs, hookers and guns - in video-game form, of course.  If I buckle down I might be able to get through the whole of "GTA 3" in 3 days.  It's been a few years, since I've been spending my video-game hours on "Lego Star Wars", "Lego Batman" and "Lego Pirates of the Caribbean", this could be a nice break before I start "Lego Batman 2" or "Lego Hobbit".  

And see, I told you, Frank Miller is back.  This film is based on the 4-issue limited series he wrote in 1986, around the same time they were re-booting Batman with a new origin, they were also giving a peek far into the future - OK, a possible future.  But the series really took off once it was released as a trade paperback, for a while there I made sure to re-read it every couple of years, like I do with "Watchmen".  And a fair number of the ideas made their way into the recent "Batman v Superman" film.  More on that in a bit.  

Three voice actors carry over from "Under the Red Hood" - Wade Williams (as Black Mask last night, and Harvey Dent tonight), Carlos Alazraqui (as Chi Chi last night, Hernando tonight) and Bruce Timm (as the Riddler last night, and Thomas Wayne tonight).  

THE PLOT:  A new breed of criminal ravages Gotham City, forcing 55-year-old Bruce Wayne back into the cape and cowl. But, does he still have what it takes to fight crime in a new era?

AFTER: It's very smart, setting a storyline far into the future like this - the writer then doesn't have to worry about all this continuity.  By now, Jim Gordon totally knows that Bruce Wayne was Batman - when did he figure it out, back in "Year One" or somewhere along the way?  It doesn't matter.  Jason Todd is dead, and Bruce still feels bad about it - was this from his first "death" or did he die a second time?  Again, it hardly matters.  

What's really significant now is probably what was "borrowed" from this storyline to appear in "Batman v Superman" - the bulky costume, for one.  And the fact that Batman is older, 55 here and retired from crime-fighting, I think the Affleck Batman was supposed to be in his 40's, it's funny that being only 10 years older, Bruce Wayne is portrayed here like he's a senior citizen.  All that street-fighting and getting shot at takes its toll, I'll wager.  The recent film also used a shortened version of Batman's origin, very similar to the one first seen in this comic.  And if you read the comic-book and you know what happened in issues 3 + 4, you know there are more elements in common, which I'll discuss tomorrow.  

You can just feel from the pacing here that this film covers issues #1 and 2 out of four, there are two climactic battles, one with Two-Face and one with the Mutant Gang leader.  Two-Face gets plastic surgery here and is believed to be reformed, but you can change the man's outward appearance and still wonder if he's the same criminal under the skin.  And the Mutant Gang leader is a gigantic, overly-muscular bald brute with sharpened teeth and incredible strength - Batman learns that fighting skill alone isn't going to take him down, he needs to fight smarter.  And that's exactly who Batman is, the perfect combination of intelligence and fighting skill.  

I never really noticed before that most of the "Mutant" gang aren't mutants at all, not in the "X-Men" sense of the word, anyway.  But most of them wear visors similar to Cyclops', many have bald heads like Professor X, and the leader has sharp teeth like, umm, Wolverine?  I wonder how much of this was intentional, was Batman supposed to be fighting some amalgam of the X-Men?   

NITPICK POINT: Commissioner Gordon talks about the U.S. entering World War II, as if he were there.  But if he's 70 years old in the future, at a point where Bruce Wayne is 55, I can't quite get the math to work out where Jim Gordon is old enough to be politically aware in 1941.  It only works if this takes place in an alternate version of 1986, and Gordon was 25 in 1941, then he'd be 70 in 1986.  That means Bruce Wayne was born in 1931, which kind of works, but it calls to question how far in the future this is set, if at all. Why not just remove the mention of F.D.R. and leave it ambiguous?

Also starring the voices of Peter Weller (last seen in "Star Trek Into Darkness"), Ariel Winter, David Selby, Dee Bradley Baker, Paget Brewster, Michael Emerson (last seen in "The Legend of Zorro"), Townsend Coleman (last heard in "Lego Batman: DC Super Heroes Unite"), Maria Canals-Barrera, Richard Doyle, Grey Griffin (last heard in "Batman: Year One"), Michael Jackson (no, not that one...), Michael McKean (last seen in "The Brady Bunch Movie"), Sam McMurray (last seen in "The Front"), Maurice LaMarche (last heard in "Frozen"), Frank Welker (last heard in "Big Hero 6"), Gary Anthony Williams (last seen in "The Internship"), Tara Strong, James Arnold Taylor.

RATING: 5 out of 10 packs of nicotine gum

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Year 8, Day 98 - 4/7/16 - Movie #2,298

BEFORE: I've started the planning and paperwork for this year's San Diego Comic-Con - if you've never been to the "big show" at SDCC, it's kind of like the Super Bowl (minus the sports) swallowed the Oscars (minus the awards) and crapped out a costume party and a traffic jam.  It's NerdStock, GeekFest, Lolla-pa-Loser - yet when you get 125,000 geeks in one place, it sort of seems like they've taken over the entertainment world (which they have) and that the stuff we all talk about and are interested in is somewhat important.  (Like, who would win in a fight?  Batman or Superman?) 

But, as you might imagine, this sudden influx of people to the great city of San Diego causes a lot of problems - long lines in restaurants, lack of available hotel rooms.  But it also helps out the city a great deal, especially people who own restaurants and hotels.  The event brings thousands of people and millions of dollars to the city - so on behalf of geeks to the the people of San Diego, I say two things: "We're sorry" and "You're welcome."   

Last year, as I was in the S.D. airport, waiting for my plane back on the very busy travel day after Comic-Con, there was a flight attendant at the next gate trying to entertain a large crowd of passengers with a trivia quiz, so they could win free snacks to enjoy on the plane. "First question: What is Batman's real name?  That's right, it's Bruce Wayne!  You win!"  Umm, no, I thought, if this guy was up on his comic-book knowledge, he would have known that Bruce Wayne "died" several months before, and for the moment at least, Jim Gordon was subbing in for Batman.  

"Second question, what is Captain America's real name?  That's right, it's Steve Rogers!  You win!"  Again, I thought, this guy is behind the times, because Marvel had chosen to allow Steve Rogers to get really old, lose the super-soldier serum, and passed the costume and shield on to Sam Wilson, who was formerly known as the Falcon.  "Third question, what it Hulk's real name?"  I just had to put my face in my hands and try to ignore this quiz - because, which Hulk?  Green Hulk?  Red Hulk?  She-Hulk?  Rick Jones Hulk?  While we're at it, which Spider-Man?  Peter Parker, Miles Morales, Ben Reilly or Otto Octavius?  Marvel was doing a cross-time storyline where all the Spider-Mans (and Spider-Women) from all the different realities were teaming up.  

But I felt that it wasn't my place to try and correct this guy - he meant well, after all.  Plus he probably wouldn't have believed me, but the simple fact is that I knew much more about the subject at hand than he did - and these stories are constantly changing.  The comic-book writers will give a hero some time off, like they did years ago with Tony Stark as he battled alcoholism, then let James Rhodes take over as Iron Man, and then when they brought Tony back, they just turned Rhodes into War Machine, and boom, two heroes where there once was one.  That's another title on the shelf.  

To be continued in the next section.  Voice actor Fred Tatasciore carries over from "Batman: Year One".  

THE PLOT: Batman must go toe-to-toe with a mysterious vigilante who goes by the name of Red Hood.  Subsequently, old wounds reopen and old, once buried memories come into the light.

AFTER:  Which brings me to Robin, Batman's sidekick.  Or sidekicks, because there have been 5 Robins so far, more if you count the one seen in the future, or in alternate realities.  And DC's continuity over the years has been so complicated with universe-changing reboots like "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and "Flashpoint" that each character's history has become hopelessly convoluted. 

The first Robin aged out of the program and became an adult superhero, Nightwing.  The second Robin, Jason Todd, had an origin similar to the first one, being the child of circus acrobats, but then the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" happened, and reality changed - he became an orphaned street kid who tried to steal the tires from the Batmobile.  This is what's known as a "retcon", or retroactive continuity, when one writer changes the story that has come before, to suit his needs and create a different story moving forward.  

The problem with the new Jason Todd?  He was too "street", and kind of a dick. (And not the Dick Grayson kind of Dick.)  So, in a storyline titled "A Death in the Family", the next writer allowed him to be kidnapped and beaten up by the Joker, and let the fans decide via a 900-number whether Robin should live or die.  Fans chose death, Batman became moody (OK, moodier) and it was a few years before he took on the third Robin, Timothy Drake (who has since been retconned out of ever being Robin, but that's another story...).

Years later, it seemed like Jason Todd was alive again somehow, but it was really just Clayface pretending to be him to mess with Batman.  But then another reality-changing event in the DC universe caused two separate universes to merge (or something), and Jason was back for real, as the criminal, the Red Hood.  (The man who became the Joker was the first Red Hood, but that's also another story...)  It's a little unclear whether Jason just crossed over from another universe, or if reality was changed so that he never died in the first place, but it doesn't really matter, because that whole universe got retconned away by "Flashpoint" anyway.  

So if you watch the "Batman" movies and you're confused by continuity, welcome to my world.  Try reading the comic books if you really want to be thrown for a loop.  Every few months there's a new writer, who has no problem ignoring or throwing out the work of the previous writers, if that helps him to tell the story he wants to tell.  Hello, who's in charge here?  Isn't the book's editor supposed to be able to tell a writer what he can or can't do, for the sake of the confused fans?  I strongly suspect that no one's minding the store.

As for this film, since the scope of reality-bending or universe-collapsing was well outside the scope of this story, it needed to find another way to bring Jason Todd back from the dead, which it did rather neatly.  Turns out there's a popular Batman villain who resurrects himself and others on a fairly regular basis, so that worked quite well.  The people who write the comic books could learn a lesson in simple storytelling from the writers of this film.  From there, the motivations are quite simple - Jason Todd acts as a crime lord, taking over the territory of the Black Mask, in order to reach his ultimate goal of taking down the man who killed him, the Joker.  

And this puts Batman in a tight spot - facing off against his old partner, who wants to kill his greatest villain.  Batman could just do nothing and let the Red Hood kill the Joker, but that's not what Batman's about.  Batman tries to save everyone, and he doesn't kill - but that means he has to live with the fact that if he doesn't kill the Joker, he's partly responsible for everyone that the Joker kills in the future.  Apparently whatever state that Gotham City is in doesn't believe in capital punishment, because the Joker would certain qualify for that.  

Also starring the voices of Bruce Greenwood (last seen in "Flight"), Jensen Ackles, Neil Patrick Harris (last seen in "Gone Girl"), John DiMaggio (last heard in "Epic"), Jason Isaacs (last seen in "The Patriot"), Wade Williams, Gary Cole (last seen in "Tammy"), Kelly Hu (last seen in "The Scorpion King"), Phil LaMarr, Kevin Michael Richardson (last heard in "Planes: Fire & Rescue"), Jim Piddock, Carlos Alazraqui (last heard in "The Book of Life"), Bruce Timm.

RATING: 6 out of 10 crowbars

Batman: Year One

Year 8, Day 97 - 4/6/16 - Movie #2,297

BEFORE: I found myself behind the scenes at MAD Magazine today, thanks to my boss and the director we've got visiting from out of town, who arranged a visit with the magazine's head art director, and I volunteered to come along as their photographer.  Hey, sometimes my job does have its perks.  For a long time, MAD shared an office building with DC Comics, but DC moved out to L.A. about two years ago, so now they're sharing space with TMZ and some other Warner Bros.-owned properties.  

It's been a big Movie Year already for writer Frank Miller, I watched "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For" in January, and "Robocop 3" a week or so ago.  And more is on the way in a few days, but tonight it's the Batman origin story, which is based on the story he wrote for Batman comics issues 404-407 back in 1987, which is when I got on board.  This was the re-boot origin, before the most recent re-boot.

Voice actor Steve Blum carries over from "Lego Batman: DC Super Heroes Unite".  

THE PLOT:  A wealthy playboy and a Chicago cop both return to Gotham City where their lives will intersect in unexpected ways.

AFTER:  This covers a lot of the same ground as the current TV series "Gotham", detailing the early days of Jim Gordon's days on the GCPD, rooting out police corruption while also dealing with the first stirrings of major costumed crime in town.  However, on that show, Bruce Wayne is still a teenager, and here he's in his early 20's, returning to town after training with crime specialists and fighting mentors, ready to begin his quest to clean up the streets of Gotham City.  However, don't go into this one expecting to see him in costume much, some of it takes place before he gets the idea to dress as a bat, and then at the end, for some reason he abandons the costume again.

Symbolically, Jim Gordon and Bruce Wayne are portrayed here as opposite sides of the same coin (to use Harvey Dent's favorite metaphor...), both want to clear the streets of criminals and corrupt cops, just one chooses to do it from within the system and one from outside, as a vigilante.  What's really funny is that the voice actor who plays Batman here went on to play Jim Gordon in "Gotham" on TV just a few years later.

They both want to take down the mobster, Carmine Falcone, but Falcone is tight with Commissioner Loeb, so Gordon can't make any progress unless he first takes down Loeb's dirty cops.  Meanwhile Loeb issues an order for all Gotham cops to shoot this new vigilante on sight, which places Gordon in a position where he has to investigate and stop the Batman, for Batman's own sake.

And yet Gordon and his partner, Sarah Essen, never figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, although they have their suspicions.  Batman has to be athletic, focused, wealthy enough to fund a war on crime, and has to have easy access to technology like Bat-copters and Bat-boats.  Bruce Wayne is one of like three people in town who fit the bill, but whenever they question his whereabouts, his butler always says he's out of town, and whenever they come to visit, he appears to be intoxicated with a foreign floozy on his arm.  But hmm, that cast from Wayne's skiing accident would cover up the leg wound that Batman got, wouldn't it?

So all during the run of Batman comics following this storyline, the readers had to wonder - does Jim Gordon know?  He's got to know, right?  The story in "Year One" is very clever - if you want to believe that Jim Gordon figures out Batman's identity, there's evidence for that, and if you want to believe that he chooses NOT to know out of some professional courtesy, there's evidence for that, too.  

Jim Gordon's a real bad-ass, though - when he doesn't get jumped by three hooded men at once, he's really a very good fighter.  So it's interesting to note that for the last year or so, Jim Gordon replaced Bruce Wayne as Batman in the comic books, after Bruce "died".  (He came back, of course, but didn't remember his life as Batman until just recently - and became Batman again, just in time for the next reboot.)  But when Gordon was Batman, he wore sort of a robot suit to make him stronger...

Also starring the voices of Bryan Cranston (last heard in "Madagascar 3"), Ben McKenzie (last seen in "88 Minutes"), Eliza Dushku (last seen in "This Boy's Life"), Jon Polito (last seen in "Gangster Squad"), Alex Rocco (last seen in "The Wedding Planner"), Katee Sackhoff (last seen in "Riddick"), Jeff Bennett, Grey Griffin, Robin Atkin Downes, Stephen Root (last seen in "Robocop 3"), Fred Tatasciore.

RATING: 5 out of 10 bullet-proof vests

Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite

Year 8, Day 96 - 4/5/16 - Movie #2,296

BEFORE: I've got a whole week of Batman and/or Superman movies planned, in honor of their 2016 face-off.  Which is (allegedly) their first meeting in the DC movie universe, but it's in fact not the first time the characters have appeared on screen together.  Wait, what?  How is that possible?  Ah, I'm including animated films, which have tackled this topic before.  So from the very serious Affleck/Cavill film, I go straight to the silly, in this 2013 film (video?) based on the Lego Batman video-games.  Umm, I think.  

OK, the truth is that when I decided to go see "Batman v Superman", I had no outro, it seemed like a dead end.  No Ben Affleck movies left on the watchlist after taking care of "Bounce" and "Gone Girl" in February, no Henry Cavill (Man from U.N.C.L.E. hasn't run on cable yet), no Jesse Eisenberg (same goes for "American Ultra").  So I was only left with indirect linking (Kevin Costner from "Batman v Superman" was also in "The Guardian" with Clancy Brown) and the decision to link via characters, like I did to get to "Robocop 3".  The chance to create a theme week should outweigh the actor linking, no?  

Only yesterday did a possible direct link present itself, I just added "Big Eyes" to the list, so there was a link via Amy Adams to another film.  It's too late, I'm already committed to the DC heroes theme.  At least once I get into an animated chain I know the linking will be easier - these voice casts are usually the same actors, again and again.  

THE PLOT:  When the Joker and Lex Luthor form an alliance, Batman must team up with the Justice League in order to stop them.

AFTER: I sense that this is some kind of direct-to-video sequel, but I swear I got it off of pay cable.  And there is a real Lego Batman movie coming next year, I saw a preview for it that ran before "Batman v Superman". So this is the Lego Batman movie that Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now.  Or something like that.  Hey, at least the Joker finally showed up, though he's four days late for April Fool's Day.  

In this film, Lex Luthor teams up with the Joker - it's Election Day, and Luthor's running for President. (E-Lex-tion Day?)  See, this is what I was saying about Luthor, he thinks big.  But an rude, outspoken billionaire running for President?  Hah, that could never happen.  He wants to use Joker's laughing gas to make people vote for him - or maybe to kill them so they can't make it to the polls, that part of the plan is a little unclear.  But hey, either way that's election fraud in the DC universe.  

And they're very subtle about it, after they mix up the chemicals, they go walking around in a giant robot, shaped and colored to look like the Joker, to distribute the gas.  Great plan, Batman and Superman would never think to look for the Joker inside a GIANT JOKER.  But I realize this film was targeted at kids, so I really don't expect it to make much sense.  

Mostly kids just want to see things changing shape, and Lego robots and Lego Batmobiles and Batcycles and Batboats that get blown to pieces, and then rebuilt very quickly.  I guess if kids like playing with cars, they'll also watch a cartoon about racecars, and if kids like playing with robots, they'll watch a cartoon about robots.  Things were so simple when we were kids, right?  No jobs, no responsibilities, just turn on some cartoons that defy the laws of physics and turn off your brain for a little while.  

Me, I liked cartoons (and that happy jolt of entertainment to my brain) so much, I built my lifestyle around it.  OK, cartoons and Star Wars.  Maybe I stopped watching them for a while when I began working in animation, because it was just too much, but I came back.  I still watch the "Avengers" cartoons and "Star Wars: Rebels" but not the lesser Marvel toons, and I stayed away from all the Batman cartoon series for some reason.  Maybe I can atone for that a little bit this week by watching the feature-length Bat-Toons.  

Anyway, Batman doesn't really care for Superman in this film either, but not for the same reasons as in last night's film.  Superman here is played like a dumb do-gooder, and Batman keeps begrudging the fact that he needs Superman's help.  But after teaming up (along with the rest of the Justice League) to take down Joker and Luthor, they seem to be friends.  Just not, you know, super friends.  

The highlight is probably the two heroes using a tactic to defeat Joker and Luthor that I've never seen them do before - probably because it wouldn't be possible in the real world, or even in the comic-book world.  Only in the Lego world could the two heroes pull a switcheroo like this, so the Kryptonite wouldn't affect Superman, and the big, heavy object falling on Batman wouldn't kill him.  Clever.

Starring the voices of Clancy Brown (last seen in "Pet Sematary II"), Troy Baker, Travis Willingham, Charlie Schlatter, Christopher Corey Smith, Laura Bailey, Steve Blum, Townsend Coleman, Rob Paulsen, Brian Bloom (last seen in "The A-Team"), Cam Clarke, Katherine Von Till.

RATING: 4 out of 10 explosive pies