Glad someone finally said it. As much as I love some of the stories, it always makes me cringe a little bit inside to realise I'm reading about a guy with latex horns and underwear who uses contraptions like the 'bat-sub'. Lately, I've just been unconsciously ignoring a lot of the artwork and pretending I'm reading about an ordinary detective.
Plus, the guy is basically insane...parents get gunned down...reaction: "yes father, I will become a bat." O_0
I can handwave the "comic booky" elements without too much trouble, but stepping back and looking at the whole thing, yeah, it's extremely silly. I actually have more trouble with the fact that most everybody in Gotham can't figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Like Clark Kent and Superman, it's so eyeball-searingly obvious, and it undermines the darker versions of Batman.
I find the whole Bat thing pretty silly as well. Not because hes a superhero, but because of what Nolan tried making Batman into. Batman is not a soldier who rides around in a batmobile crashing through buildings, illegally kidnapping foreign diplomats, and tapping thousands.. actually, that last one is Batman... but thats not the point. Batman is a dude who runs around slinging building to building throwing batarangs at people. This dude is just fucking creepy if you think about it. He's like a terrorist whos obsessed with bats.
I like the more serious tone of the Nolan films and from what I've read of the comics that is their general vibe. I've recently finished The Long Halloween, A death in the family and The Killing Joke and they fit that tone, hell The Long Halloween had a foreword by Nolan describing it as partly inspiring the plot for rises. I also enjoy the Burton and west batman although at least as far as I can tell with the West batman that was the tone of the comics at the time.
I can handwave the "comic booky" elements without too much trouble, but stepping back and looking at the whole thing, yeah, it's extremely silly. I actually have more trouble with the fact that most everybody in Gotham can't figure out that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Like Clark Kent and Superman, it's so eyeball-searingly obvious, and it undermines the darker versions of Batman.
I'm with you in that I did not like Batman Begins and I resented the enthusiasm for that movie the summer it came out. The movie didn't do much for me except for Liam Neeson's character, but I attribute that to my appreciation for him as an actor. Batman Begins is the only movie I have seen in the reboot however, so I suppose Dark Knight could change my opinion of these new movies but I haven't been actively hunting it down to find out if I would like it or not.
I don't hate this thread, but it's coming across as kind of hilarious to me. There are other threads that are have crazy options in the polls, so I didn't really think about it much. More of a "Teehee... thats fun," kind of thing. But each time I look at this one, it keeps getting more and more hilarious for me. Where most people see a discussion about whether or not Batman is ridiculous in a realistic setting, I see a guy asking me if he's the only one who has a certain opinion... and whether or not I like bacon. It's friggin' adorable! And it's also not unlike the absurdity of a troll thread for me. But I also can't really get into the whole Batman-discussion thing in general, so that might be part of it. It's also kind of funny that there's this actual debate happening about Batman when the focus of the thread is obviously bacon.
My circles of friends that are into these types of things are pretty zealous about it, and I tend to get a little annoyed when I have to constantly hear about it if they happen to be eating bacon when I'm over at their house. Am I really being unreasonable in this?
Also, seriously, I think the whole bacon phenom is great. I'm not trying to bash on people's interests at all, I just find the notion that I'm supposed to take a snack of cured and salted pork this seriously incredibly funny. I know that I'm most likely the minority within this community that feels this way, but I can't be the only one, right? RIGHT? Hello?
I don't hate this thread, but it's coming across as kind of hilarious to me. There are other threads that are have crazy options in the polls, so I didn't really think about it much. More of a "Teehee... thats fun," kind of thing. But each time I look at this one, it keeps getting more and more hilarious for me. Where most people see a discussion about whether or not Batman is ridiculous in a realistic setting, I see a guy asking me if he's the only one who has a certain opinion... and whether or not I like bacon. It's friggin' adorable! And it's also not unlike the absurdity of a troll thread for me. But I also can't really get into the whole Batman-discussion thing in general, so that might be part of it. It's also kind of funny that there's this actual debate happening about Batman when the focus of the thread is obviously bacon.
My circles of friends that are into these types of things are pretty zealous about it, and I tend to get a little annoyed when I have to constantly hear about it if they happen to be eating bacon when I'm over at their house. Am I really being unreasonable in this?
Also, seriously, I think the whole bacon phenom is great. I'm not trying to bash on people's interests at all, I just find the notion that I'm supposed to take a snack of cured and salted pork this seriously incredibly funny. I know that I'm most likely the minority within this community that feels this way, but I can't be the only one, right? RIGHT? Hello?
Superheroes are ridiculous beings in the same way that professional wrestlers are ridiculous beings. They are the embodiment of emotions, stereotypes, ideas, and ideals. You can't see them as being real or serious. However, when all the pieces of a story fall into place, you can bring yourself to invest your heart and mind in these odd characters and suspend your disbelief on some level. It is why I still love comics and wrestling even though I don't view their content with the same frequency I once did. I am just waiting and hoping for those great stories to come to the forefront.
This is the mens version of the Twilight series, let them enjoy their superhero. I agree that the Batsuit is the one thing that makes no sense in the last 2 movies in the Batman francise, sure the cape is fuctional but the bar ears are just so silly.
batman's great... mainly because of the villains. I will say I don't get the love for the nolan films. I find the action to be kinda sloppy, and after second time watching it's just hard to watch any of those scenes. Though Joker/Ledger saves that movie for me.
Well, Batman was my hero when I was 2-3 and I got way, way too into Batman (the fantastic animated series in 90s certainly facilitated my fandom). Heck, I took up martial arts when I was a kid cause I wanted to be Batman. Plus I am way too deep into comics, so yeah whatever I say about this topic is incredibly biased. And as people have pointed out Batman has been "dark" since the 80s, and yes its a comic book so its freaking silly at its core. So I have completely different viewpoint on Batman than most people, it does bug me how trendy batman has become (more so people declaration of Batman being the greatest) but that's part of the course of having these great Nolan movies and Batman being a great character in itself.
@Seppli said:
I'm into it because of the romance!
Wait... what? Wonder Woman is not in the Dark Knight movies? Don't give two flying fucks for Batman without his superfriends....
Man, A) that just made me miss the Justice League cartoon (Young Justice is really solid but its no JL) B) this just reminded again me that Batman/WW romance has not been resolved since Blackest Night. Luckily Blackest Night did happen in the new 52 revision, so there is chance (but I doubt anyone will touch the subject anytime soon). The new 52 has been great so far, but some of the continuity stuff like the Batman/WW romance and the non present of Cassandra Cain and Donna Troy does bug me. Rather see WW over Catwoman or Talia; but the other two are also great. I apologies in advance if this sounded like a comic book lunatic ranting....... just saying
I can't take Superheroes seriously, but i do enjoy them, and i like the Dark Knight, so there's that. But i still think that Adam West is the best Batman... So i don't know what to vote for, because i don't like bacon that much.
No, I agree with you, but I have that problem with all super heroes/comics. Yeah, it's a hypocritical thought process coming from someone who enjoys games but nothing can be done about it.
I'm in the mindset that batman can be great as both a serious things and as a campy thing. The Adam West stuff is great, batman doesn't have to be an antihero all the time. He can be kind of goofy and heroic with out it bothering me. Everything about Batman his friends and his enemies go well with camp.
But at the same time, it is also good when they go dark like Arkham asylum and it is also good when it is a bit more realistic like the Nolan movies.
I just want Batman to always be the good guy, so not too dark or crazy.
He's not the hero that we need, but the hero that we want to have to... er... Harvey Dent something something... need to want to need to have? How the hell did that gibberish go? Dark Knight was awesome, but that last few minutes lost me.
I retain that the animated version of Batman and the Joker from the awesome tv cartoon series and the newest video games are the best Batman things ever... I will fight to defend that opinion!
I completely agree with the OP, Batman is an inherently silly concept and it should be treated as such. The Adam West movie was my favorite one, certainly the most re-watchable of them for me. The Tim Burton ones also had the right mix going on, but the Nolan movies are too serious. It's odd cause I like his other movies.
I completely agree with the OP, Batman is an inherently silly concept and it should be treated as such. The Adam West movie was my favorite one, certainly the most re-watchable of them for me. The Tim Burton ones also had the right mix going on, but the Nolan movies are too serious. It's odd cause I like his other movies.
It's funny, I was just thinking about this today.
It would be really hard for me to disagree with anyone anymore then I disagree with you on this topic. Holy shit.
I retain that the animated version of Batman and the Joker from the awesome tv cartoon series and the newest video games are the best Batman things ever... I will fight to defend that opinion!
Indeed, the cartoon was gritty and dark without trying so hard. By which I mean, they don't have to justify a Batmobile by making it a realistic tank. It's a crazy fucking car. And Batman has some all knowing computer and a giant penny in the batcave, not some classic actor playing Alfred.
But anyone that liked and enjoyed Mask of the Phantasm has to know how well done that series was. It was a bat man and some death angel thing, but the mob murders and the lost love stuff turned it into something extraordinary. Maybe it's just how self serious Christopher Nolan's work always is that turns me away from these movies. While the cartoon acknowledged its silliness (see Poison Ivy's plant people) but still managed to tell damn good stories.
I completely agree with the OP, Batman is an inherently silly concept and it should be treated as such. The Adam West movie was my favorite one, certainly the most re-watchable of them for me. The Tim Burton ones also had the right mix going on, but the Nolan movies are too serious. It's odd cause I like his other movies.
It's funny, I was just thinking about this today.
Yeah... I completely disagree... Most Batman fans will tell that the Adam West era of Batman is when he sucked. I would say Batman became the gritty, dark, we (most) all know and love after Frank Miller's, The Dark Knight Returns. That is by leaps and bounds my favorite Batman thing of all time. That book just does an amazing job of giving Batman his balls back after years of that Adam West crap. It does an amazing job of humanizing Bats. Seeing old Bruce Wayne reflecting on his time as Batman, reluctantly putting on the suit, and being the GODDAMN Batman just tingles my spine to think about it. If you anyone has a problem with the more serious Batman stories/movies, I beg you. Please go read The Dark Knight Returns. If you don't like that,you never will like "serious" Batman.
Are we talking about his voice, 'cause then you're not alone. For me personally though, I love it. I mean, I saw both films in theater and even laughed at the times when he spoke "Where are they!" and what have you, but I kind of got over that. I think Christian Bale's Batman is the most bad-ass of them all, so no, I don't find it ridiculous. Also, I hate saying the overused word, bad-ass. I think I would have kind of agree'd back around 2005 to 2008, and maybe even a little after The Dark Knight, but not anymore.
I guess you have to look at it differently. Also, while I understand the whole gravely voice thing, but don't agree about it anymore since I think Bale's the only one to pull off the intimidating Batman, seeing some comments of it on YouTube is pretty funny. Like the end scene from the Dark Knight, when he says "You'll be in a padded cell forever." I love the scene where the Joker interrupts the party, and then he say's "A little fight in you, I like that." Then Batman comes in and says "Then you're gonna love me." and then the music comes in. I just kind of thought that was cool.
I enjoyed watching the Batman cartoons on FOX kids and the WB and I also really liked Batman Beyond. They were cartoons so it was fine that Batman wouldn't kill the bad guys, but I can't stand that kind of stuff in the movie. It simply doesn't make sense to have a moral code that doesn't let you pick up a gun and blow the heads off every criminal in Arkham, but it's okay for them to continually escape and kill innocents.
Can someone explain how the Batman moral code makes any kind of sense? I understand not wanting to kill off your characters to continue the comics, but that doesn't really seem to be an issue since they keep restarting the story.
I completely agree with the OP, Batman is an inherently silly concept and it should be treated as such. The Adam West movie was my favorite one, certainly the most re-watchable of them for me. The Tim Burton ones also had the right mix going on, but the Nolan movies are too serious. It's odd cause I like his other movies.
It's funny, I was just thinking about this today.
Yeah... I completely disagree... Most Batman fans will tell that the Adam West era of Batman is when he sucked. I would say Batman became the gritty, dark, we (most) all know and love after Frank Miller's, The Dark Knight Returns. That is by leaps and bounds my favorite Batman thing of all time. That book just does an amazing job of giving Batman his balls back after years of that Adam West crap. It does an amazing job of humanizing Bats. Seeing old Bruce Wayne reflecting on his time as Batman, reluctantly putting on the suit, and being the GODDAMN Batman just tingles my spine to think about it. If you anyone has a problem with the more serious Batman stories/movies, I beg you. Please go read The Dark Knight Returns. If you don't like that,you never will like "serious" Batman.
I've already read that, actually. It was pretty good, the tone just doesn't really click with me. I'd have enjoyed it more if it were just a story about a high tech billionaire detective, but it has all this silly baggage from the 30s and 40s that it just can't shake.
I retain that the animated version of Batman and the Joker from the awesome tv cartoon series and the newest video games are the best Batman things ever... I will fight to defend that opinion!
just sounds like your over thinking it. its just a bit of fun really. it's not like religion which is really fucking silly and people still take seriously.
Yeah, I'm absolutely in the camp of people who think that Batman is really dumb. I have almost zero comic book hero nostalgia, as the comics of my youth were British comedic ones (Beano FTW), and the only superhero cartoon I liked was Teen Titans. And so when people starting raving about the gritty and intense direction of Nolan's Batman films, and when people started singing the praises of the visceral experience of the Arkham Asylum games, I was just left on the sideline saying "guys, seriously?". Comics are cool now, thanks to the success of Nolan's Batman films and the recent success of the Avengers, and the ever increasing behemoth of Comic-Con exemplifies this ascendency, but it is one of the so called "nerdy" past-times that simply doesn't click with me.
Yeah, I'm absolutely in the camp of people who think that Batman is really dumb. I have almost zero comic book hero nostalgia, as the comics of my youth were British comedic ones (Beano FTW), and the only superhero cartoon I liked was Teen Titans. And so when people starting raving about the gritty and intense direction of Nolan's Batman films, and when people started singing the praises of the visceral experience of the Arkham Asylum games, I was just left on the sideline saying "guys, seriously?". Comics are cool now, thanks to the success of Nolan's Batman films and the recent success of the Avengers, and the ever increasing behemoth of Comic-Con exemplifies this ascendency, but it is one of the so called "nerdy" past-times that simply doesn't click with me.
That's fine. There is plenty of room for folks who like awesome things like mature comic book stories, and for folks who are wrong about everything ever.
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