First Disconcerting Video of Batman Live
Yesterday you saw the pics of the costumes from the U.K. stage-show based on the Dark Knight; now it’s time for some video. It’s… erg. Look, if you were hoping it would be as awesome as Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is fucked, you will be disappointed (mostly because nothing on this Earth could be as fucked as Turn Off the Dark at this point). Just watch the video and then we’ll get through it together.
Okay. First of all — let’s not delude ourselves and pretend this is a Batman production for us bitter, jaded fanboys. It’s for kids first and foremost, and by that standard, it looks pretty fun. If I were 8 or so, I’d be dying to see this thing. Plus, since Allan Heinberg wrote the script, there’s a decent chance that the story will work more like a B:TAS script, which is to say entertaining for kids and fans alike.
Second of all, you need to understand this is a British report of the Batman Live media day event. It is not that representative of the show. This is a merely a dog-and-pony show to get the media interested and to show why parents should want tot take their kids to it… in terms parents understand. So it’s using some broad strokes. FYI, there are several videos of the media day without the report on YouTube — do not watch them, because they are soul-crushingly horrible.
Third: The costumes are designed garishly for two reasons: to attractive young kids’ attention, and to show up in a dark theater. Do not lose sleep over fact that Harley Quinn’s costume is red and bluish.
Fourth: I will concede that the dude playing the Joker sucks. But I leave open the possibility that he just didn’t give a shit about the media day, and might be better in the actual show.
Fifth: Even at its worst, even if that row of fireworks is the show’s sole special effect, Batman Live is still about a bajillion times better than Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. If only because it does not feature an all-new, utterly worthless Mary Sue character created by the director who sings about shoes and boys.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.