DC/WB Films/Worlds (No Spoilers)

[John Venus]

People also seem to forget that B89 and Returns are very campy themselves. Robin makes things too silly, but Danny DeVito screaming at a bunch of rocket launching penguins and Michelle Pfeiffer putting a bird in her mouth is serious?

Hell, Forever only kicked up the campiness a few notches and it was a cartoon before Dick even showed up on screen!

'66 was camp. '89 & Returns were goth.

It's the difference between a Madonna song and the Siouxsie Soux song (who funnily enough did a song for Batman Returns focusing on BatCat).

[Gaius]

'66 was also good. '89 and Returns were not.

[SiegePerilous02]

'66 was camp. '89 & Returns were goth.

It's the difference between a Madonna song and the Siouxsie Soux song (who funnily enough did a song for Batman Returns focusing on BatCat).

I think they were definitely camp mixed with goth. I can't see a movie in which Catwoman licks herself and not call it camp lol.

'66 was also good. '89 and Returns were not.

Blasphemy, all three were great

[Holt]

Lucy Liu has joined Shazam: Fury of the Gods as a villain.

[I'm a Fish]

I think everybody is getting worked up over a bunch of nothing. We don't know for sure if Matt Reeve's Batman is meant to tie into something greater, we haven't even seen the movie to judge what it might be like and even if it's mean to set up a shared universe, we don't know which characters it's going to reference. We don't even know if the sequels for the movies that do exist in their shared universe (Aquaman, WW, Shazam) are going to cross over if at all either. We should just wait and see until we have more information to go on.

Yeah, it's just no one wants to get disappointed again.

What we DO know is that The Batman is getting a spin-off HBO Max series so I hope that doesn't leave the film with annoying loose ends.

[The Darknight Detective]

People also seem to forget that B89 and Returns are very campy themselves.

I haven't forgotten anything. Of the four films, there is only one that completely soaked in the old television show vibe. The other three are just not on the same level (even Batman Forever), IMO. The Burton films are more weird than campy to me, FWIW, but to each is own.

[The Darknight Detective]

'66 was also good. '89 and Returns were not.

The show was great comedy (even nominated for an Emmy as such), but let's not pretend it was really Batman in the comics (except for a time during the show's run).

[SiegePerilous02]

I haven't forgotten anything. Of the four films, there is only one that completely soaked in the old television show vibe. The other three are just not on the same level (even Batman Forever), IMO. The Burton films are more weird than campy to me, FWIW, but to each is own.

It's definitely THE most campy, no argument there. But some (not you) act like Robin brought the camp into the "serious" early film series, but it was never 100% serious to begin with.

Campy mixes with weird often enough. And Returns is the one that is borrowing actual plots from the 60s show (Penguin taking over the Batmobile, running for mayor) and the visual of the Penguin in his giant rubber ducky boat goes beyond merely goth/weird into full blow ridiculous. In the best way possible, IMO, but still.

There is also Christopher Walken as a vampiric businessman in a ludicrous wig. Nobody is going to not laugh at that, and that's an element of self aware fun the modern Batman movies haven't really displayed.

[Frontier]

Lucy Liu has joined Shazam: Fury of the Gods as a villain.

Probably won't happen, but I think it'd be hilarious if she played Sivana's daughter .

[The Darknight Detective]

It's definitely THE most campy, no argument there. But some (not you) act like Robin brought the camp into the "serious" early film series, but it was never 100% serious to begin with.

Campy mixes with weird often enough. And Returns is the one that is borrowing actual plots from the 60s show (Penguin taking over the Batmobile, running for mayor) and the visual of the Penguin in his giant rubber ducky boat goes beyond merely goth/weird into full blow ridiculous. In the best way possible, IMO, but still.

There is also Christopher Walken as a vampiric businessman in a ludicrous wig. Nobody is going to not laugh at that, and that's an element of self aware fun the modern Batman movies haven't really displayed.

They were immersed in typical Burton weirdness (which Gotham emulated), but they weren't funny films. Unlike Adam West, Keaton and Kilmer played it seriously. Clooney tried to straddle the line, but to no avail. Yes, they were comedic moments, but no Bat shark repellant or Batman telling Robin to put on his safety belt.

[SiegePerilous02]

They were immersed in typical Burton weirdness (which Gotham emulated), but they weren't funny films. Unlike Adam West, Keaton and Kilmer played it seriously. Clooney tried to straddle the line, but to no avail. Yes, they were comedic moments, but no Bat shark repellant or Batman telling Robin to put on his safety belt.

Typical Burton weirdness is still camp though, at least in my opinion, just his own flavor of camp. West was campy, but he was still the relative straight man compared to everyone else, and that's no different than Keaton playing it straight opposite DeVito and Pfeiffer hamming it up.

Yeah, there's no Bat Shark repellent but again...big rubber ducky boat, rocket launching penguins and a big spooky circus train traveling through an empty (?) city to kidnap kids. It's campy, the big difference is that it's not lit up by neon. The entire series was campy, just to varying degrees and it seemed to increase with each subsequent installment. People overlook how silly Returns can be because it also has some darker, twisted stuff in it (often presented in a black comedy way), and it's going to be upstaged in the camp department if the next one has Jim Carrey in it.

[Vakanai]

The Batman '66 campiness of B & R killed its chances at the box office more than anything else, IMO.

Problem is, WB execs probably associate Robin with that campiness inherently now. When a lot of non-DC Comics fan thinks of Robin, their thoughts turn to camp.

[Nite-Wing]

Problem is, WB execs probably associate Robin with that campiness inherently now. When a lot of non-DC Comics fan thinks of Robin, their thoughts turn to camp.

there's a reason the suits at WB have no love for Robin. Hell even over at Marvel they had to age up Bucky to even have him in the MCU and that's about as close a comparison as you can get to the less dark Marvel movies

A kid with no powers running around beating up adults is camp and pretty unrealistic WB is almost hardline when it comes to no presenting Batman in a non campy manner after the Nolan movies. Hell after Joker's success I bet you'll be hard pressed to ever see a lighthearted live action version of Batman anything

Maybe if in the last 20 years we had only got Batman brave and the bold instead of BTAS things would be different

[SiegePerilous02]

Maybe if in the last 20 years we had only got Batman brave and the bold instead of BTAS things would be different

BTAS had Robin in the 18-21 range, and it worked fine. TNBA went onto to have a tiny 12 year old Tim Drake as Robin.

A college aged Robin wouldn't be as difficult to pull off as people make it out to be, especially as they would most likely cast an actor in their mid-late 20s who can pass as a little younger anyway.

[Vakanai]

there's a reason the suits at WB have no love for Robin. Hell even over at Marvel they had to age up Bucky to even have him in the MCU and that's about as close a comparison as you can get to the less dark Marvel movies

A kid with no powers running around beating up adults is camp and pretty unrealistic WB is almost hardline when it comes to no presenting Batman in a non campy manner after the Nolan movies. Hell after Joker's success I bet you'll be hard pressed to ever see a lighthearted live action version of Batman anything

Maybe if in the last 20 years we had only got Batman brave and the bold instead of BTAS things would be different

Disagree - maybe there won't be anything lighthearted Batman related in the live action department, but we'll still get lighthearted animation. I mean there's the pre-school targeted Batwheels coming up.

But yeah, I can't see them using a Robin younger than 16 in any live action adaptation.