I’d trade every Batman film, including Heath Ledger’s fine turn as the Joker in an otherwise balls fillum, for a mere ten seconds of this on the silver screen.

Intentional camp is a really difficult thing to do, and it usually fails miserably.

Absolutely. See the tedious & unfunny Mars Attacks for details.

This is true of “spoofs” in general I suppose. Airplane both initiated the contemporary spoof wave and set the bar pretty damn high.

Very few attempts have been as successful (or anywhere near as hilarious). I still can’t watch Airport ’77 (for example) without pissing myself. If that’s not the sign of a nailed-on spoof I don’t know what is.

I think the main reason they work is because of Adam West’s commendably straight-faced performance, which offsets the absurdity all around him beautifully.

Po-faced Bat-fan pseuds would have you believe that West was simply acting as well as he knew how and that any hilarity caused by his straight-facedness was unintentional.

This, of course, is complete bollocks and part & parcel of a view that sees “old stuff” as inherently charming & naive (those qualities being its only values).

I still feel that Schumacher was trying to recapture the feeling of the sixties show rather the Tim Burton gothic vibe, but he failed miserably, and there’s few things more intolerable than self-conscious kitsch.

You really nailed the main failing of Batman & Robin. Intentional camp is a really difficult thing to do, and it usually fails miserably. In fact, the 60s Batman show and film are rare examples of it actually working, and I think the main reason they work is because of Adam West’s commendably straight-faced performance, which offsets the absurdity all around him beautifully. If West were encouraged to ham it up like the guest villains, the whole enterprise would probably have been a bit too too arch to actually amuse.

Schumacher obviously didn’t get that, what with Clooney breaking the fourth wall to pitch the Bat credit card. There’s also some confusing of ‘silly comic book plot’ with ‘brazenly idiotic plot’ going on, too. Basically, it’s an almost-unwatchable mess, but it’s the kind of mess that’s perversely fascinating, because you can’t believe that it got made and distributed as is. You just don’t see a lot of bad movies like that nowadays.

What the hell is Bat-Mite? Some kind of crime-busting flea in a tiny bat costume, leaving blotchy red bites on evildoers everywhere? Do I want to know?

I leave the explaining to Robin. There’s no way I could say it any better.

I think I prefer your interpretation.

I used to enjoy sticking up for The Phantom Menace (no, seriously) on the basis that while it was undoubtedly pretty awful, it was awful in original and interesting ways.

Most terrible films these days are by-the-numbers, formulaic efforts that merely want to give an audience what it’s perceived to want.

The Phantom Menace, on the other hand, seems almost wilfully perverse. From depictions of the intricacies of trade federations and a galactic senate, to cod philosophy, to Jar Jar Fucking Binks, the whole thing feels like it’s intentionally antagonising, boring and irritating its audience!

I think Batman and Robin was a step in the right direction

Snipping that fragment out is unfair to you I know, but I bet nobody’s ever written those exact words before!

I actually saw Batman Forever & Waterworld one after the other in the cinema back in ’95. The experience almost left me a broken man…

I still find it hard to go into large dark rooms.

Thanks for the Bat-Manga link, Jason. One quick glance and I love it already.

There’s also a new book out called Bat-Manga containing English translations of Japanese Batman comics from the 60s, in which he fights aliens, robots, and dinosaurs. I highly recommend it.

Completely agree with your 2nd point. Doubtful Egg’s link proves that Bats was pretty…bats (and fun) well before the TV series aired.

People who tell you their favourite comic book is Batman because it’s “dark”, aren’t much of a cut above those who claim to love (*shudder*) Oasis because they’re “raw”.

It’s always amusing when contemporary comics fans moan about Adam West not being true to the dark, brooding nature of Batman. In fact, the West show and film are pretty darn accurate reflections of the comics as they were at the time, but with more absurdity. They’re actually much more faithful than what’s coming out now.

The same was pretty much true of the abysmal Superman Returns – a wretched turkey that some broadsheet critics were bizarrely fond of. At least Sam Raimi (for Spidey 1 & 2, if not 3) captured the joy and verve of Marvel without feeling the need to pander or apologise.