Bat In The Sun productions gives us another excellent addition to its Batman fan film portfolio with Batman Legends, a compilation of clips featuring faithful renditions of several scenes including the creation of the Joker, the death of Jason Todd, and Bane’s breaking of the Batman. Also notable was a shot of the original Bob Kane Batman with the wide ears :)
When Joel Schumacher took over the director’s chair from Tim Burton, the Batman films went through a radical change. The new emphasis on making the next film a mainstream hit pulled the franchise into a downward spiral it never recovered from. The film series ended with 1997′s Batman & Robin, shelving all plans for a fifth film. Besides the stuntcasting and poor dialogue, their most infamous misstep was the addition of nipples and codpieces to the bat suits. All was forgiven after the release of Batman Begins in 2005, which returned the Dark Knight to his gritty roots.
From the deepest depths of the internet comes possibly the most well known Batman fan film ever made. It is classic Batman in every way… until about the 3 minute mark, when it changes direction completely.
At first, I thought this was an artfully done shot of a cosplayer. But it turns out it is part of an art installation by Adrian Tranquilli.
This wonderful fan trailer depicts an alternate future where Dick Grayson, the original Robin, has to come out of retirement to avenge the death of the Batman. They appear to ignore Dick’s time as Nightwing, as well as [his wife!] Barbara’s crippling at the hands of the Joker (although one shot alludes to it). Superman appears to play a minor role as a boy scout blindly following orders, as well as several great appearances by Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman?, Batgirl, Catwoman, the Riddler, Penguin and of course the Joker. If there was one fan trailer I’d want to see made into a full film, this would definitely be it.
Although The Dark Knight is without a doubt, an excellent film, there are some chin scratchers in it. Suspension of disbelief be damned, it’s up to the Batman to point out the flaws in his own movie :)
Batman pitches in with the ubiquitous ‘Got Milk?’ advertising campaign. Surprising, because it’s quite difficult to strike fear into the hearts of criminals with a milk mustache.
This might be the best fan film to date. The Joker escapes from Arkham and Batman interrogates all the usual suspects for information. The Bat in the Sun film crew’s attention to detail and faithfulness to the source material is outstanding. Except for the alternate logo, which I understand the reason for (see the seekers of the bat logo above), I completely buy this take on the Batman universe. I also appreciate the main actor using more of a Kevin Conroy batvoice rather than the much maligned Christian Bale grunt. My one question is was that bartender supposed to be Black Canary? Seems like the sequence was inserted purely to shoot a strip club scene :)