Five thoughts after watching the first two episodes of The Batman
1) So, maybe it's the Paul Ballard in me seeing dolls everywhere, but Bruce looks an awful lot like Enver Gjokaj. On a related note, I totally need to rewatch "Custody Law and Eastern European Diplomacy" now, don't I?
2) I had only planned to watch one episode, but Joker kind of creeped the ever loving frak out of me (don't follow that link if you want to sleep in the next decade or so). Thankfully, Bane was there in the second-episode-pinch to bore me most of the way to sleep. This is me continuing to straight-up not understand the appeal of characters like Bane or Doomsday or Blob or Juggernaut. Oh boy, he hits things really hard NEXT VILLAIN PLEASE. Also, Batbot? Please. Batman does not need mechas to be awesome. Joker, though... Jeeze, that's effective animation and voice acting...
3) Michael Bell! I met him! And Ming Na! Whose character is infelicitously dressed exactly like Elisa Maza, as though I wasn't already going to think of her as an inferior version of Elisa just from her role in the story! Oh, look, I typed "Elisa Maza" into a search engine to start pulling up pictures to illustrate what I mean, and the first page of results linked to a forum where someone has already done a side-by-side comparison for me!
4) Yeah, somehow giving Bruce a buddy to shoot hoops with feels totally antithetical to the Batman story. Not that part of me isn't happy he has friends in at least one incarnation, just...can anyone actually imagine Bruce Wayne "shooting hoops"? Like, playing basketball, not using some new-fangled non-lethal not-quite-gun device that fires circular bands of wire or something. The Bruce/Alfred dynamic they've set up is going to get really old really fast, too, I suspect.
5) All the above criticism notwithstanding, I will hold a special place in my heart for this show simply for the bat animations. I LOVE THE BATS. GIVE ME MORE BATS PLEASE.
2) I had only planned to watch one episode, but Joker kind of creeped the ever loving frak out of me (don't follow that link if you want to sleep in the next decade or so). Thankfully, Bane was there in the second-episode-pinch to bore me most of the way to sleep. This is me continuing to straight-up not understand the appeal of characters like Bane or Doomsday or Blob or Juggernaut. Oh boy, he hits things really hard NEXT VILLAIN PLEASE. Also, Batbot? Please. Batman does not need mechas to be awesome. Joker, though... Jeeze, that's effective animation and voice acting...
3) Michael Bell! I met him! And Ming Na! Whose character is infelicitously dressed exactly like Elisa Maza, as though I wasn't already going to think of her as an inferior version of Elisa just from her role in the story! Oh, look, I typed "Elisa Maza" into a search engine to start pulling up pictures to illustrate what I mean, and the first page of results linked to a forum where someone has already done a side-by-side comparison for me!
4) Yeah, somehow giving Bruce a buddy to shoot hoops with feels totally antithetical to the Batman story. Not that part of me isn't happy he has friends in at least one incarnation, just...can anyone actually imagine Bruce Wayne "shooting hoops"? Like, playing basketball, not using some new-fangled non-lethal not-quite-gun device that fires circular bands of wire or something. The Bruce/Alfred dynamic they've set up is going to get really old really fast, too, I suspect.
5) All the above criticism notwithstanding, I will hold a special place in my heart for this show simply for the bat animations. I LOVE THE BATS. GIVE ME MORE BATS PLEASE.