Takes itself way too seriously

Rating: 1/10 (20 May 2009)

Indulge me for a second here. Imagine that you're a studio executive, and someone is pitching the movie to you. And here's what he says: "All right. My movie's based on old comic books and is set in a fictional city. In it, there's going to be a rich guy who goes around fighting crime while dressed like a bat because his parents died. And then there's going to be this other guy who, for no given reason, dresses up like a clown, acts creepy, and goes around killing people. The bat dressing person is going to go around trying to defeat him by beating people up with his bare hands. Meanwhile, there's this other guy who's a perfectly nice lawyer, but then his face gets burned, so he decides to kill people based on this random coin that he has." It sounds kind of funny and interesting to you, but just as you're accepting it, the person suddenly coughs under his breath, "Oh yeah. And I'm going to take it seriously like it was Shakespeare and make it so depressing that it actively hurts the audience."
I'm not sure if that's exactly how the meeting proposing this movie went, but it seems to be a reasonable guess. Let's face it. The whole story of this movie is patently ridiculous. It could not be more unrealistic if there were space aliens involved. And yet, it's still treated here as if we should be taking it as a serious parable of modern life, and that it should be used as a way to push really depressing messages across. How does a guy who beats people up while in a bat suit teach us about what kind of justice is realistic and effective? What does a weirdo in a clown suit teach us about the nature of evil? Why would anyone be proud that they kept campiness out of this despite the fact that it is a campy movie? Give me the days of Adam West. At least his show made me happy rather than depressed.