Batman: Dead End

I had been hearing about his film making the rounds at comic book conventions across the country. It has now been posted on ifilm.com, so I decided to take a peek. And damned if it isn't as good as I've been hearing. It's plain to see that the movie's director, Sandy Collora, is greatly influenced by the artwork of the legendary Alex Ross. This is evident in his use of minimal light, especially at the beginning as he shows Batman (Clark Bartram) putting on his costume. Bartram just might be as close to being perfectly cast as any of the big-screen Batmen. The eight-minute film centers around another escape from Arkham Asylum by the Joker (Andrew Koenig, looking very frightening). Batman catches up with our favorite homicidal maniac in an alley. A brief fight ensues and the two adversaries each give the old "You made me what I am" speech to each other (just like in the first film) before Joker is snatched away. All I'll reveal is that two creatures from a rival studio make appearances, both have appeared in the DC Comics universe before. But it's quite a shock to see them here, especially the first creature to show up. With this minimal budget, Collora (who works primarily as a special effects man) shows that a humongous budget isn't totally necessary to make a captivating film. From this effort, here's hoping that Collora can get more work behind the camera. No matter what the budget.

It's about time someone tried to do something with Batman, if Warner won't. It combines three movies I think fans would love to see, though because of this it suffers from lack of time. Very cool idea, it leaves a lot up to the imagination as to how it began or how it ends, or what happens to certain other villians. I thought the villians costumes looked amazing, I assume someone broke into the Fox props department for those. This was short, but darker than even Burton's first Batman movie, though this one relies a little heavy on his script, at least at first. The directing was great, too, there were several well composed shots, which says a lot about an 8 minute film. I loved the fact that Bats was in his classic black and grey costume, which was made of cloth and not rubber. If you have the disk space and the time to DL this, you won't be disappointed.

Perhaps Joel Schumacher would be willing to take pointers from Sandy Collora on film direction, but I doubt his ego would permit him to even consider it. This 8 minute masterpiece is how the 3rd and 4th "Batman" films should have looked, and more importantly, FELT, had someone with a sense of what the character was all about were in charge. Unfortunately, we were saddled with Mr. Schumacher who is under the impression that silly comic relief; ridiculous gadgets and unnecessary explosions make for a good film. It is my sincerest hope that the powers that be in Hollywood take notice of this little gem and allow Sandy Collora a chance to direct the 5th Batman film before it too is ruined before it even hits the screens.

This is apparently a short piece of fan fiction--not a piece authorized or made by DC Comics. Despite this and a budget of $30,000 (a huge amount for a fan film--a tiny drop in the hat for a professional-looking film), it is very professional in style and is quite watchable to those who are not fans of the caped crusader (I sure am not a big fan, but I liked it).

The film begins with Batman having a showdown with The Joker--who is very, very well portrayed by Andrew Koenig. He is nothing like the Jack Nicholson version--more like a demonic comic book version. However, one this crook is dispatched, some MAJOR surprises are in store for Batman--ones that I don't want to divulge as it would spoil the suspense.

The bottom line is this is a terrific film--well worth a peek and only taking about six minutes out of your otherwise hectic lives.

Hearing constant kudos and praise for this short fan film, my interest was piqued. Just being a fan film that one of the few that is NOT about Star Wars is enough to recommend it. Seeing Batman take on an alien as well as Predators is fun in an ultra geeky way and for the money spent, it IS quite a nice looking and polished film. On a whole, I did enjoy it. The one thing that didn't work for me in the least was the casting of Boner from "Growing Pains" as the Joker. Listen, the guy has had NO work since that show for a reason. He just can not act and brings the short to a grinding halt almost before it truly begins. But as I said, it's a huge nerdy Geekgasm after the Joker is out of the picture.

My Grade: B