Batman: Dead End

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.

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.

Clocking in at only eight minutes this fan film of Batman has more imagination than any previous version of the Dark Knight I've ever seen.

I would have like the film to have been a few minutes longer though. So they could have developed the story more and had less of a cliffhanger ending. The actor they cast as Batman is also, physically, the most believable Batman yet. Michael Keaton was never quite right as Batman and Adam West was just too campy as the Dark Knight.

Some people won't like the crossover of other famous movie characters appearing in the film, but I thought it was fun. The dialogue, what little there is, is a bit hokey, and could have been improved though.

I'd love to see a feature length version of this film! Maybe Ben Affleck and Matt Damon at Project Greenlight should get the filmmakers of Dead End a million dollars in financing so they can add another eighty-two minutes of footage to the story! And viola! We have a Batman: Dead End feature! Filmmaker and fanboy Kevin Smith loved this film so maybe Kev can get financing!

And if you read movie internet message boards a lot of hacks and wannabe filmmakers are ripping this film to pieces. I think they're just jealous cos they didn't have the balls or creativity to make their own Batman fan film.

A good job! Imperfect, but still good!

I've known of this little Batman short for sometime now, but I didn't know how I would be able to see it. Well it finally hits me and I decide to hit up YouTube to check if they have it. Obviously they do, so I plopped myself down, got myself a Mountain Dew and watched an awesome 8 minute Batman short.

Here's how it goes. Joker escapes from Arkham and Batman finds him in an alley. They do their usual "We both have problems" routine which was pretty well done since they do this all the time in the comics. Anyways after a little laughing and shoving, out of nowhere an Alien shows up. And as you Alien fans know, if there's an Alien around a Predator shouldn't be very far either. Since Predators hunt Aliens as a sport....if you didn't know. Anyways, what follows is sweet little piece of film-making with fantastic direction and cinematography. You can nit-pick till the cows come home about this or that, but when it comes down to it, this is one coolass short. My only problem was the Joker...the guy playing him looked the part, but did not sound the part. Sounded a little too "nerdy". Instead of sounding hysterically evil, he sounded hysterically nerdy. No biggie though.

Just like Lobo's Paramilitary Christmas Special, this is another must see short that every comic-book fan should check out. 8.5 outta 10

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