The Death of Batman

This movie is horrendous. The actors, although some of them veterans in the biz, were terrible. It is completely unwatchable with the story making zero sense. I watched half of this movie and had to physically walk away from the screen. NOT RECOMMENDED!!! I found this film through a search for Christian Bale, who plays remarkably in Batman Begins and his sister is Mrs Wayne in this horrific movie. Please do not watch this movie, there are now 28 minutes of my life that are forever lost among this movie and I am not happy about that! I would rather watch paint dry than to watch this movie again. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! BATMAN FANS WILL BE ANGRY AFTER WATCHING THIS!

I guess I can see the point this guy was trying to make, but first why did it have to be Batman who ended up making a mistake? Couldn't a cop or DA also make that same mistake? Furthermore, this is a hard sell when it comes to Batman, given his continuity as known by fans. We're talking about a man who saw his parents killed right in front of him as a boy; got hell from all his trainers as he prepared to become Batman; saw a close friend's double personality destroy him; after failing save a girl from drowning, got addicted to a steroid pill for which he had to lock himself in the cave for a month to recover from it(hence the unbelievability of the heroin addiction part); had his second Robin brutally murdered; had another sidekick (Barbara Gordon) paralyzed at the hands of the Joker; saw his other best friend, Gordon, stripped naked, tortured, and tormented with pictures of his daughter, also stripped, just after she had been shot and paralyzed; after going a week with less than a day's sleep rounding up all of Arkhum's inmates after they had escaped, got his back busted by steroid-laced madman; saw his beloved city have its own Black Death from the "Clench" virus, then further carnage when it got leveled by a near 9 point earthquake.

With all that, why would Batman give in after finding out he unintentionally sent an innocent man to the slammer, then sent into a heroin trip, and raped? The man's been carrying guilt over his parents, Harvey Dent, Jason Todd, Barbara, Gordon, and recently his former mechanic Harold. What would be so special about this thief that he would take his own life, believing his crusade was in vain? If you want to do one better than Alan Moore (Watchmen) in debunking the whole concept of a hero, this ain't how you do it.

This short film is far removed from the campness of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin. The film is meant to be a sort of conclusion to Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns. It questions heroics and what happens if the heroes get it wrong. In this case, very wrong. The performance of Christopher Stapleton as Batman can't be faulted, it really seems like it could be Michael Keaton himself under the mask. And Trip Hope has the near impossible feat of convincing the audience that he is almost in the right to be capturing Batman. Murky and very morally dubious, this film is best suited to open-minded fan of the film who aren't put off by a title which pretty much sums up the end of the film. Though fans of Burton's film will most probably delight in an even more depressing and dark incarnation of the Bat.

The first line of dialogue in this indie short is Batman saying "Not a good idea" and that accurately sums up the whole project. The original concept, writing and approach to the character in 'The Death of Batman' are not good ideas and, in fact, the entire short is a extremely bad idea. This short has nothing to do with the other fan-based indie shorts, 'Batman: Dead End,' 'World's Finest,' and 'Grayson,' which are essentially mock-up trailers for films that fans would like to see developed and are intended for presentation at comic conventions. Whereas those three shorts are created out of a spirit of fanboy reverence and earnest enthusiasm for superhero movies, 'The Death of Batman' feels like it was made by a person expressing severe angst toward the concept of the superhero. I hesitate to use the word disturbing to describe this short because that word suggests an emotional impact that a skilled filmmaker could achieve, in the way a horror movie or an art film can be both disturbing and rewarding. 'The Death of Batman' is disturbing without being rewarding in the slightest. I think I understand what the director had intended; Batman as a Christ-figure (the short's last image is a stained-glass image of Jesus). So the less-than brilliant rationale for this indie short appears to be that for the Dark Knight to work, cinematically, as a Christ-figure he must be brutally tortured and die. The director seems focused on every type of taboo that could never make it into a studio superhero movie, such as having the hero tortured, sexually assaulted and then pointlessly killed with a heroin overdose. Personally I like a darker Gotham than most and I have imagined what an R-rated Batman movie might be like, however 'The Death of Batman' is unrewarding even in simply seeing it as a for-adults superhero story because all of its extremeness and shock value is all it has to offer. This short is nothing more than somebody's perverse imagining of Batman's death with no redeeming character insight and a failed Christ comparison. This is not a funny short, as others on this sit have suggested - it is not amusing or entertaining or even thought-provoking.

If you are someone who cares about the character of Batman, this short is only an upsetting and angering experience– Do yourself a favor, DO NOT WATCH THIS SHORT. I don't mean that as in a trekkie telling you not to watch 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' because it fails to meet certain expectations or do not watch 'Batman & Robin' because it's a waste of time, I mean that if you watch this short could ruin Batman for you. I wish I had never seen it.

This has got to be the most rediculous and STUPID Batman story ever. I came away from this "film" angry and disturbed, no doubt, the emotions hoped for by this poor excuse for a writer/director. It is obvious the writer/director has an enormous homosexual Batman fetish, or something. If you want to make a homo-erotic, superhero film, make up your own character, do not defile a decent character loved by so many. Batman is a symbol of strength, justice and integrity. It's a good thing Bob Kane is not alive to see what has been done with his beloved creation. Every copy of this "film" should be burned and buried. However, the actor playing Batman was very talented...too bad it could not have been done with a little more taste. Nice try...but ass-raping Batman...that's really sick!!!!