Marvel's Ant-Man marches on Wright-less

It’s been a month and I’m still getting used to the idea of an Ant-Man movie not directed by Edgar Wright.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is one of my favorite comic book movies of all time. I remember liking it after having seen it in theaters, but it wasn’t until my second viewing that I really loved it. It was funny. Scratch that – it was HILARIOUS. And mixed in with the comedy and fantastic characters was eye popping visuals and solid action. It inspired me to seek out the source material and devour the comics, which were awesome in their own right. I owe this to Edgar Wright. I was already a fan of the man’s work from his take on zombies in Shaun of the Dead to his spoof on action movies with Hot Fuzz. Scott Pilgrim was the movie that took it up a notch and converted me to a super fan.

But back to Ant-Man. I was mildly interested in Ant-Man prior to that when I knew he was developing it. It seemed to be on Wright and Marvel’s slate for a very long time but it had quickly become my most anticipated Marvel movie in the pipeline from that point on. I couldn’t wait to see what Wright would do with another comic book property and I know I wasn’t alone. The man clearly has an understanding of the genre and would make his fellow geeks proud. Sure, it was a long gestating project but it would be worth the wait!

After years of radio silence we finally get some test footage towards the end of 2013 to keep the fanboys at bay and ensure us that the project was moving forward, which was met with plenty of enthusiasm. Wright indicated that the test footage was a pretty good indicator of what he would bring to Ant-Man, which would feel like a Marvel comic but with his distinct stamp on it. 2015 couldn’t get here soon enough.

After the camera test sequence whet our appetites, then we FINALLY we get our first casting rumors. It was between Paul Rudd and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, either one of which I would have been ok with as they are great at what they do and are both deserving of headlining their own superhero franchise.

So then it was made official that Ant-Man has a star in Paul Rudd, which amazingly was also met with a fickle fan community’s approval. Everything seemed to be moving along at a good pace now and Ant Man would finally make the leap from print to celluloid!

And then this happened…

Edgar Wright Exits Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man’ as Director

Did Wright take too long? Was he too distracted working on other projects and let Ant-Man slip through his fingers? What the hell happened??

This is nothing new in Hollywood. Deals fall through every day. This isn’t even new to Marvel Studios as previously, the original director of Thor 2, Patty Jenkins (Monster), dropped out over, you guessed it, “creative differences.” I think the person most upset by this shift was star Natalie Portman. But Wright was a much more high profile and unexpected director shuffle as he had been attached to Ant-Man since 2006!

Marvel has had some inspired choices for each project. For every safe bet (Joe Johnston for Captain America) there was an out of left field pick (Joe and Anthony Russo for Captain America: The Winter Soldier). James Gunn, director of this summer's Guardians of the Galaxy (another gamble) was one of the latest oddball choices as he’s never taken on a project of such magnitude but everyone has to graduate to the big leagues eventually. At the very least his previous movies make sense for him to be tapped by Marvel (not to mention his association with Joss Whedon couldn’t hurt). Speaking of, the one hiring that was met with a resounding YES from fanboys heard round the internet was Joss Whedon spearheading The Avengers (sorry, Marvel’s The Avengers). I was totally on board with this development 1) because although I already knew he was a skilled writer, I very much enjoyed his previous directorial effort, Serenity, the feature film that spun out of the short-lived Firefly series, and 2) Whedon clearly knows the Marvel universe. After reading his comics run on X-Men, it was obvious that this wasn’t just some filmmaker who had a passing interest in comics and wanted to take a stab at fulfilling a childhood dream. This guy, who just happened to be one of the biggest names in television, could write comics just as good as the pros. And then The Avengers goes on to make over $1.5 billion worldwide. Of course it didn’t hurt that he had the benefit of a handful of mega hits as lead-ins to his ultimate crossover movie. You have to wonder if Warner Bros is still kicking themselves for passing on Whedon’s Wonder Woman pitch, the man who not only redefined the contemporary kickass heroine in Buffy, but now major superhero franchises as we know them.

Whedon even paid tribute to his fallen filmmaker with this photo in reference to Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy of films:

A somewhat bold public show of solidarity in that you’d think Whedon would show allegiance with the home team over Wright, but I suppose that goes to show how secure he is in his standing with Marvel Studios. Your movie raking in over $1 billion will do that. Whedon has quite a bit of clout over Wright because he has the dollar signs to back him up. Had Scott Pilgrim performed, perhaps Wright would have been given equal creative license and Marvel would have left him to his offbeat devices.

Whedon’s pic was in response to this, the only public explanation Wright offered after the news came out.

He tweeted a forlorn image of Buster Keaton holding a Cornetto cone dubbing it “selfie”. Keaton famously regretted giving up his own studio to make movies with MGM, claiming it was the “worst mistake of my career.” He was never again given the freedom to make movies the way he wanted to.

The message Wright was sending was clear.

Here’s what it comes down to: creative freedom. Marvel hires creative people to do just that. Create!

So does that mean with less success comes less creative license? Was Marvel worried that Wright’s quirky charm wouldn’t connect with the masses and figured they’d better rein him in? When Wright was asked if Ant-Man would be a test of how far the Marvel brand could be stretched he replied that Marvel has had his treatment for years so the idea has never really wavered. But a lot can change in a year or eight.

The World’s End made $26 million domestically on a $20 million budget. A dismal failure by Marvel standards. Was this poor performance a factor in giving Marvel cold feet? Even Scott Pilgim, which was received warmly at Comic Con, bombed at the box office.  Perhaps in Marvel’s eyes, two duds in a row didn’t instill very much confidence in them that Wright’s fan base would come through for a lesser-known superhero, even with the added boost of it being under the Marvel banner. And that’s really what it comes down to, the return on investment. It didn’t matter that Scott Pilgrim has since developed a cult following. Marvel couldn’t risk their untested property to a guy with two strikes but they couldn’t outright drop him from a project that he’d been developing for the better part of a decade, so what do they do? Force his vision to match theirs and possibly tie it in to the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe that has flourished since Wright signed on to the project. A lot has changed since 2006 with eight Marvel features being released so far to mega bucks in that time so perhaps Wright with his obscure superhero (by mainstream standards) seemed like a bigger gamble than it had originally. Ant-Man was after all a founding member of The Avengers (now the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time). Perhaps what was missing from Ant-Man was more references to the movie everyone saw, or perhaps a cameo from Sam Jackson, or maybe even Captain America to tie in with his third entry or a female companion like Wasp since the Cap and Black Widow pairing tested so well in The Winter Soldier. It could have been any number of studio notes since now Marvel had a recipe for success and they knew what needed to happen with Ant-Man to eclipse the previous hits they had achieved, because if Ant-Man turned out to be another Scott Pilgrim… it could spell the beginning of the end for the Age of Super Hero movies as we know it.

Jon Favreau had similar difficulties with Iron Man 2. The original set the tone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe going forward and with the sequel, he was pushed into shoehorning in Fury and Widow until it just felt like a precursor for The Avengers more than a follow up to Iron Man. Perhaps this is why we didn’t get a Favreau directed Iron Man 3 and he pulled a Sam Raimi after only two go-rounds. Thankfully Iron Man 3 didn’t sink to the depths of Spider-Man 3 or X-Men 3 for that matter and helped redeem the franchise (although some fans were just as split on this one as they were the second). Recently, Favreau offered his two cents on the Ant-Man situation, claiming that Wright had “been used to a situation where he can have tremendous creative say around his story and casting, and Marvel has built an entire franchise around their style of telling stories. I know both parties well, and I respect his decision to see that he wasn’t going to be fulfilled in the process.” Recently Favreau returned to his roots directing a smaller pet project. Was he also burned by the studio system and needed a breather? Time will tell if Favreau will return to direct another Marvel movie.

Is this just the beginning of a creative rift forming between visionary directors and Marvel Studios? DC Comics faced a similar issue with its creators a couple years back when writers and artists were dropping off one after another because of what was seen as too much editorial input and not letting creators follow through on plots they had arced out months in advance. Now it seems as if this mentally is spilling over into the movie machine as a LOT more money is on the line than the nickel and dime business of comics.

Oddly enough, both Wright and his co-writer Joe Cornish are still, as of this post, listed as writers on Ant-Man, with Wright still credited as co-producer according to IMDB. Not that IMDB is the most reliable source of up-to-date info but that would suggest at this point that their contributions haven’t been entirely scrapped and we’ll still see their fingerprints on the final product.

The scenario brings to mind another case of swapping out directors last minute on a superhero property when Bryan Singer jumped ship from X-Men 3 to helm Superman Returns and Brett Ratner was the hired gun brought in to keep the production on schedule. Well, we all know how well that turned out. I’m afraid Ant-Man may suffer the same fate seeing as Marvel Studios is too headstrong to admit that on an Edgar Wright film, Wright is irreplaceable and Ant-Man will happen with or without him. Notice how I called it an Edgar Wright film and not a Marvel movie? Make no mistake, whatever Wright had cooking, was going to be his movie that just so happened to take place in the MCU.

And that brings us to the replacement. Who would be ballsy enough to step into Wright’s shoes and attempt to finish what he started? Several names were thrown around as being potential candidates to pick up the pieces from the departed Wright, and a few even passed on the chance to bring Ant-Man to life. Rawson Marshall Thurber (of The Millers and Dodgeball) reportedly turned it down followed by Adam McKay (of every other Will Ferrell movie). I’m not a big fan of McKay’s but with at least one action/comedy to his name with The Other Guys, I will say he made much more sense than who ended up with the gig.

Admittedly, when Peyton Reed was announced as Wright’s fill-in, I had to look him up. I saw a few tweets refer to him as The Break-Up director and that didn’t exactly fill me with enthusiasm. Reed’s credits also include Yes Man (which wanted so badly to be Liar, Liar), Down with Love, and Bring It On (well at least it’s the original). There’s nothing here to hate, but for me, there’s nothing to love either. They are perfectly safe, albeit generic, romantic comedies with at least two big name stars attached to each. Far more interesting are his television credits which include Upright Citizens Brigade, Mr. Show and The Weird Al Show. Clearly the guy has some offbeat, sketch comedy roots which will serve him with the comedic aspects of the movie, but what about his resume says he’s got a good superhero movie in him (although it could be argued the same could be said for Favreau at the time)?

Based on the guys that Marvel hit up, it seems to me that the essential pre-requisite to directing Ant-Man was having previously directed Vince Vaughn with Jennifer Aniston as a bonus. I guess Favreau set the precedent with that formula so Wright truly never had a chance. As it turns out, McKay will have a hand in re-writing the script for what that's worth.

Prior to this announcement, I was debating with an old friend over who would be the logical choice to step in and save this movie from Marvel. I mentioned the Russo brothers would be a good pick if they weren’t already signed on for Cap 3. He said the logical choice was clearly to bring back Edgar Wright (wishful thinking Sean!). It hit me later that night another directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller of 21 Jump St. and The Lego Movie would be a great fit. We both agreed they’d be perfect.

And then two days later this hit… Phil Lord and Chris Miller Won’t Direct Marvel’s Ant-Man. Not only did they say they wouldn’t do it (Wright is a pal of theirs) but they agreed that the logical choice would be for Wright to direct an Edgar Wright movie (well yeah, Sean could have told you that). They even went as far as to say that Marvel should scrap the movie altogether. Whether or not you agree with them, it’s clear whose side they’re on and that they won’t let a paycheck sway their creative integrity or come between friendships. And these guys call themselves Hollywood directors? My respect for them just went way up. It was the day after this when Reed was announced and the guessing game was put to rest. It was fun while it lasted.

The saddest thing about the situation is that going back and watching interviews with Wright, you could tell he truly has a love for the character, referencing John Byrne’s run as an influence. Wright also mentions in one interview that he had to put Ant-Man on the backburner in order to make The World’s End, and that Marvel was cool with that, telling Wright they’d see him in a couple years. He had a completed script and was meant to begin shooting it at the end of May, (around the time it was announced that he had left the project) so it remains to be seen if the release date will be pushed back from July 17, 2015 to accommodate Reed, or if he’s able to crank it out per Marvel’s guidelines. It’s Disney, so most likely the latter. They’re not exactly delaying Star Wars VII over Harrison Ford’s broken foot. It seemed as if the egos involved were more interested in getting someone in the director’s chair pronto who had a comedy background and was available to start yesterday.

Here’s some more food for thought – Marvel likes their leading mean cheap. Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans weren’t exactly household names pre-Avengers and they got locked into multiple picture deals early on, to get the most out of them before the movies even began to rake in the dough. At the time of Rudd’s casting, it was reported that the actor took on the role at less than his usual asking price for the opportunity to work with Wright (understandable). A lot of actors will choose roles based on the director and this was no different, meaning Wright’s involvement attracted talent which is all it amounted to. I’m wondering how Rudd must be feeling about his missed opportunity. If it weren’t for Wright, who would be starring in this thing anyway?

We shouldn’t have to worry too much about Wright. There are plenty of other projects in his future and Marvel Studios isn’t the only game in town. He’ll get work again. And I’ll be there to check out what he’s got in store. Perhaps WB will scoop him up to take on Shazam, in an attempt to make up for losing Whedon all those years ago. Crazier things have happened. As far as his version of Ant-Man, as Simon Pegg put it, “it’s our loss.”

X-Men - How time travel can save the franchise

I’m super excited about X-Men: Days of Future Past. But I’m also a little nervous. Don’t worry, I’m not THAT fanboy. I’m not so naïve as to go in with the expectation that it will be a faithful adaptation of the classic storyline it’s named after. I’ve seen enough superhero movies by now to know that the filmmakers borrow elements from the comic and then run with their own ideas. But I’ve also gone into an X-Men movie with high hopes and been burned by the scorching flames of the Phoenix (more on that later).

After the disasters that were X-Men 3: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (the less said about the latter the better, so I won’t), FOX kinda sorta wiped the slate clean with X-Men: First Class, a major step in the right direction. While it wasn’t the X-Men movie of my dreams, it came the closest since X2. Now the original X-Men director Bryan Singer has returned to helm Days of Future Past, which is the biggest X-Men movie to date, and has a lot riding on it. Singer, whose potential hasn’t always lived up to my expectations after giving us The Usual Suspects, has directed one mediocre X-Men movie (the original) and one good one (X2). Early word is this one is living up to the hype, so hopefully he’s learned some new tricks during his absence from the franchise and this will mark his triumphant return.

Now with a time travel element added to the mix, Singer expressed the desire to “fix a few things,” specifically in regards to X3, where he bowed out to direct the ill-fated Superman Returns. This is something that gives me a lot of hope that Days of Future Past could achieve “X-Men movie of my dreams” status. After I saw X3, I was pretty frustrated. The most aggravating thing is that it started off on a high note. The beginning of the movie dropped us right into the action with the X-Men in a Danger Room training sequence ripped straight out of the pages of the Days of Future Past timeline. They even had Colossus chuck Wolverine in a “fastball special” towards an unseen robot assailant and afterwards a giant sentinel head came crashing down. At this point in the movie I could not have been more pumped. This had to be foreshadowing for more sentinels to come, right? It turns out all we got was a head.

At least Days of Future Past will deliver on the sentinels. Cyclops’ death marked the downward plummet which the movie never recovers from. So many missed opportunities and so many confusing and misguided decisions that I don’t know where to begin (such as, how you can have Juggernaut and Colossus in a movie together and not have them fight?).  I knew that if the X-Men franchise would live on, that something had to change to justify what I had just watched. But then it hit me. I knew how to fix X-Men; time travel!

The good news is we're getting Bishop minus the mullet

It was too late to save X3, but it wasn’t too late for the future of the X-Men movie franchise. I went as far as to outline my own spec script for X-Men 4, which would involve the time traveling mutant, Bishop, traveling back in time from a post-apocalyptic future, into the events of X3 (think Back to the Future Part II) to correct all the mistakes. The fact that DoFP combines the new and old cast, meant that we could create a new path for these characters and their fates. For example, Professor Xavier dies in X3, one of the most pointless deaths scenes in an X-Men movie to date. We fans know that Xavier’s death in the comics has some major ramifications on the future, kicking off the Age of Apocalypse storyline. So obviously killing off Xavier was a bad idea in the movie. But what if we could take it back? Enter Bishop, who goes back to stop this from occurring to try and prevent the post-apocalyptic future from ever existing. Done. Next thing that needs fixing? The Phoenix Saga.

Fox really mangled this storyline. Honestly if you can’t do something right, don’t do it at all, but they went for it and the result was pretty pathetic. Worst of all, they tried to cram The Cure storyline into the same movie with it. I think Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool said it best – It’s like if MGM decided the James Bond franchise would conclude with Goldfinger but then wedged in a little Thunderball and a dash of Moonraker then called it a day. That’s basically what X3 amounted to, just throwing everything at the wall with little regard to what stuck.

THIS is the Rogue fans want to see on screen

So Jean, as Phoenix, dies in the end by Wolverine’s hands and that’s that. Jean dies in the comics so I won’t hold that against the writers, but here’s an alternative solution – Rogue, up until this point, has been one of the most boring characters in the movies, a complete contrast to her spunky persona we comic fans had become accustomed to. They introduce her with her original mutant power, the ability to absorb other mutants’ abilities, which factors into the plot of the first movie. In X2, it’s obvious they didn’t really know what to do with her, and they couldn’t take the time to introduce Ms. Marvel and give Rogue her flying and super strength abilities - that would have bogged the movie down. So let’s say, because this is a movie and not the comics, as an alternative solution, we go back into X3 and she were to absorb the Phoenix’s powers, in affect, saving Jean’s life and giving Rogue all her powers, so she can finally become the kickass X-woman we know and love. How cool would that have been to see an army of sentinels land on Alcatraz in the final battle and Rogue flipping them over her shoulder? So, no, not exactly like in the comics, but a way more satisfying outcome for Rogue’s development as a mutant as opposed to getting cured and that’s it. Supposedly, Rogue was cut out of DoFP and then added back in for a “pivotal scene,” so hopefully they finally figured out what to do with her.

Cable and Wolverine share a moment in time

As for Cyclops… he got the shaft in these movies, no more so than in X3. He was barely there in X2 and then he’s unceremoniously killed off in the first act of X3. The third movie pretty much became the Wolverine and Storm show so I guess there was just not enough screen time to accommodate poor Cyke. I attended a Comic Con panel where Zak Penn spoke about this and the way he explained it was that they wanted a major character to die early on so right off the bat, fans were given the heads up and that anything can and will happen in this movie. More accurately, it was a scheduling conflict as when Singer left to shoot Superman at the same time, he took James Marsden with him. This is another major event that could have catastrophic repercussions on the future. With no Scott Summers and no Jean Grey, that means no Cable, the future leader of X-Force who is our best hope against a world ruled by Apocalypse. Again, enter Bishop to save Cable’s parents from perishing and preventing the world from going to hell. I understand that James Marsden won’t be in DoFP, so that won’t be happening, but how cool would that be? Cable would be an awesome addition to the cast and would really help bridge the gap between the present day and the future.

So the good news is that Bishop is in this movie, and we will have time traveling mutants, in this case Wolverine (who else?). I’m very curious to see how this will tie in to Singer’s original cast and even though I know it’s not necessarily the X-Men movie I would have written, I hope it delivers. My expectations haven’t been this high since X3 so it’s got a lot to live up to.

Animated Batman Movie Rankings, Part 2: #5 - #1

Continuing on from Part 1, here we count down the Top 5 animated Batman movies of all time. Will my picks match up with yours? Read on an find out!

5) Batman and Mr. Freeze: Subzero

"Come on people! A guy in a weird suit with two polar bears can’t be too hard to spot!" - Commissioner Gordon

My favorite trivia about Subzero is that Warner pushed back the release date to distance it from the disaster that was the campy live-action Batman & Robin, a movie so bad, it put the Batman movie franchise in hibernation for nearly a decade. It was intended as a home video tie-in, but to avoid further embarrassment that the cartoon Batman took itself more seriously than the big budget bomb, it got delayed. Although the second animated Batman movie didn’t surpass its predecessor (Mask of the Phantasm), it’s still a worthy addition to the animated Bat library and lives up to the standard set by the series it’s based on. Batman: The Animated Series redefined Mr. Freeze with a sympathetic backstory, painting him as a tragic villain, and Subzero advances his story about a scientist determined to save his ailing wife by any means necessary, even if it means taking an innocent life. Freeze’s co-headlining is well earned, as this is primarily his story. Batman’s partners, Robin and Batgirl, have their share of screen time as well, with a budding romance sparking out of costume (Dick and Barbara are unaware of each other’s secret identities at this point). Having a bigger budget to work with, many of the vehicles are computer generated, but the CGI here doesn’t always blend seamlessly with the 2D animation. It doesn’t distract from the story but it does date it a bit. However, the runtime is a bit on the short side compared to other home video releases, and would have benefited from more breathing room to incorporate more character development for Freeze. Anyone who’s seen the classic episode “Heart of Ice” already knows about his wife Nora and Freeze’s mission to save her, but the movie could have used some flashbacks to fill in more backstory about their relationship prior to that. Freeze’s crooked colleague, Dr. Belson, could have used a little backstory to tie him into Freeze’s past as well. As it stands, Subzero is worth adding to your Batman collection, but I would have traded the CGI for more story, which would have added depth and making it feel more like a movie than a two-part episode.

Batman: Kevin Conroy

Heroes: Robin (Dick Grayson), Batgirl, Commissioner Jim Gordon

Villains: Mr. Freeze

4) Batman: Under the Red Hood

“I’m cleaning up Gotham. More than you ever did.” – Red Hood

The comic arc, Under the Red Hood, was perfectly suited to be turned into a movie. What I love best about it is it's a Batman movie made for Bat fans. Too often, superhero movies feel the need to start at the beginning, rehashing the origin in order not to alienate casual fans who have a basic understanding of the characters but aren't caught up to speed with how they've developed over the years. Red Hood keeps Batman’s continuity intact, managing to tell its story while also weaving in elements from classic stories like Death in the Family and The Killing Joke. Writer Judd Winick does an excellent job of adapting his own work onto the screen, and knows what needs to be cut in order to keep the story moving along at a good pace. This is a prime example of how a comic story should be adapted where making those cuts actually makes the end result stronger. Just like all the best Batman stories, this one involves a mystery at its core – who is the Red Hood? The story doesn’t leave a lot of room for speculation as to who the Red Hood is but while the revelation rubs a lot of fans the wrong way, it does pack an emotional punch. Bruce Greenwood brings a seasoned maturity to Batman and almost makes me forget about Conroy, as he’s one of the best actors to portray the dark knight in animation.  The Joker factors in to the plot, bringing the events that catapulted this storyline full circle. Voiced by John DiMaggio (aka Futurama’s Bender), this is one of my favorite interpretations of Joker yet. It’s a bit of an amalgam of Mark Hamill’s iconic take with a dash of Heath Ledger mixed in. Now that Hamill has supposedly retired from the role, I wouldn’t mind DiMaggio voicing Joker on a more regular basis with future projects. He brings a dark humorous edge to the role that Hamill perfected. The other major villain featured is Black Mask. The way he’s been portrayed here is one of the movie’s drawbacks as he just comes off as a raging hothead when the way he’s portrayed in the comics is cold and calculating. In the comics I always imagined his voice sounding similar to the way Jeffrey Combs portrayed The Scarecrow in the New Adventures of Batman series, which was menacing because it was devoid of emotion. When I first heard Black Mask’s voice in The Batman series, I was pretty disappointed with the way he was depicted and hoped future versions would tone him down a bit but if anything, they’ve taken it up a notch with his outbursts. It doesn’t ruin the movie, but if the movie has a weak link, this is it. Overall, the direction is top notch, with thrilling action scenes balanced with great character moments. It is a solid entry into the animated Batman library and set a new bar for all future releases.

Batman: Bruce Greenwood

Heroes: Nightwing, Robin (Jason Todd)

Villains: Red Hood, Joker, Black Mask, Ra’s Al Ghul, Riddler, Amazo

3) Batman: The Dark Knight Returns

“In all the years to come, in your most private moments, I want you to remember the one man who beat you!” - Batman

While I said before that Year One, while essential to the Batman mythos, was a tad overrated, to me Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is one of the greatest Batman stories ever told. It does receive more credit than it deserves in regards to bringing Batman back to his dark roots, but it has had an undeniable lasting impact on future Batman scribes who have cited DKR as their one of their biggest inspirations and will serve as a major influence on the upcoming Zach Snyder movie featuring Batfleck. But enough about its reputation, how does the movie stack up to the rest? As far as adapting classic DC properties, this one nails it. This is the best comic-to-screen DCU offering since Justice League: The New Frontier in that it feels like a complete story and not just focusing on the major beats. They were able to accomplish this by splitting it up over two releases and leaving very little on the cutting room floor. If they had treated it the way they did the Death of Superman story in Superman: Doomsday, they most likely would have condensed all of the Two-Face and mutant gang stuff and just focused solely on the showdowns with Joker and Superman, but by allowing the time and care to do it right, it feels more lived in, taking the viewer on a journey. I still remember the classic animated episode, “Legends of the Dark Knight,” where they portray different variations of Batman and one of them was a snippet of DKR and at the time I thought, “how cool would it be if they made that into a movie?” It took a few years, but it was worth the wait. Peter Weller (Robocop) is perfectly cast as the grizzled caped crusader coming out of retirement. It was a smart choice because as much as Kevin Conroy’s older interpretation of Bruce works for Batman Beyond, Weller captures Miller’s Batman spot on. I enjoyed Michael Emerson as a villain on Lost, and the guy can play creepy, but he’s far from my favorite Joker. He’s not bad, he just doesn’t steal scenes the way Joker should. While I think the DCU movies need to ease up on adaptations and focus more on original content, if all future adaptations are treated with this kind of respect, that’ll be a major step in the right direction.

Batman: Peter Weller

Heroes: Robin (Carrie Kelley), Catwoman, Commissioner Gordon, Superman

Villains: Joker, Mutant Leader, Two-Face, Superman

2) Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

“If you don’t like the movie, I’ve got slides” – The Joker

While it may not be Bruce Wayne under the cowl, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker is a Batman movie through and through. Many, like myself, scoffed at the idea of a teenage Batman, but who knew it would turn out this good. Or dark. This is by far the bleakest Batman movie on the list, with the flashback sequence alone earning it that label. If Batman Beyond was a completely separate entity from the original animated series, it wouldn’t resonate with me as much, but this is a direct continuation of the series, giving fans a look at what becomes of Bruce after retiring from his vigilante days, and that’s what really drives it. Return of the Joker fills in more gaps, especially in regards to Batman’s archenemy. One of the biggest questions jumping forward in time was, “what happened to The Joker?” and this movie sets out to answer that. The answer is both shocking and satisfactory. Mark Hamill is back in the role he was born to play and although this version of Joker is a little more toned down than usual, he’s still just as menacing as ever. The Batman of this series, Terry McGinnis, at this point had carved out his own path as Batman, but it’s with this movie that he takes the next step of not simply filling Bruce’s shoes, but really honoring the legacy of the Batman. It’s not really fair to compare Will Friedle’s Batman to Kevin Conroy as he’s not voicing the same character, and because Conroy reprises his role as Bruce Wayne, we don’t have to. Bruce’s former partners, Barbara Gordon and Tim Drake, factor into the plot, keeping the supporting cast in the Bat family. In addition to building a new mythology, the series had always touched on elements from Bruce’s past before, but when it came to crafting a movie, the creative team knew they would have to dig deeper to make it feel worthy of a movie, and the scope of this does feel big. It’s a shame that we have yet to receive another Batman Beyond movie as this proved to be a major achievement and there are clearly many more stories to be told. I’ve still got my Batman Beyond spec script on file, so what are you waiting for WB, let’s fast track it!

Batman: Will Friedle

Heroes: Bruce Wayne, Commissioner Barbara Gordon, Batgirl, Robin

Villains: The Joker, Harley Quinn, The Jokerz gang

1) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

“Your angel of death awaits.” – The Phantasm

The benchmark. The first full length animated Batman movie and so far only one that’s ever been released theatrically. Therefore the one every subsequent movie is compared to. Not only is Mask of the Phantasm the best animated Batman movie ever made, it’s arguably the best Batman movie of all time. It’s got all the elements that make for a good Batman story - mysterious plot, intriguing villains, tragic love, and if that’s not enough, it’s got The Joker piloting a jet pack. Spinning out of the best animated superhero show ever (no debate), Phantasm benefited from a dream creative team at the top of their game. The episodes of the show have been described as “mini-movies,” bringing a size and scope to the small screen unrivaled in animated programming at that time, and Phantasm builds on that model, allowing for a little more breathing room to include some fantastic flashbacks that not only provides additional insight into Bruce’s decision to don the cape and cowl, but also ties in directly to the main plot in a completely satisfying way. Others have come close, but no Batman movie since has matched the pathos on display here. And did I mention The Joker was in this? Yeah, he appears in half these movies, but I don’t think he’s utilized better than he is here (Return of the Joker being a very close second). The way he ties into the plot is one of the movie’s major highlights and Mark Hamill is at his manic best, the perfect balancing act between scary and funny. The story’s primary antagonist, the Phantasm (loosely based on The Reaper from Year Two), fits perfectly into Batman’s world and the mystery surrounding the foe’s motivation makes for a cool twist. It really doesn’t get much better than this, and in my eyes, it has yet to. If you’re a Batman fan and haven’t seen this, stop reading, do yourself a favor and go watch this now.

Batman: Kevin Conroy

Villains: The Phantasm, Joker

There you have it. I don’t claim this to be the definitive list, but that’s how I rank them. It’s worth noting that the Joker appears prominently in 5 of the 10 movies and that out of those, 4 ended up in my Top 5. Does Joker instantly increase the quality of any Batman story, or is it just a coincidence? Either way, it doesn’t seem to hurt.

As much as I enjoyed comic-to-screen adaptations of The Dark Knight Returns and Under the Red Hood, it would be nice if the direct to video line of DC Universe Animated Original Movies would live up to their name and actually be fully original content as opposed to just adapting the most popular DC comic stories. I’m sure it’s only just a matter of time before they adapt such classics as The Long Halloween, Knightfall, Hush and the more recent Court of Owls story lines, and while those are all fantastic tales of the dark knight, I really don’t want to experience the abridged versions. The first release under this banner was Superman: Doomsday, a truncated reworking of the Death of Superman arc. The execution was pretty sloppy and what could have been Part 1 of an animated trilogy, instead resulted in a stripped down version that didn’t do the story justice and left fans wanting.

What I’m getting at is if a comic storyline can’t be adapted into the strict 75 minute limit that is imposed on these movies without making major sacrifices, come up with something new that does work within that timeframe. How about it WB?

Having said that, I’m looking forward to the upcoming release of Batman: Assault on Arkham this summer, which tells an original tale set in the world of the Arkham video games and I will revisit this list at that time to see where it slots in. Until then…

How do my rankings compare to yours? Am I totally off base and you would have liked to see something ranked higher on the list? Let me know!