Nerds That Geek Movie Review - 'Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders'

Written by Mike Cervantes

How much can a film critic slack off: a study?
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I actually saw this film on its release date, October 6, 2016, in a limited release it had in movie theaters, before it made its destined home on DVD and Blu-Ray. After letting that review idle for so long, we began to draw close to the release date of The LEGO Batman Movie, and I thought I’d actually complete this review, to clear my conscience, and also to discuss my infamous “Mutual Dual Batman Theory” ahead of the upcoming film.

We all know of the two portrayals of Batman: The enigmatic, tortured soul, who has devoted his life to the punishment of crime, and has successfully created himself as the sole entity striking fear into the hearts of all criminals, or the silver age inspired Adam West-portrayed avenger of justice and all things good, capable of ironically working alongside Robin and whose Gotham is reasonably crime-free.

My theory is simple and is as follows: Both Batmen have existed in our current culture side-by-side in different media, never really favoring one portrayal over the other. Adam West’s campy 60’s portrayal of Batman was the only one we knew until the emergence of The Dark Knight Returns and Burton’s ’89 Batman Film. Burton went on to make one other film before Dark Knight Batman moved onto the small screen with Batman: The Animated Series, leaving Campy Batman to take over the film responsibilities in Schumacher’s Forever and Batman and Robin. Christopher Nolan’s return to Dark Knight form with his Batman trilogy led Campy Batman to land roles in both The Batman and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which was the first time a silver-age portrayal of Batman thoroughly escaped its Adam West roots.

Right now we’re looking into a future where a Ben Affleck-portrayed Dark Knight version of Batman is adding his chin and scowl to the cape and cowl in a whole new Nolan-based film universe, and the Campy Batman has gone almost entirely to square-one, both with the humorous LEGO portrayal by Will Arnett and in this film where we literally get the Adam West Batman played by Adam West, along with the original Robin, played by Burt Ward. This has actually been going on in the comics for a while, since July 2013, at the beginning of Batman’s 50th anniversary. 

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The plot begins promisingly enough, Batman and Robin begin to chase after the re-gathering of their four greatest villains, The Joker, Catwoman, The Riddler and The Penguin, as they plot to use an ACME duplicator ray and a hijacked satellite to create a second planet Earth to rule as they see fit. Their plot hits a familiar snag when Catwoman, played by original series actress Julie Newmar, begins to ignore her evildoing to seduce West’s Batman. Her obsession leads her to scratch Batman’s face, infecting him with a “Batnip” toxin that is designed to turn him evil. Halfway through the villains’ plot is foiled, but not before Catwoman’s toxin takes effect, and eventually begins turning Batman to the dark side.

There’s a whole other half to this movie, which I won’t spoil too much for the Bat-fans, but as an interesting aside in the few minutes when Adam West Batman is turned evil, we find that he begins acting slightly like Dark Knight Batman: he threatens bodily harm upon villains, vanishes from Commissioner Gordon’s office, and just outright ignores Robin, bringing into question among the longtime fans just where the fine-line between these two contrasting portrayals lies. Sadly, it’s a theme that doesn’t stay, and before long Batman is hatching a plot just as convoluted as his 60’s era villains.
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You can expect multiple nods to the original series, including multiple silent cameos, and lots of fan service, but sadly, nothing that really makes this remake feel as…’inspired’ as the original series was. The disadvantage is always that this is another iteration of the Campy Batman, made by longtime Batman fans, and therefore cannot fit in the “anything goes, we’re all here for scale, make it work” nature of the original series producers. It’s also somewhat jarring to hear how different West, Ward, and Newmar sound, simply because they’re now all in their 70’s, contrasted with Jeff Bergman as the Joker, William Slayers as the Penguin, and Wally Wingert as the Riddler, all professional voice actors, as youthful as their characters were in the original.

This is the first time I genuinely feel my opinion of a film isn’t that necessary. There will always be a Batman, and as long as there is, there will always be a callback to the Adam West Batman. How long we shall see Adam West continue to be his own portrayal remains to be seen. The LEGO Batman exists simultaneously to this one, despite being a similar concept, and a sequel has already been announced for this film, featuring the only actor who could play a “60’s” version of Two Face, William Shatner. This may well be an era of multiple, nearly endless portrayals of Batman, all over the scale, and the future for the Dark Knight is bright. 

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