Deadline reminder
For anybody who’s still around (I’ll have another World Building post up later this week, promise!), I thought I’d put up a little reminder that the deadline for the Favorite Batman Movie contest is coming up.
For those of you who’ve forgotten it, the rules were as follows: Submit your favorite Batman movie to the comments, along with why it’s your favorite. Best explanation (in the opinion of our crack panel of judges… wait… I’m sorry, I just got a correction in, it’s our crocked panel of judges, my bad….) will win a brand new, never been watched copy of *my* favorite Batman film, Mask of the Phantasm, so you can compare and contrast.
Deadline is… 12/31/09. That’s another 10 days, folks, counting this one! So get cracking!
‘Cause, y’know, if nobody enters, I’ll just have to scowl at the universe and post something whiny. And nobody wants to see that happen, do they?
Projected Plot
Okay. Everybody who chats with me online regularly has already read this, I’ll admit. Why? Because I’m a noisy little monster when I have ideas trying to wiggle their way out of my skull, that’s why.
The Dark Knight, up until its end, is an incredible film. I personally prefer Mask of the Phantasm, though others have their own opinions (more on that later.) Well, there’s a third Batman Begins film coming out, which seems to be likely to feature the Riddler.
Now, given that another third Batman movie featured the Riddler… well, they can’t do much worse than that one (honestly? I thought Batman and Robin was better than that POS!) But what would I like to see in the third Batman Begins film? What would I consider the ultimate capstone on the trilogy? Here we go.
In Mask of the Phantasm, Bruce’s old girlfriend – who he almost gave up Batman for – comes back hunting the gangsters who hounded her father to death. Eventually, trying to kill the Joker, she meets her (supposed) end in a firey explosion, only to turn up on a cruise ship, leaving Gotham forever.
Well, I’d like to take that plot and filter it through the Batman Begins universe… why? Because it neatly wraps up BB’s little morality play. The first one featured Batman (and his questionable methods) up against people who were clearly beyond the pale (R’as and his cronies). Batman was clearly the hero – Gotham’s prodigal son was fighting crime, kicking ass, taking names, and eventually letting the leader behind all this die in a nasty conflagration. Dark Knight featured him up against a being of pure evil, and forcing himto confront the issue of just what extents he *will* go to in order to protect people… and how he handles failing to protect them, if that will push him over the edge so that he ‘doesn’t save’ another bad guy, the way he did R’as. In case you’ve been under a rock for the last year nd a half, he doesn’t – he only kills once, and that is because there’s no other way to save an innocent boy from dying.
What’s the final act to all this? What else – put the Batman up against somebody who *wants* to die… not because of some twisted game, but out of a sick sense of justice. Put the Batman up against an enemy who *is* everything he could become, if he lets his dark side take over – a sick soul with a death wish, meting out death and destruction, while privately wishing for the same, to put an end to the gut-wrenching pain inside brought on by the path they’ve followed.
Now, of course, the question is… who is, the Phantasm? What person could we put behind that Reaper’s mask, to really drive the message home?
Rachael. Yes, I know, she was blown up in Dark Knight. Work with me here – if Jean Grey, Gwen Stacey, and Bucky can all benefit from a revolving door policy on the afterlife, so can Rachael. Don’t you point out that those are all Marvel characters – if Supes gets a ‘get out of epic, dramatically suitable death free’ card, then Rachael does too.
For our purposes, she isn’t actually killed in the blast – instead, she’s ‘rescued’ by Killer Croc, another Batman villain who fits perfectly into this universe. I’m inclined to make the Joker responsible for this – having him send the Croc there – but obviously certain events make writing the Joker out of this story desirable. At any rate, Croc does with Rachael whatever the screenwriters think they can get away with during the time he has her (and the cops are chasing Batman.) For once, I’m inclined to say they could let the little James Wan inside them get out and run free. This time around, it would actually benefit to some extent from having a few suitably harrowing torture sequences – they feed into the later mystery of the film. They shouldn’t be the key of the film, of course, but it doesn’t hurt to play it up a bit. It also gives the Croc time to explain that he’s helping smuggle some chemicals that are being illegally disposed of or somesuch – the specifics aren’t too important, just covering that there are things down in the sewers that aren’t safe to be in contact with.
Eventually, Rachael gets the chance to escape, albeit at a hefty price. She manages to tie off her wrist, then takes off her hand so she can get free. Croc chases her, but in the course of the chase through the nearly pitch-black sewers, he ends up taking a dive into the Bad Stuff that’s down there. Rachael makes it a bit farther, but through increasing blood loss and shock, she eventually passes out.
When she comes to, she’s been rescued by a group of people living down there. Most big cities actually do have communities like this – homeless people who’ve made their own homes in abandoned sewer lines, maintenance tunnels, and subway lines beneath the city. The group that’s found her is a small enclave led by a veteran who left the surface world and all its problems behind him. There are others with them, some normal people, and one man based loosely off the Toyman from the DC universe (ie, tinkerer and gadgeteer who can put together handy trinkets along similar lines as the Batman’s.)
Having come to, Rachael discovers her entire life has fallen apart. Batman has killed Harvey, so she’s heard, which is devastating to her psychologically. She knows Bruce, has all his life. She knows he wouldn’t have killed Harvey… not unless Harvey had gone wrong somehow. But she knows Harvey, knows he wouldn’t do that… or, at least, that he wouldn’t have if he’d known she was alive. And if Batman *did* kill Harvey without there being a good reason for it… then the only reason for that would be because Bruce had snapped because of what happened to her. Any way you look at it, it’s her fault (to a grief-stricken, somewhat twisted mind). What’s more, it wouldn’t have happened if Batman *had* just gone ahead and ignored the system, killed the Joker when he’d had the chance. Her entire worldview is shattered; she blames herself for the death of Harvey, and she sees a world that’s bleak, dark, and entirely unredeemable… a world where the Bruce who almost shot a man in the middle of a courthouse was right, and she was wrong. A world where Batman isn’t going far enough.
She talks this over with her rescuers (obliquely, not specifics) while she slowly recovers. The vet who leads the group teaches her how to fight, ostensibly so she can protect herself in the Underground – she doesn’t have a life to return to anymore, so she might as well learn how to survive here. The Toyman makes her a prosthetic cap for her arm that she can mount a knife to, so she doesn’t have to carry a separate weapon and fight with her only hand. Gradually, she goes from basic self-defense to being able to *fight*. This doesn’t all have to be covered on-screen at the time; a lot of it can be covered in later flashbacks.
Of course, this movie isn’t all Rachael’s. Christian Bale needs to earn his paycheck too.
In the meantime, in the world up above, Batman is trying to do his work without getting caught by the police. He’s gradually been mopping up other mental ward rejects from Arkham, dealing with organized crime, and generally cleaning things up – Gotham’s looking a lot better, from the perspective of having to deal with organized crime, but there’s still the issue of the *dis*organized crime. It’s fairly good timing, in some ways – Batman isn’t as necessary, allowing Bruce Wayne to let his alter ego rest (more often) while working through social programs to try and address the conditions that create some of the crooks he’s still got to deal with. For some situations though, Batman is still necessary – like when dealing with the hulking monstrosity that’s started rampaging through Gotham in the dead of night, leaving bodies behind him.
At first it’s gang-bangers and homeless bums… but before long it’s hookers mixed in with them, often raped as well as torn limb from limb. The cops are paying attention as much as they can, but they can’t get much done… which puts Batman back out in the open. Trying to evade the police, and the distrustful people of the slums who figure they might be able to take care of two birds with one stone, he sets out to find the killer. Batman traces the killer into the Underground, and follows him there. He eventually finds Killer Croc’s lair, or what’s left of it – there, he’s attacked by Croc, now mutated even further by the chemicals he was dumped into. Batman fights back, of course, but between the darkness and the inhuman strength of his attacker, he’s outclassed. While Croc takes a beating, he eventually gets the better of Batman, nearly breaking his back in the process (suplex maneuver at full Killer Croc strength?) Before he can deliver a killing blow, however, a cloaked figure shows up, attacking from behind. Batman witnesses flashes of the fight, but eventually succumbs to the pain as Phantasm does battle with the Croc. (For the audience’s benefit, Croc escapes – wouldn’t be necessary if Ledger hadn’t died, but….)
When he comes to, he’s back home; somebody called Alfred and let him know that Bruce was badly hurt. The press has been told that Mr. Wayne was injured in a skydiving accident… but it presents the worrisome question of who called Alfred.
Here’s where we can go one of two ways. I’ll go with the one I currently prefer. Rather than the question lasting, when Bruce asks Alfred who it was that called him, Rachael comes in. She’s missing her hand, but after some time in the hospital of her own, she’s got a proper prosthetic rigged, and is looking much, much better than she was before. She moves in with Bruce, her own life having been ravaged by the fact that she was assumed dead, and Bruce needing somebody besides Alfred to help take care of him during his convalescence. During this time, obviously, Batman is AWOL – and the criminal element begins to stick their head out.
As Rachael goes over the Hell that has been her life in bits and pieces (explaining to Bruce how she’s alive, etc.), the same dark figure who helped rescue Bruce before starts showing up above ground now. The Phantasm isn’t a replacement Batman though – the Phantasm is a killing machine, not worried about collateral damage as long as it’s other people who ‘deserved it.’ Innocent bystanders are safe – they have to be, to keep the Phantasm a somewhat sympathetic figure. Bruce begins investigating the Phantasm, who makes his way through the streets with a massive blade on one glove, covered in a shroud of fog that he seems to be able to generate at will. The cops, obviously, are hunting the Phantasm down hardcore – Batman was a black eye, the Phantasm is an obvious homicidal maniac.
Complicating things, Rachael seems to know something about all of this… but she’s reluctant to explain until later. When the time comes, she explains her relationship with the vet who rescued her, and that he was talking about doing exactly this when she left. She thinks that he’s the Phantasm… which certainly seems believable enough. A 50-60 year old Vietnam vet who can fight like a sonofabitch and has a chip on his shoulder is a good candidate, especially with the Toyman’s help. Mask of the Phantasm was a little enough known piece that the obvious suspect isn’t so obvious. Rachael is, after all, a 30-something lawyer missing a hand and rather slightly built. Add to that the fact that she’s living with Bruce – how could she possibly be the Phantasm, given all of that?
Of course, given that fact that Bruce isn’t exactly around all the time either, it becomes plausible, but that’s for the audience to click with later.
The cat and mouse game between the Phantasm and Batman continues, with Batman ocasionally having to save crooks from the Phantasm. Little hints are dropped here and there that the Phantasm knows about Batman – he won’t kill him, for example, despite his being a murderer according to the press. He gives him openings he doesn’t have to. All this time, the cops are searching for them both (admittedly, against Gordon’s wishes, but he has to thanks to the end of Dark Knight).
If Ledger were alive, I’d want to use the chance to start turning the Joker into a sort of supervillain Hannibal Lecter; Batman reluctantly coming to him in his cell to find out what he might know about the Phantasm (an interview through the window between Batman and the Joker has an incredible amount of cinematic potential.) Without Ledger, that’s not going to work (recurring theme, I know, I know.) However, if I ever do this as a fanfic, it’s something to bear in mind as an option.
In the end, it comes down to a final confrontation between the Batman, and the Phantasm, trying to save the life of a criminal who’s pushing even Batman’s limits. This is where Batman has to make the decision – does he go down the Phantasm’s ultimately destructive (yet effective) path, or does he hold true to his (barely, at times) heroic code? My preference, given conditions? Killer Croc (AKA Bane) again. He gets away from the Phantasm in their first confrontation, and eventually comes back, more ripped and mutated than ever, possibly in the service of whoever provided the mutagens that transformed him in the first place. There’s a three-way battle between Bane, Phantasm, and Batman… and, in the end, the Batman discovers that Rachael is the Phantasm. And worse, that all she wants at this point is for him to kill her and end her suffering.
In the end, the movie finishes with the same explosive finale as Mask of the Phantasm, the Batman barely escaping the conflagration that seems to destroy his beloved… except for a little hint we get at the end, that maybe the Phantasm lives on, sane or otherwise….
So, there you have it. My vision of Mask of the Phantasm adapted to the Batman Begins universe, and what I’d *love* to see as BB3. Not gonna happen, I’m quite sure, but I’d be thrilled if something even remotely like this came out. It would tie in one of the more obscure (yet excellent) visions of Batman with the one that’s currently the most popular, and also have elements of one of the slightly more obscure (yet excellent) storylines from the comics (Knightfall is echoed in Batman’s injuries and his being ‘replaced’ by a psychotic, homicidal vigilante).
Now… you’ve read through all of that, and I feel obligated to reward you for it. Fortunately, I can do so – I found my copy of Mask of the Phantasm!
So here’s the contest. I’ve told everybody (at length) what my favorite Batman movie is. I want to hear what yours is. One of the old Batman serials? The camp-fest that was the movie spawned by the 60′s series? One of Burton’s two masterworks? Christopher Nolan’s original? The Dark Knight is one I expect to hear a lot, I’ll admit.
Are you one of those sad, sick souls who actually thought that Joel Schumacher’s vision of the Bat is the ideal one?
Or maybe you prefer the animated versions. Return of the Joker? The anime version that came out? Sub Zero? Mystery of the Batwoman?
Well, by year end, leave a comment explaining your favorite Batman movie. What is it, and why? You don’t need the full-on synopses that I’ve been doing, though I won’t hold it against you if you toss a few spoilers in. The only limitation I’m going to put on you is that I want to see a moving version of it – I’d be interested in knowing your favorite comic arc, but it won’t qualify for the contest.
Entries must be received by 12/31/2009. A winner will be chosen by 1/31/2010, on the following grounds:
- Explanation of why you like your favorite film. Just saying “because I do” won’t get you anything (unless NOBODY else enters). I’d like to see the reason why – what are the themes, what are the aspects of Batman that you like. Long-winded won’t get you bonus points, but well explained will.
- Sincerity. This one’s hard to quantify, but if you just trot out “The Dark Knight, because it’s the best Batman film out there, everybody except you knows that,” or “Mask of the Phantasm, for all the reasons you explained,” you’re not likely to win it.
- Originality. This is kind of in there already, but I’d like to see a reason that makes me look at it in a way I haven’t before.
So, if you’re declared the winner, you will receive one (1) copy of Mask of the Phantasm, never before viewed, but not shrinkwrapped. If I actually get enough really good entries to justify multiple prizes, I might edit the prize packages (they’d be getting better, not worse, trust me). If you want to list your entry but don’t actually want the DVD, let me know so I don’t end up mailing it out to you before I find out you’re not interested.
So, have at it! You’ve got just a little bit over three months – get cracking, people!
Mask of the Phantasm
Happy coincidences abound in this world – as I write this post, I am actually watching the film on Boomerang!
I now forgive them – a little bit – for dropping Thundarr, SWAT Kats, and Centurions from their afternoon lineup. I’m sure I’ll hate them again the next time I come home and the only thing on is Snorks.
Now, a little buildup in the 3 minutes leading up to the film. Mask of the Phantasm was the first of a small handful of feature-length productions done for Batman: The Animated Series (TAS), the brilliant series that followed the 1989 revival of the franchise with Tim Burton’s film. Several years down the line, Mask of the Phantasm came out. It was serious, it was mature, it was romantic, and it was tragic… in short, it was brilliant.
It was a total flop.
Why, I really don’t know… I tend to blame, as my brother does, the “ghettofication” of cartoons; the idea that animated shows aren’t suitable for adults to watch, and the PG-13 rating on this one did *not* mark it out for the kiddie audience. But I love it all the same. Now, as I watch it for probably the thousandth time, I’m going to go on about why.
Most of what makes Mask of the Phantasm work is the same thing that made TAS work in general. Beautiful art, sweeping gothic designs, and that most rarified quality in any work of mass-market fiction… maturity. It takes place in a corrupt city placed somewhere between the 20′s and the 90′s, a world trapped simultaneously in the eras of the Shadow, Doc Savage, Sam Spade, and The Punisher. That the film was even more mature than the series is what earned it that PG-13 rating… and what makes me put it at the pinnacle of Batman movies.
Spoilers shall follow.
The film opens on Chucky Sol and a bunch of other gangsters examining a shipment of counterfeits, when Batman breaks in. A firefight ensues, and Chucky escapes into the parking garage… only to be confronted by an ominous figure who announces that his ‘angel of death awaits.’ Mistaking this figure for the Batman, he opens fire, before fleeing to his car and attempting to run the man down… only to miss, running his car out the side of the parking garage.
We next meet one of Gotham’s councilmen, an anti-Batman crusader who spends his time railing against the Batman… and trying to make some moves on one Miss Andrea Beaumont, an old flame of Bruce’s.
The heart of this film, really, is the relationship between Bruce and Andrea. What we begin to discover throughout the film is that Andrea was the girl who almost made Batman never happen. Bruce and Andrea meet in the cemetery, of all places – Bruce is visiting his parents’ grave, during the months leading up to his becoming Batman. Andrea is having a conversation with her deceased mother, which turns around to be about Bruce. They begin a courtship that gradually becomes more and more serious, and is fleshed out enough that it actually feels like a real courtship. This isn’t your typical whirlwind romance – this is Bruce Wayne, before he surrenders his life to the cape and cowl, finding out that there’s more to life than pain and revenge. Granted, it moves quickly, but there’s enough there that it feels like an honest relationship more than your typical ‘love at first sight’ sequence, where the hero throws his life away for somebody he’s known all of five minutes.
Perhaps oddly, the scenes are interspersed with some of his early crimefighting capers… typically unsuccessful ones. At the same time that the Batman is being born, Bruce is beginning to waver in his conviction to the promise he made his parents.
But, as we all know, this couldn’t last. Andrea flees the country with her father, a lawyer who seems to have some shady business dealings with a few local gangsters, the very night she agrees to marry Bruce… and the next day, when Alfred tells him the bad news just after he’s come up from what will become the Batcave, it’s like fate closing the door. The next scene is Bruce donning the cowl for the first time… and Batman being born.
Now, back in the modern day, we have the “Angel of Death” continuing to hunt down mobster associates of Chucky Sol. This figure, the Phantasm, wears a large blade on one hand, and seems to generate fog everywhere he goes. Unlike Batman, he doesn’t just turn his victims over to the police when they commit a crime – he hunts them down anywhere he can find them, and he kills them, terrorizing them first. With two deaths down, one of the remaining mobsters (Sal Valestra, a liver-spotted emphysemic) goes to speak to the last of his old cronies, seeking protection….
Unfortunately, that last one happens to be the Joker.
Mask of the Phantasm’s plot works between two different extremes; the romance of the past, and the mystery of the present. The ties between the two eras are constantly harkened to, as they shift between timeframes in ways that play nicely with the similarities between them. For example, Bruce staring up at the looming portrait of his parents shifts back to his visiting their grave. His rain-soaked embrace with Andrea in the past, just after a tearful confession to his dead parents that he doesn’t have the heart to fight the way he’d promised anymore, moves to his perching alone in darkness, the iconic image of the future that came of his decision that he *would* fight. Watching Andrea go out to dinner with the Councilman, where she mentions the future, brings back their memories of going on a date to the “World of the Future” exhibit at the Gotham World’s Fair… a relic of a past they both long for, that symbolizes a future they can’t have, and that serves as the backdrop for the final battle between the Phantasm, Batman, and the final target of the Phantasm’s rampage… the Joker himself.
This is also when we discover that the Phantasm, who Bruce has persuaded himself is Andrea’s father come back for revenge and to kill the men who’ve hounded him around the world, is really Andrea. One final flashback tells us that the Joker himself was the one who hunted down her father (with the Councilman’s help), and killed him, before he was the Joker. But Andrea – and, eventually, Bruce – both recognize him yet. Eventually, everything comes to a head. The Phantasm confronts the Joker, Batman hunts her down to try and save her… and we have an epic battle between three titans, each reflecting the spectrum of Batman’s existence.
The Phantasm, aptly referred to by the Joker as “the Ghost of Christmas Future,” who represents what Batman could so easily become. The Joker, who represents sheer madness and lunacy, a Nero who laughs as his world burns around him. And Batman, a good man who walks the fine line between sanity and madness, good and evil… and who is eventually doomed to be unable to save that happy past he longed for from the dark future he lives in.
As you might imagine, Andrea supposedly dies in the final battle, along with the Joker, disappearing into the ruins of the World of the Future as it explodes, hurling Batman clear. Batman retreats to mop up what’s left of his life… only to find that somebody’s been in the Batcave, and secreted Andrea’s pendant there. Our closing shot is of Andrea, standing alone on the deck of a cruise ship, leaving Gotham and her past behind, forever.
Now, spoiler-ridden synopsis completed, let’s take a look at the main theme I like about this film.
Mask of the Phantasm is, ultimately, Batman’s version of the film noir. The major players in this drama already know the hand that fate has dealt them. The past, that place of hopes and dreams and happiness, lies in ruins. The future that once looked so bright is twisted and rusted to nothingness, the domain of madmen like the Joker. When Batman encounters Andrea and the Joker in the World of the Future, we already know what’s going to happen. There’s no other way for it to end – the future has consumed Bruce’s past, and Andrea’s. As much as you might look back longingly, you’ve got no choice but to keep going forward, sailing off into the night. The more I’ve watched this movie over the years, the more I enjoy it, and the more I pick up deeper filmic elements than you’d normally see anybody dare to put into a kid’s movie.
All of this aside though… does it justify calling this the greatest Batman film of all time? Well, I think so… but I’ll admit, I’m a little biased. So here’s what I’m gonna do.
I have a copy of this that I bought on DVD. I have *another* copy that came in a boxed set with Return of the Joker and Sub Zero, but I can’t find it just now. However, when I *do* find it… I plan on holding a little contest. The winner takes home a brand-new, unwatched copy of Mask of the Phantasm of their very own. The rules?
Honestly, I don’t know yet. But keep tuning in once in a while to find out – as soon as I know them, I’ll post them here for everybody to see. 
So, what’s in line for next week? Well, hopefully, contest guidelines.
But beyond that, and whether or not I can find my prize package, I plan on giving you all a look into my twisted little brain, as we see what I would like to see (and know I won’t) for the third movie in the Batman Begins series.
Here’s a hint. It’s got a thing or two to do with our current offering….
