It's Beyond Me

I made a pretty good impulse buy today. I was making my way through Wal-Mart, me and my wife reminding each other that our grocery list was to be followed. Not that we are health nuts ... far from it. Just that we seem to always shop hungry. Then I saw it... shuffled on the shelf with other items to cross-promote one icon. Batman.

On the whole the character never impresses me to much. It is one of those characters who I often struggle to like. A single aspect I could always get into, however, was that great 90s animated series. Great for the character... great for animation... great all around. In the company of several other DVDs, was Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker. Now I have seen this movie, it was on Cartoon Network once, back when I had access to that channel. So, I knew enough to have a few good memories. And I also knew that whoever made this movie... had enough sense to get Mark Hamill back. The man defines the Joker for me, and the amount of passion in his performances, well it was a thing of psychotic beauty.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Beyond treatment, let me give a little background. It takes place 50 years after the Gotham City of the animated series. And a new Batman has taken the mantle... literally. Along with a kick ass 21 century costume. Bruce Wayne (is still alive) and still maintains a level of welcome alliance being linked in communication with the new Batman via the Batcave.

The new Batman? A young ward (oops) ... Assistant, by the name of Terry McGinnis. Who takes over when Bruce Wayne has finally given up. He takes the suit and unleashes vigilante justice. Seeing potential, and realizing his city will always need Batman, Bruce takes Terry under his wing. And the rest is history... well, future... history.

One of the things that struck me about this movie, that escaped me at previous viewings (thank you commercial breaks : P ) Is the pure emotion driven sequence that was Batman and Joker's final battle in the past. Just some powerful work from everyone involved, truly a dark, horrific and sad event portrayed expertly. It made me wish ... that if the comic book series did get to this point. That might be the route to take.

Anyway, it was a pretty good exchange. Eight dollars to take me back to one of the few aspects of the Caped Crusader that I did enjoy. Though I picked up the uncut original version, as the package proudly displayed, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out what is different. Oh well, at least I got to see Batgirl... watch out for that puddle of fanboy drool on the way out of this here blog.