Beyond Batman

A couple of weeks ago, the Internet was down in our apartment for three or four days. It was like being back in 1995 again. (If you don't remember what that was like, check out the last 20 seconds of this clip.)

The first of these days was a Saturday, and I quickly found myself without my usual means of entertaining myself (Hulu, YouTube, my favorite sports and entertainment columnists, etc.). I eventually made my way to my DVD collection, which often goes neglected for weeks or months at a time. With one or two exceptions, I've seen every movie I own...but I've never watched MY copy of most of these movies.

I'm pretty sure I know the reason for this--once you own a movie, all urgency to watch it is removed. You know you can watch it any time you want, and so you never watch it. I've watched all or part of some of these same movies when they're shown on TV, yet still have never popped my own DVD into the player. Do any of you do the same thing? I have a feeling I'm not alone here.

Anyway...I noticed the Batman Anthology on my shelf. It came out about five years ago, but I just bought it about six months ago (by the way, the price right now is insanely good--if you like Batman at all you should buy it). As noted above, I hadn't watched any of the movies since they became my property.

One of the reasons I wanted the anthology is that I had heard that, on the director's commentary for Batman & Robin, Joel Schumacher basically apologized for derailing the franchise for a while with that movie. So I watched the movie with the commentary track, and unfortunately, the rumor wasn't quite true.

At one point, he mentioned that the screenwriter for B&R had received criticism, and Schumacher said he had final say on the story, so any perceived shortcomings were actually his fault. However, he seemed genuinely pleased with the movie. He did at least acknowledge that many aspects of it (costumes, vehicles, props) were created simply as marketing opportunities--they wanted to sell a lot of toys. As a result the movie stunk (my opinion, not the director's), and we had to wait eight years for the franchise to be resurrected.

My point is this--well, actually I guess I have two points. The first point: Batman is (usually) awesome. The second: I hope I never have to go that long without Internet access again.