DC News: DCFanDome Event for August, Michael Keaton is Back and more

Yeah, I am really trying to hold off on the DC stuff with this blog (no, really, I am) and I was going to wait until a couple of weeks but too much stuff has come out that needs to be talked about, so let's get on with it, shall we?

The biggest headline first would be the fact that Michael Keaton is coming back to the DC universe. Yup, while he might have been playing Vulture in the MCU (as well as upcoming Morbius movie for Sony), he's also in talks to reprise his role of Bruce Wayne for the upcoming movie, The Flash, which will take on the Multiverse and a certain classic comic book as Ezra Miller's Barry Allen tries to prevent his mother's death and winds up creating another universe where Keaton's much older Bruce Wayne appears. To say I didn't see this development coming would be an understatement of the highest order.

After years of development hell, The Flash is finally coming to the big screen and while there were rumours before that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was going to play the Thomas Wayne version of Batman, it's now good as confirmed that Keaton will be an older Bruce Wayne, serving as a mentor to superheroes and may be popping up in other movies as well. This movie, written by Birds Of Prey Christina Hodson and directed by IT's Andy Muschietti is also rumored to be featuring Ray Fisher's Cyborg and a potentially recast Iris West. It also seems for now that Ezra Miller will remain in the lead role (despite an incident earlier in the year) but seeing as we're delving into the Multiverse, maybe there's a chance for a Grant Gustin cameo too? After all, we did see Ezra pop up earlier this year in Crisis On Infinite Earths for the Arrowverse, so why the hell not?

However with the arrival of Keaton's older Bruce for The Flash and fans getting the chance to see Ben Affleck in Zack Snyder's Justice League, the question remains - where does that leave Robert Pattinson? Right now, it seems that Pattinson and Matt Reeves The Batman will be in it's own universe and not affected by anything but seeing as we're in the Multiverse now, I wouldn't rule out Robert's Batman popping up at some point. Either way, it's all good and in better news, The Batman will now resume filming from July 6th, so some new information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

In further exciting news - if you haven't already, then mark August 22nd from 10am onwards in your diaries. On that day, we will get DCFanDome - a 24 hour event that will have many live panels for virtually every upcoming DCEU movie and current TV/streaming series as well as news on upcoming comics and games. There's even a site set up so fans can get creative with their fandoms and explore plenty of virtual content on the day itself. Needless to say, this event will generate a few blogs as I'll do my best to cover all the big hitting moments.

On a sad note, it was also announced yesterday that Joel Schumacher passed away at the age of 80. The director who had quite an amazing career with movies like The Lost Boys, The Client, Phone Booth and also his involvement with the Caped Crusader with the likes of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin left an amazing impression on Hollywood with many people who worked with him in the past speaking out about his passing.

Michael Keaton News: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/michael-keaton-talks-reprise-batman-role-hamilton-trailer-more-thr-news-1299746
Joel Schumacher: https://entertainment.ie/cinema/movie-news/joel-schumacher-tributes-456036/
DCFanDome Site: https://dcfandome.talenthouse.com/

The Flash will begin filming in the first quarter of 2021 with a June 3rd 2022 release date. The Batman will now be released on October 1st 2021 and DCFanDome will stream from August 22nd online from 10am.

My Review of Batman & Robin (1997)

Written by Akiva Goldsmith
Directed by Joel Schumacher

Poison Ivy: "There's just something about an anatomically correct rubber suit that puts fire in a girl's lips."
Batman: "Why is it that all the beautiful ones are homicidal maniacs? Is it me?"

Oh dear. And here's where things went down the pan for the Batman franchise until Christopher Nolan would later restore. It's like everything that was fun about Batman Forever was upped several notches and ended up having the most adverse of effects on the dynamic duo/not so terrific trio.

So what exactly went wrong with this movie? Well, let's talk about George Clooney for a start. A great actor in some respects but not exactly a riveting Batman (though he gets the Bruce Wayne bits right) and one who was also hampered by an erratic script and slightly dodgy suit to an extent and that's not even getting into the tedious rivalry between Batman and Robin that took up way too much screen time as well.

For a movie that should've been about the strength of the dynamic duo, it became more of an annoying rivalry with Robin mainly bleating on about not being seen as an equal or the not so interesting love 'triangle' between him, Batman and Poison Ivy. It's a shame really because Chris O'Donnell is still good as Robin but he's given such tedious material to work with in this movie that there were times when you almost wished Batman had left him as an ice sculpture early in the movie.

Alicia Silverstone does fare marginally better as Barbara Wilson/Batgirl, who is at least useful and more proactive/butt kicking than Robin or even Batman are allowed to be to a degree. It also helps that she's got a likeability factor as well and the rewrite of her being Alfred's niece instead of Commissioner Gordon's daughter works considering how much of a nonentity the latter remained throughout this entire franchise as well.

The best part of this movie concerned Alfred though. Giving him a niece was one thing but dangling the possibility of him not making it out of the movie alive was another. While this might be the worst movie of the four, it is also without a doubt the one where Michael Gough was given plenty to do and gave his best performance throughout. It kind of makes me wish that the previous movie had given him more to do.

As for the villains of the piece - ugh, what was done with Bane pretty much equaled character assassination. The character might be a brute but he's usually an intelligent, calculating one. Here he's basically reduced to a 'grab/smash' henchman for the other two baddies before eventually being dispatched off. At least fifteen years after this movie was released, Tom Hardy was able to give an accurate depiction of the character. Jeep Swenson isn't given that luxury here though.

Then there's Mr Freeze. He's certainly a cool customer and like with the Carrey/Jones double act of the previous movie, there's a competition of sorts with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy as to see who can chew up the scenery the most but at times, this genuinely did hamper the movie more than anything. Still, Freeze's almost successful plan to reduce Gotham to an icy world did at least look nice visually but it's Thurman's take on Ivy that enabled her to be the successful villain of the bunch, even if it meant having to sit through that tedious rivalry with Batman and Robin for her affections.

- Julie Madison (Elle Macpherson) - what was the point of the character? At least Vicki and Chase served a purpose in their movies.
- Had this movie not sunk the franchise, there was the possibility of a follow up called Batman Triumphant ... http://batman.wikia.com/wiki/Batman_Triumphant
- Did we really need to see two versions of each of Batman/Robin/Batgirl's costumes?
- This was also the only film where none of the baddies learned about Batman's real identity. I guess that's pretty interesting.

After such a promising start to this whole franchise, it's a shame that Batman & Robin's too goofy tone at times was the thing that shot the franchise. Perhaps in retrospect, it did benefit from the rest before Nolan's trilogy rejuvenated things but despite some fun moments here and there, this was certainly a disappointing movie.

Rating: 5 out of 10