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Post by acathala on Sept 13, 2014 6:58:58 GMT -5
Since I know we're both fans I thought I'd start this thread. I think it stands up pretty well today. Rewatching some old episodes I'm pleasantly surprised by the amount of cameos made by stars. Even if it's just a hoodlum with not a lot of lines. Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil as Batman and Joker are probably the highlight of series. Personally I prefer Helen Slater's Talia to Adrienne Barbeau's Catwoman. I don't think I could pick a single favourite episode, but I think that the one where the kids have Batman in the basement is pretty terrible.
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Post by TG Barighm on Sept 16, 2014 2:13:53 GMT -5
What the hell happened in the fourth season? Suddenly the art style has gone all dorky and the stories have gotten dumb.
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Post by acathala on Sept 16, 2014 17:24:12 GMT -5
I think that wasn't part of the original series. That was packaged as the new adventures of Batman or some guff like that. It's generally bad.
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Post by TG Barighm on Sept 16, 2014 19:46:36 GMT -5
Grr. It must have been another weird licensing deal thing, which I've seen happen with other series, but in this case, the box is packaged exactly the same way as my vol. 1 and 2 boxes. Heck, even the opening sequence is exactly the same as the original shows, and they still use the same voice actors, but now everything sucks. There is absolutely no warning whatsoever that this isn't quite the same series. It even said in the product description that the set included the "Adventures of Batman and Robin" shows which I understood were the same.
Bloody hell. I feel like I've been ripped off. Yes, the voice actors are the same, but now Catwoman looks like a bloody goth chick with toothpick arms and pale skin. The way they did the women were one of the cool things about the show (okay, I admit it, the girls look hot even if they are just animated).
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Post by acathala on Sept 18, 2014 7:51:10 GMT -5
Yeah, if I had known you were picking up the 4th season, I would have tried talking you out of it.
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Post by TG Barighm on Sept 18, 2014 9:47:12 GMT -5
Now I know why the third season is so much harder to find.
On the bright side, the 4th season does continue and wrap up a few stories, and being poorer in general, I get a good sense of closure (unlike Gargoyles which is driving me nuts).
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Post by acathala on Sept 18, 2014 17:06:13 GMT -5
Yeah. The original team also made a couple of Batman animated movies. Mark of the Phantasm is probably the best, but The Mystery Of the Batwoman is okay.
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Post by TG Barighm on Sept 26, 2014 3:25:34 GMT -5
Ugh...that final disc of season 4 was...oh, god...just terrible. Absolutely frickin' terrible. You could actually sense the guys just trying to play out the rest of the season with fan-fic level filler and shameless promotions for the Superman series, although that last episode with the Judge wasn't too bad.
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Post by acathala on Sept 26, 2014 16:39:11 GMT -5
Yeah. It was fairly awful. Fortunately it didn't spoil the memories of the original series for me.
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Post by TG Barighm on Sept 26, 2014 21:01:13 GMT -5
Are you watching Gotham? Do you even get it?
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Post by acathala on Sept 27, 2014 13:03:02 GMT -5
I've seen the trailer. It will be coming out over here, so I will be watching it. Not sure what they're going to do with Pamela Isley's childhood, though Selina's has plenty of meat. Apparently the Riddler makes a cameo as a FBI profiler.
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Post by TG Barighm on Sept 27, 2014 13:22:16 GMT -5
I caught it the other day. Not too impressed. Acting and writing is pretty lame. You do see a lot of classical side characters though. Bullock and Montoya are in it, as is Falcone. Gordon is the star of the show and the focus of the plot seems to revolve around the corruption plaguing Gotham early on. Not sure who the black chick is supposed to be.
Hopefully the show improves over time.
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Post by acathala on Sept 27, 2014 16:07:55 GMT -5
I think she's been created for the show. What I'd like to see in a live action Batman, is the Red Hood arc.
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Post by TG Barighm on Sept 27, 2014 16:36:34 GMT -5
You'd probably have more luck with the Arkham series.
I'm starting to think the Animated Series should be renamed the "Arkham" series since it's really what carried the whole gothic theme Tim Burton introduced. It also established the idea that every major villain in the series is actually a psychotic whacko in need of therapy instead of just some nut in a colourful costume. This is a theme you can actually carry throughout the lifetime of a story and it's rife with possibilities. Standard colourful villains and thuggish gangsters is just Saturday morning cartoon and boring detective yarn stuff respectively.
Of course, I don't read comic books, so maybe they've already established those themes. TV and Hollywood usually seem to be about 15 years behind the comics.
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Post by TG Barighm on Oct 1, 2014 16:37:16 GMT -5
Just grabbed the third season. Man, this one took a long time to drop in price.
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Post by acathala on Oct 2, 2014 7:42:03 GMT -5
The 4th season probably dropped in price quicker than the 3rd because the 4th was crap. And yes the comics do deal with issues of those natures.
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Post by TG Barighm on Oct 11, 2014 15:30:36 GMT -5
Right now the only thing carrying the Gotham series is the Penguin. Yes, Selena has been a big part of it so far, but this whole generic detective stuff is total blah. Meanwhile, we've got this funny little guy murdering people left and right. And unlike the other charaters, he is the only character where his over acting feels appropriate (and he only does it when he initiates dialogue; he acts normally when he is just replying to other characters). It's actually kind of refreshing to see someone other than the Joker getting the spotlight.
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Post by acathala on Oct 12, 2014 8:55:32 GMT -5
Actually the Joker isn't my favourite Bat-Villain. I've always liked the Batman/Ra's/Talia dynamic best. Grant Morrison did great things with them on his run on the comics. I think Marion Cotillard was perfect casting in the Dark Knight Rises, though I wish she had been more in it.
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Post by TG Barighm on Oct 12, 2014 19:07:32 GMT -5
Everyone loves Ras, lol.
I do like how they handled the Joker in the animated series. The idea with him is that everything is supposed to be a big joke in his mind, but I never got that in other sources of media. I could see it in the animated series. And then there is how he was handled in the second Batman movie, but I give more credit to Heath Ledger for that.
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Post by acathala on Oct 13, 2014 12:34:31 GMT -5
I think it depends on the writer sometimes how the characters are protrayed. For example Frank Millar's Batman is different in characterisation to Grant Morrison's Batman. As for Ledger's Joker, I felt that he was more of a Nietzsche Wannabe.
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Post by acathala on Oct 15, 2014 21:22:35 GMT -5
Watched the first episode of Gotham. It was okay. Wanted to like it more but it wasn't deserving. I hope it does an Arrow and improve. I'll probably keep watching but so far it feels like a wasted opportunity. The Penguin seems to have been handled well, and the actor does a good job moving between charm and psychopathic fairly well. I don't like the actress playing Montoya. Not sure she can act.
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Post by TG Barighm on Oct 15, 2014 21:29:34 GMT -5
If you don't like Montoya then I'm afraid you will find the next few episodes to be painfully bad; however, Penguin keeps things interesting and by the 4th episode we finally see one that doesn't have any cringeworthy moments. Hopefully this will become the norm because it's fun seeing how these villains rose to power. I couldn't care less about the crime stories.
Now, is it my imagination, or is the comedian entertaining at the nightclub in the first episode supposed to be the Joker?
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Post by acathala on Oct 16, 2014 17:32:14 GMT -5
I saw a repeat and I think perhaps I was overly harsh on the actress. She does do a good job of portraying the anger both overtly and under the surface. In the comics, Montoya is a very angry cop. I'll give her another couple of episodes. I got the same feeling about the comedian. I hope we're wrong, as the Joker works better without a origin story. Or if he must have an origin, multiple choice origin. If they do go with an origin, I suspect I know what they'll go with.
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Post by TG Barighm on Oct 16, 2014 18:25:17 GMT -5
As far as I know, the Joker doesn't really have much of an origin story besides just appearing one day as a crazed uncontrollable hitman who just decided he'd be better off working for himself. Then he fell into a vat of chemicals.
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Post by acathala on Oct 16, 2014 20:19:15 GMT -5
By canon he doesn't have one. He likes to make up stories. Batman mocks Harley for falling for one in her origin.
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Post by acathala on Oct 26, 2014 17:49:49 GMT -5
Watched the second episode of Gothan. Bit better, though the villains of the week were a bit meh. I prefer Harvey to Jim. Penguin is probably the best thing about the show. I wish the actress playing Selina had remained silent, as I don't find her convincing. Montoya was bearable this episode.
I've seen some info on Arkham Knight.
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Post by TG Barighm on Oct 26, 2014 18:32:09 GMT -5
There's quite a bit of it. Not happy about the game going even MORE open world, now to a full-sized city that is far larger than Arkham City. There have also been some core gameplay tweaks to accomodate the techninical changes being utilized for next gen. Also, none of the original writers are involved with this project. It's now being written completely in-house with some minor consultation (I don't think "consultants" really do much).
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Post by acathala on Oct 27, 2014 20:47:05 GMT -5
It's sad that none of the original writers are involved, though in Paul Dini's case, that might be because he moved to Marvel. I suspect the consultants are only there to "protect" the properties. Still upsides are we seem to be getting a massive villain roster, the batmobile, and the new "terror" takedowns. Not sure about a completely new villain though.
Gotham continues the slow drip of improvement, nice to see Montoya's backstory is still mostly intact. The bizarre thing about the show, is that it's sponsored by the new X-men movie.
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Post by TG Barighm on Oct 27, 2014 21:48:50 GMT -5
Sounds like the game is losing its focus to me. I felt it had already lost some of its focus in City.
As for Gotham, the show took a bit of a break from the Penguin and instead focused on the Riddler for a bit.
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Post by TG Barighm on Nov 11, 2014 18:33:25 GMT -5
Ever hear of a show called Beware the Batman? I just happened to catch it while going through a particular nasty episode of insomnia. Didn't care for the animation, but I was kind of shocked to see Talia acting as a REGULAR ALLY for Batman in this episode. She wasn't acting like a backstabbing b*tch at all. She didn't seem to approve with his methods, but she communicated with Oracle and acted like she was always part of the team. Maybe one episode isn't nearly enough to know what's going on, but man, that's quite a development.
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