Batman: Should Not Be Rebooted

Domestic:	$205,343,774
+ Foreign:	$167,366,241

When Batman rebooted itself in 2005, I thought that it was going to suck and suck hard. Batman has been through the reboot ring a couple of times with Adam West's onomatopoeia Batman and Michael Keaton's darker yet 10X cooler than Adam West in tights Batman. I was a huge fan of Michael Keaton's Batman and thoroughly enjoyed Batman and Batman Returns. But if you are like me, you felt some anguish when Val Kilmer and George Clooney took the mantle in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. I can see what they were trying to do with the whole age progression thing, but they changed too much too soon. The Bat-mobile looked stupid with those two wing attachments, i'm sorry but someone has to say it. There is a reason why if any tv show or movie has the Bat-mobile, it's the one Keaton had and not the updated fairy mobile. The last two films lost their dark tone and took a very goofy and cheesy tone. The Terminator as the ice man? Really? It was safe to say, I wasn't pleased.

So now in 2005, we have this new film, and the man playing Batman used to be a Newsies kid. So I steadily boycotted the film until I actually sat down and watched it. It's funny how quickly hope in something can be restored because after the movie ended, I was back on the Bat train. I loved everything from the new bat suit, to the humongous Bat tank. Now, back then I thought that the film was a prequel, and did justice by the first film by stating that the Joker would be the next target for Batman at the end. So I thought they pulled a George Lucas. How shocked I was to see that it was not a prequel but indeed a reboot. I didn't want to see a new Joker because I was pretty content with Jack Nicholson's portrayal in 1989. But when I saw the late Heath Ledger take that role to new depths of narcissism and evil, I knew that this franchise was indeed something special.

The Dark Knight rolled onto the screen in 2009 and took fan for one of the longest (That movie was freaking long) and twisted rides any super hero fan has been on in a good while, if ever. The Dark Knight was a huge success in both box office and fan base. The fans of old joined with the new fans to create a cultural and generational bridge. In short, the movie was all that.

Flash forward two years, we have entered into the rebooting mindset with two of the biggest film heroes, Spider-Man and Superman, dropping the old story lines and receiving reboot treatment. With talks of a third Batman movie underway, I breath a sigh of relief with other fans that the franchise has not been rebooted. I don't see any point in rebooting right now, especially when super hero movies are so popular now. As I said with Superman, there are tons of villains in the DC universe that have yet to step foot onto the big screen and even more story lines to be shown. Robin doesn't stay Robin forever, Batgirl gets shot and paralyzed, Batman eventually meets Superman and joins the Justice League. There are so many ways to go with the story.

No one cares about the beginnings anymore. We all know how Bruce became Batman and we all know how Clark became Superman. Now it's time to focus on continuity. Let's keep the same actors and directors, or at least have replacement actors and directors that will commit to the original story idea and not twist it so much that in hangs on by a thread. We have a Justice league movie finally in the works. I want to see Christian Bale as Batman, and someone good for Superman. It can be Tom Welling, Brandon Routh, or even this new guy if he does Superman justice.

So no, I do not endorse this franchise rebooting, not when the success rate is so high. Even if the third bombs, it can be saved in the forth just don't reboot.