Know Your History

Ten years ago the geek world was hit with a terrible tragedy. A film franchise that seemed immortal was killed at the hands of one man. The film franchise I speak of is Batman and the man who killed it is Joel Shumacher. Everyone like to throw the name George Clooney around when they talk about the "Death of Batman" but it was really Shumacher that loaded the gun and gleefully opened fire. Batman Forever was the start of it all. With the exception of Commissioner Gordon and Alfred, everyone from the previous Batman movies wouldn't be returning for the third. While the movie has many faults it wasn't the final nail in the coffin. That last nail came in the summer of 1997. Joel Shumacher was on record saying that his vision of a Batman movie resembled that television from the 70's. The movie was campy and silly. The cast was made up of every flavor of the month and Coolio. The movie was so bad that it set back comic books movies another 3 years. It wasn't until movies like X-Men and Spider-Man were able to restore the reputation of the Comic Book Movie. Now we're spoiled and get almost two or three comic book movies a year. Some are good, some are average, and some aren't that great. BUT none of them have been as bad as "Batman & Robin". Has the movie industry learned it's lesson? I wish I could sit here and say that we will never have another "Batman & Robin" but unless we teach those to never forget the sins of Shumacher, the dark ages of comic book movies could return. Think about it. Sam Rami along with the whole cast of Spider-Man is done after this third movie. X-Men 3 was already hit with the curse of a new director and DC actually fired David Goyer from "The Flash" & Joss Whedon from "Wonder Woman". Not to mention the biggest sign of the apocalypse, Nicholas Cage finally got to star in a comic book movie.....and it actually made money. There's a storm coming........