Too Many Bat-Baddies
Reports have been surfacing all weekend that both Two-Face and The Riddler will be joining The Joker in The Dark Knight, sequel to Batman Begins. If so, I hasten to point out that this is the sort of thing that killed the last round of Bat-films: too many villains.
One can hope that, at worst, we will see these guys in their pre-presumed identities. Then the movie will choke on an overdose of foreshadowing, but that beats the camera having to pick favorites for each shot. Nothing would beat two hours of Batman taking on The Joker, pure and simple.
Damn. And I really liked Batman Begins.
What is this obsession with loading up superhero movies with multiple villains? It's like the movie studios have this lack of faith that comic book movies can grab an audience without tons of big-name actors playing the bad guys. That said, rumor has it that Anthony Michael-Hall is playing Riddler, and that *would* be cool.
And why would the movie makers need to look any further than…Kite-Man!
Look. Technically I think it can be done, and it could be enjoyable… they just have to structure the films completely differently from the traditional screenplay format.Theoretically if each half hour was treated as if it was it's own distinct story, you could squeeze four villains in at a decent pace for a two hour movie. Films are running longer these days so there's your pad. Think of it as four really big budget cartoons. That's really what they should be anyway. A really crafty story can weave the four plots to one larger tale. I think your fears are based on previous movies. Historically the real problem with putting lots-o-villains in these films is that they waste so much time in each film showing us how the villain came to be. Guess what, no one cares. It's boring.The villain is the villain– just let him attack and get on with it. If you cut out every villain's origin sequence from the Penguin to damn near all of SWI – SWIII, to Doc Oc, The Goblin, Sandman, etc. etc… Think of the first Star Wars– the one that worked really well. It just happened. Vader walked in the blasted door, surrounded by his soldiers, he was the villain and the movie moved on from there. That's how it should be.We all know who the Joker is at this point, we all know who the riddler and two face are. And when I say everyone here, I mean everyone. Chances are if you're that person who doesn't know these characters by now, you don't care either way. So F'm. They're the ones gonna be talking during the movie anyway. at least that will give them a good reason.Origin sequences do not belong in movies unless you're trying to slow down the story. Stop trying to make me care about Sandman and his daughter. I don't care, the audience doesn't care… cut out all that nonsense and just get to the fun stuff.
FYI- my line breaks in the above post were not automatically converted…
I was impressed with Batman Begins and will give them the benefit of the doubt on loading up the movie with villians. It seemed to work well in Spiderman 3.