The Death of Batman

This short film is far removed from the campness of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin. The film is meant to be a sort of conclusion to Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns. It questions heroics and what happens if the heroes get it wrong. In this case, very wrong. The performance of Christopher Stapleton as Batman can't be faulted, it really seems like it could be Michael Keaton himself under the mask. And Trip Hope has the near impossible feat of convincing the audience that he is almost in the right to be capturing Batman. Murky and very morally dubious, this film is best suited to open-minded fan of the film who aren't put off by a title which pretty much sums up the end of the film. Though fans of Burton's film will most probably delight in an even more depressing and dark incarnation of the Bat.

I know this film is meant as open minded, but it should not have been made. As a Bat-fan this film did disturb me, but they've got the character of Batman all wrong. He is a master escape artist and second to none in self defense. The performance of Batman is exemplary, but the execution is not there. One of the things that make Batman great is how he keeps surviving to fight the never-ending fight. No real Batman fan should see this because it's depressing and disheartening for our favorite hero.

This movie is horrendous. The actors, although some of them veterans in the biz, were terrible. It is completely unwatchable with the story making zero sense. I watched half of this movie and had to physically walk away from the screen. NOT RECOMMENDED!!! I found this film through a search for Christian Bale, who plays remarkably in Batman Begins and his sister is Mrs Wayne in this horrific movie. Please do not watch this movie, there are now 28 minutes of my life that are forever lost among this movie and I am not happy about that! I would rather watch paint dry than to watch this movie again. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! BATMAN FANS WILL BE ANGRY AFTER WATCHING THIS!

I know this a fan made movie, but good god is this cheap. Watching this 29 minute film was the most awkward experience ever.

So Batman somehow gets captured by a petty thief who then chains him up for the next 30 days, and that right there is the biggest error of this film. Batman is smart and always on his feet, and I don't think chains and some random druggy will stop him.

What kind of fan made film is this? Batman literally gets raped, beaten and addicted to drugs. Batman is a little bitch in this and is way too emotionally triggered by everything that the thief says, which is really hilarious to watch.

What a load of crap. I've seen fan made movies filmed in someones back yard more believable than this.

The first line of dialogue in this indie short is Batman saying "Not a good idea" and that accurately sums up the whole project. The original concept, writing and approach to the character in 'The Death of Batman' are not good ideas and, in fact, the entire short is a extremely bad idea. This short has nothing to do with the other fan-based indie shorts, 'Batman: Dead End,' 'World's Finest,' and 'Grayson,' which are essentially mock-up trailers for films that fans would like to see developed and are intended for presentation at comic conventions. Whereas those three shorts are created out of a spirit of fanboy reverence and earnest enthusiasm for superhero movies, 'The Death of Batman' feels like it was made by a person expressing severe angst toward the concept of the superhero. I hesitate to use the word disturbing to describe this short because that word suggests an emotional impact that a skilled filmmaker could achieve, in the way a horror movie or an art film can be both disturbing and rewarding. 'The Death of Batman' is disturbing without being rewarding in the slightest. I think I understand what the director had intended; Batman as a Christ-figure (the short's last image is a stained-glass image of Jesus). So the less-than brilliant rationale for this indie short appears to be that for the Dark Knight to work, cinematically, as a Christ-figure he must be brutally tortured and die. The director seems focused on every type of taboo that could never make it into a studio superhero movie, such as having the hero tortured, sexually assaulted and then pointlessly killed with a heroin overdose. Personally I like a darker Gotham than most and I have imagined what an R-rated Batman movie might be like, however 'The Death of Batman' is unrewarding even in simply seeing it as a for-adults superhero story because all of its extremeness and shock value is all it has to offer. This short is nothing more than somebody's perverse imagining of Batman's death with no redeeming character insight and a failed Christ comparison. This is not a funny short, as others on this sit have suggested - it is not amusing or entertaining or even thought-provoking.

If you are someone who cares about the character of Batman, this short is only an upsetting and angering experience– Do yourself a favor, DO NOT WATCH THIS SHORT. I don't mean that as in a trekkie telling you not to watch 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' because it fails to meet certain expectations or do not watch 'Batman & Robin' because it's a waste of time, I mean that if you watch this short could ruin Batman for you. I wish I had never seen it.