BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM
A film review by Zen
Copyright 1994 ZENF@UVVM.UVIC.CA
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM is a moderately successful translation of the small-screen animated series to the silver screen. Unfortunately, the success of the animated series is this movie's own worst competition; the film never comes close to attaining the 23:30 epiphanies of episodes like "Harley & Ivy," "Almost Got Him", or "Heart of Ice."
The plot is fairly straightforward. A new vigilante, the Phantasm (who bears a suspicious resemblance to the Reaper, the Barr/Davis character from "Batman: Year Two") is killing mobsters. Seen from a distance fleeing the crime, the Phantasm is mistaken for Batman. Naturally enough, Bats investigates. It turns out that he encountered all of these characters early in his crime-fighting career. Through a series of flashbacks, we meet an early love of Bruce Wayne's, Andrea Beaumont (who is, I think, a character new to the Batman legend). Most of the flashback sequences concerns Bruce's indecision about whether to allow himself to fall in love with Andrea (who is, it must be said, a well-written foil to Bruce) or to follow his vow to his parents to fight crime. We get to see, for example, Bruce's first attempt at crime-fighting without the cape and cowl (in a scene obviously drawn from Miller's "Batman: Year One"). The Joker is involved in all of this, too, but I won't say how in this review.
As I mentioned, much of the story is told through flashbacks. These scene have real emotions in them, and they're well done character moments, but they slow the pace of the film drastically. Expectations are always a dangerous thing, but I was hoping for something with a bit more action. Fortunately, the finale between Batman and the Joker is big and quite exciting, but the film *as a whole* is no roller-coaster.
While the Phantasm is appropriately menacing, the Joker once again steals the show. The Joker is superbly performed (thaaaank you, Mark Hamill) and written--he's far more creepy than he ever gets to be on the tube. One reason for this is that, in a major break with the TV show, people actually *die* in this film ... clearly, Warner felt it could take a bit more dramatic license in a theatre than it could on a weekday afternoon.
The show's acclaimed "dark deco" look is intact. The animation, however, while without peer on television, is only average looking on the silver screen, particularly with Disney's last few triumphs so so recent in the public's memory. The one thing I really noticed myself was the sound. Maybe for those of you with multi-thousand dollar home entertainment systems won't notice, but with my tiny tinny little mono TV speaker, the difference going into a theatre is *dramatic*.
BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM is equal to the show that created it. If you want to see it in the movie theatres, though, better do it within the next week or two. The audience was pretty thin when I saw it this weekend, and this one will probably be hitting the video store shelves soon.
>>>Zen Faulkes!<<<
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