Batman 1966 Film Review

DC fans as you all may no doubt know there is a CRISIS going on over at The CW and it looks like it's going to last until January. So because of this CRISIS I thought that i'd take you all back to a happier time for this review yes sir this is a time before the sky turned red and also a time before an older Burt Ward appeared and yes due to this CRISIS this film is now technically canon in the Arrowverse so here is my review of the 1966 Batman film.

The plot of this movie is The Joker , Penguin , Riddler and Catwoman have realised it's the start of the week and so have escaped from Arkham and plot to take over the world and it's up to the dynamic duo to stop them before it's to late. This is honestly the kind of plot that you'd expect from a feature length version of the campy Batman 60's TV show and rightfully it doesn't feel like an extended episode because this is only a story that could have been told in a film and not in a few episodes of the show.

Starring in the film is the late and great Adam West as Bruce Wayne / Batman , Holy Arrowverse Crossover Batman as Dick Grayson / Robin , Lee Meriwether as Catwoman , Cesar Romero as The Joker , Burgess Meredith as The Penguin , Frank Gorshin as The Riddler , Alan Napier as Alfred Pennyworth , Neil Hamilton as Commissioner James "Jim" Gordon , Stafford Repp as Chief Miles O'Hara , Madge Blake as Aunt Harriet Cooper and Reginald Denny as Commodore Schmidlapp.

The acting in the film was honestly one of the best things about the whole film due to how over the top it could be. There is a sense that the actors knew that this wasn't meant to be taken seriously and so they just went nuts with there performances and that to me is a really great thing because if it looks like there having a good time then we the audience should be having a good time as well it's just a shame that whenever people mention who there favourite Batman is know body mentions Adam West.

Let us take a second to talk about the Adam West version of Batman because I honestly don't think that enough people talk about this version of the character. To me this version of Batman represents hope he's a hopeful character and unlike a lot of other versions of the character he takes the time to teach Robin a few life lessons while he's not the biggest or the darkest he is the one that we need when times are dark to remind us that there's always light at the end of the tunnel.

There's no getting around the fact that this film is campy as all hell to me that only adds to the entertainment value. While laughing at the film is more often than not a bad thing here it's a good thing as well because your laughing at how bad the jokes are or at how badly written and on the nose it is sometimes you just need to watch a campy over the top film just to get yourself through the week.

Now like many of you I was super excited to see this years Arrowverse crossover event i've seen them all and I own a few on DVD. However what I wasn't expecting was for Burt Ward to be reprising his role as Robin in the opening minuets of the first part of the crossover that just blew my mind because it now says that this movie and thus the TV show are now part of the Arrowverse so whenver you guys are watching this movie or this show your not just watching a campy as hell Batman product your watching adventures from Earth-66.

What would have made Burt's appearance all the more epic in my opinion was if they had him in a scene with Adam West. I know that Adam died a few years ago but how cool would it have been to see the dynamic duo in live action again just one more time but they did have the 60's Batman theme playing which i'll admit was pretty freaking awesome even if it was only being played for a few seconds.

This film also features the feature film debut for all four of it's main villains Joker , Penguin , Riddler and Catwoman. This was honestly something that I never knew before and I found it to be quite interesting because now if there's a film that features anyone of them as the villain we take it for granted and so to see that the only started appearing in films fifty years ago which isn't that long is really interesting because the Batman film serials used original villains and so to see actual comic book villains not only appear on the show but in the film must have been really something for fans at that time.

Like I said before this film is really on the nose with how they reveal who the villains are they drop some not so very subtle clues as to who the villains are and they even say that these four are the only villains that are on the loose right now. Like how much more on the nose could you really get "oh gee I wonder if it's Alfred who's the villain" all jokes side I would have liked it if they actually did hide who the villains were just so then Batman would actually have a mystery to solve but at the same time this film is meant to little kids so you can kind of see why they didn't take that approach.

There is one scene that I have to talk about just due to how freaking funny it is and it's oddly enough the ending. As a way to get out of the building without being noticed Batman and Robin decide to climb out of the window if anything that's going to make people notice you because your two people walking down the side of a building if anything it would have made more sense for them to walk out the door but at the same time it would have gone against the tone of the film if they did infact do that so it goes both ways.

Now then since this is an action film that means that we have to talk about the action that's seen in the film. In all honesty the action even tho it's very limited but at the same time it's still very enjoyable and it's enjoyable due to how limited it is and by limited I mean they don't do anything as over the top as something you'd see in a modern action movie all it is is fight scenes and that really does work for this version of the character at least in my opinion.

Overall while this isn't the best representation of Batman it's not the worst one either and for what tone the film is going for it really does work. This is a film that I can see lots of little kids liking but for some reason there are so few releases of this film so you really have to look hard to track down a copy of it on either DVD or Blu-Ray and even tho this film is good it still has plenty of flaws and so it gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me.