In this episode, Movie Mike covers all that we know about ‘The Batman’ starring Robert Pattinson and ranks the best actors to ever play Batman. Last week, we got our first look at Robert Pattinson in ‘The Batman’. There have been so many greats (and no so greats…) to play the role of Batman, one of the most beloved comic book characters of all-time. Do the character justice — and receive high critical acclaim! Do the character wrong — and get ridiculed meme after meme. Plus, we’ll look at the best Batman villains ever to appear on the big screen. Movie Mike also gives his review of ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ which came in at No. 1 at the box office this week.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am movie
Mike on Twitter and Instagram at Mike Destro and this week,
in this episode, I am talking about Batman. It's the
Batman episode because we saw the first look of Robert
Pattinson in the new movie The Batman, and it's pretty
interesting and causing some debate online or whether or not
Robert Pattinson will be a good Batman because everybody kind
(00:21):
of knows him as Edward of Colin from Twilight. So
we'll get into all we know about that movie up
to this point from the director. I'll also rate the
best Batman actors of all time and the best villains,
so all that coming up in the special Batman episode.
And I'll also do a review of the movie I
saw over the weekend, Sonic the Hedgehog, which a movie
that made my most anticipated movies of this year, so
(00:43):
we'll find out if it was even any good. And
if you're new here, Hi, Welcome to the show. I
am Movie Mike. I am also on a show called
The Bobby Bones Show, and I produced a show called
The Bobby Cast also here on the Nashville Podcast Network.
I'm a guy who loves movies. Ever since I was
a kid, I watched a bunch of movies and as
I got older, I just started reviewing them on my Instagram.
A few years later, I have a podcast. But if
(01:04):
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Or wherever you're listening, just hit that follow button, hit
that subscribe and see you get brand new episodes every
(01:26):
single Monday. Alright, So with all that covered, here we
go with a Batman episode. Let's get started. In a
world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one
man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never
before in a movie podcast. A man with so much
movie knowledge. He's basically like a walking on MTV, which
(01:47):
classes from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is movie movie podcast.
So this episode I am dedicating entirely to Batman because
last week we had the first ever look at Robert
Pattinson as the new Batman, and I want to kind
of explain what's going on and what we know so
far about that movie, what I think that Robert Pattinson
(02:09):
will bring to the role, if people even work as Batman,
and then I'll also get into later who I think
the best Batman actors ever were and the best villains.
So first of all, let's just look at what this
movie is going to be. So there has not been
a solo Batman movie since the Dark Knight trilogy. Everything
that came with Ben Affleck was all just it was
Batman versus Superman. He was in the Suicide Squad for
(02:32):
a bit and then they did the Justice League. So
I think Ben Affleck really never had a fighting shot
to be a decent Batman, to show what he could
do in that role, because he never really had his
own solo, standalone movie. It was a bit of a
controversial casting back in the day when that was announced,
just because people don't really see Ben Affleck as Batman,
or they just didn't think he was that great of
an actor. And I kind of feel like Robert Pattinson
(02:54):
is getting that a bit now. It's such a big
role to play Christian Bale. That's such a good job
as the Batman in and now I think it's such
a more coveted role, even more so than Joker what
we've seen with Lakim Phoenix done a really good job
with that. So anybody who's going to play Batman now
has a really just high level that they have to
come in with. So everybody kind of thinks is Robert
(03:15):
Pattinson is still the Twilight guy, and even though that
first movie came out over ten years ago, they just
see him as Edward from Twilight. But after this first
look that we have, if you haven't seen it, the
director Matt Reeves posted this like minute long video. It's
pretty much just a close up on Robert Pattinson in
the bat suit with a really flushed out red look.
(03:36):
So it's just this music playing underneath it and you
kind of get zoomed in. You see the see the mask,
and you see the play and pretty much that's it.
There's no voice, no talking to or anything. That's the
only thing we've seen so far of this new Batman.
So the title of the movie as of now is
called The Batman. The scheduled release date is June my
thirtieth birthday shout out. UM. The cast, we have Robert Pattinson,
(04:00):
Joe Manganello, Colin Farrell, Jeremy Irons, Zoe Kravitz, and Jeffrey
Wright so far cast in the movie. Um. Rumors were
that Jonah Hill was going to be in it. He's not.
He backed out, So this is who we're working with now.
I'll get into all of their roles here in a second,
but I think this first looks pretty promising. I know
he was getting a lot of comparisons as to looking
(04:20):
like the Daredevil from the Netflix series, which I think
it's all because of that red tint. You could probably
argue that the Daredevil suit essentially saw the Batman look,
which I don't think it's a bad thing. Hey, I
would love it if it was resemble that Netflix series
at all, because that's a really great way they pulled
off a comic book character and made it super gritty
and realistic. So if they get back to that, I
(04:43):
think that would be amazing. But with this movie, like
I said, it's the first solo Batman movie they've done
since the Dark Knight trilogy, and I think they're kind
of getting back to Batman as being the greatest detective ever,
because that's essentially what he is. Batman is an aid
to the police in Gotham City, and although he is
a vigilante, he usually works with the police to find
(05:03):
the criminal that they're looking for. And in other movies,
he's already kind of established and essentially the thea villa
that comes to town and he goes in and helps
defeat them. But I think with this one, there's no
role set plot of the movie, but they're saying it's
based on the graphic novel Batman Year One, which is
essentially Batman's first year as Batman, where he's kind of
(05:24):
figured things out as a detective and essentially solving the crime.
So kind of like in the other earlier Batman movies
they did, he's essentially gonna be working with Officer Gordon
to kind of figure it out, which I think is
a pretty cool way to approach this new movie of
kind of giving them back of that initial role as
just being a detective. There's also really no word if
there's going to be any kind of origin story in
(05:46):
this movie, which I think it's something they should probably
stay away from. They tried it in Batman versus Superman,
and I thought it didn't work. I think we kind
of know a Batman's story by now, and maybe it's
a bit overtold. I think kind of what happened when,
like something like Spider Man, we were just kind of
over that origin story being told every single time. We
kind of got fatigue of that character. And what Marvel
(06:09):
kind of did in the new version of Spider Man
is just go right into it. Don't get into his
back story. You make subtle references to it, but you
don't really need to tell or show that again to audiences.
I hope they stay away from that in this movie.
So let's get a look now at where they are
with making this movie. So they started production back on January.
You have Andy Serkis, who will play Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred.
(06:32):
You have Colin Farrell confirmed to play Oswald copper Pot,
also known as the Penguin, which I think is a
pretty interesting casting there. I'm not really sure that I
could find Colin Farrell as a villain like that. You
have Paul Dano, who you might know from a little
Bit Sunshine or There will be Blood. He will be
playing the Riddler. You have Zoe Kravitz you may know
from Big Little Lives, she would be playing Catwoman. Jeffrey
(06:55):
Right from West World will be playing James Gordon, and
then of course you have Robert Pattinson playing Batman. So
this movie has had a pretty long journey as far
as getting made. They started pretty much coming up with
this idea back in before all of the Ben Affleck
Batman movies came out, and after the first reactions of that,
they were like, Okay, maybe we're not gonna really have
Ben Affleck move forward with this project, and he eventually
(07:18):
later tweeted that, like, you know, I'm glad to see
this being taken into production, but I'm not going to
be involved in it. It was a pretty peaceful departure
between the studios and Ben Affleck. So when I first
heard that Robert Pattinson was going to be Batman, I
think I had the reaction that maybe most other people
had of like, oh no, it's Edward Collen was gonna
be Batman. But the more I thought about it, the
more I've just seen his recent work and realized that man,
(07:41):
Robert Pattinson is a really good actor, and if you're
gonna put somebody to kind of compare. I don't even
think you're comparing him to Ben Affleck anymore. I think
that came and went never really stuck. So I think
people are comparing him to Christian Bale because with this
movie they're trying to go that same route of being
that dark, gritty batman again. And I think b casting
what Robert Pattinson, you kind of get a really great
(08:03):
actor who can kind of go and make it that
kind of movie again. I think it's hard for characters
who get typecast, and Robert Pattinson, I think it's someone
who kind of realized that and started taking on. He
was more particular of what roles he took after Twilight.
He really wanted to lean more George Roles. That kind
of showed him as an actor. And I'm pretty confident
(08:23):
in this director of Mike Reeves, who if you don't know,
he did Dawn to the Planet of the Ape or
The Planet of the Apes, which were really great reboots
of a beloved franchise and almost I think better than
the originals. He also did movies like clover Field, and
just by this clip they released, I kind of have
a good feeling going into it again. We have a
pretty long way to wait until but I'm excited to
(08:45):
see more details as they come out about this movie
as far as what they're gonna make it about and
just what this cast is gonna look like on screen together.
But I think when I love the most about this
movie is that has just stacked with the villains, which
I think is what sets Batman apart from any other
superhero franchise. So you're getting Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, and Carmine Falcony.
So I think if they're able to get the writing
(09:05):
right in this script and just have a really good
understanding of the concept of this movie and what this
story is going to tell, if they're basically on that
graphic novel, I think that's awesome. I just think that's
really important, and we'll kind of play out on whether
or not this will be a hit or another flop,
because I think that just the fact that it's stacked
with all the villains. You got Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, and
(09:27):
Carmine falconi all in one movie, I think they have
a lot working for him. They just have to kind
of nail down the story and get it right, and
also just kind of get Robert Pattinson his suit right
in the movie, and his character like all while in
the suit and while not in the suit. I think
if they can get all those things right, this has
a great set up to be a good Batman movie,
(09:48):
which I think audiences are just ready for. Again. I
think it's a great time to come in and I'm
excited to see when they release the actual trailer on
this and just kind of get more details on the story.
So what I want to do X is go through
who I think are the best actors to ever play
Batman now that Robert Pattinson will be the new one.
And I also want to get into the best Batman
(10:08):
villains ever because I think what sets DC apart from
really Batman, apart from any other superhero is that it
has these memorable villains that you want to see who's
going to play them. So I want to get into
that next here, right after this, on this special edition
Batman episode. All right, I want to get into now
(10:29):
who I think are the best and worst actors to
ever play Batman. I'll rank them from worst to best
starting with number six. So I'm only looking at actors
who played him on the big screen. Um, nothing in
the animated stuff. Sorry, unless there was a movie about him,
they are not making the list. So at number six,
going back to Batman and Robin, which was arguably, in
my opinion, the worst Batman movie ever made, and George
(10:52):
Clooney just suffered a bad script of overall just bad
concept of a movie and I just never really all
him as a great Batman and everything from the suit
with the nipples on it, you remember that. I don't
know why they decided to get Batman nipples, and it
just wasn't a great movie, even though it had some
pretty good villains in it. You had Arnold Schwarzenegger as
(11:13):
Mr Freeze, which is a great villain, but it was
just overall cheesy one liners and just kind of a
hokey movie for Batman. You kind of wasted Uma Thurman
as Poison Ivy. They threw in Bad Girl in there
with Alicia Silverstone, and Bain was in there for really
(11:33):
no reason other than being a big muscle for Poison Ivy.
He never even said a word in the movie. I
think that was a wasted character. I just think overall
that Batman and Robin story was one that didn't need
to be told in the Batman franchise, but I think
everybody did okay after that movie. George Clooney survived at
number five. I went the year before with Batman Forever,
which Val Kimmer played Batman, which I don't think was
(11:56):
as bad of a movie as George Clooney's Bad Man.
I think it was overall a decent movie. I actually
liked some parts of it, but I didn't feel like
Val Kilmer as Batman was really believable and even that
he wanted to play the part because he had a
pretty bad relationship with the director in this movie. They
went like two weeks without even speaking because they were
just kind of going back and forth at each other's
(12:17):
like Val Kimmer was kind of trying to direct the
movie and they were just at each other's throats through
out of it, to where it got to a point
for two weeks they did not speak on the set
and the director was like, those are the best two
weeks of the entire production. So that probably has a
big part to play into why this movie overall didn't work.
So Michael Keaton was actually good to play Batman for
the third time in this movie, but after he got
(12:37):
the script, he realized that it wasn't going in the
direction he wanted it to be in, so he was out.
In days later, they cast Val Kilmer as Batman. That
signal is not a beeper. He was trying to get
under my cape. Doctor try Fireman to take off. There
were also a bunch of other potential cast things from
Daniel day Lewis, Kurt Russell, Alec Baldwin, Ethan Hank, Tom Hanks,
(12:58):
Johnny Depp, and even Billy Baldwin who were all rumored
to be cast as Batman in this movie that eventually
went to Val Kilmer. Overall, I think he just didn't
really fit the part. He didn't really look right in
the suit, and he was outshined in the end by
Jim Carrey's The Riddlers. So I put him at number five.
At number four, I'm going back to the sixties. This
was a movie called Batman the Movie, and probably one
(13:20):
of the most iconic people to ever play Batman could
arguably say if he did not play Batman, no one
else would have to come. I'm giving it to Adam
West first of all. R I p Adam West, but
I think those Batman just the show alone was iconic
back in the sixties, and I remember watching that as
a kid on TV Land, and I was already a
fan of the Batman movies, but watching the show and
(13:41):
watching him in Batman the Movie, I just thought that
it was a really important part in Batman's history. The
zany kind of throwbacks that people go to now, like
the whole they throw a punch and there's a wham
bam on the screen. I think that was really important
to Batman. How it went from a cheesy sixties TV
show turned into movie. I think that was just a
really important thing to know for Batman. I think just
(14:04):
for the suit alone, it's a reason to put him
above the other people. That's an iconic Batman's suit that
only Adam West could pull off. And it's also where
we get the classic Batman theme song. And even though
that movie was poorly reviewed back in the day, I
still think it's a great thing to go back and
watch to get a history of Batman. That's why I
(14:25):
put Adam West at number four, and at number three
I'm going Ben Affleck. I know it's gonna be a
big controversial just because people didn't really like him overall,
but I think he didn't get a fighting chance to
be the Batman. Because he didn't get his own standalone movie.
He was thrown into kind of this whole world. If
they wanted to make him different than Christian Bales Batman,
(14:46):
so they made him bulky here, they made the logo different,
they made him just overall be a different Batman. And
I don't think he was ever really getting in a
shot to make the character his own. While when movies
weren't great, I didn't hate him as Batman, and I
think if they ned to start him out in Batman
versus Superman, he would have had a better chance to
kind of make that role a bit better, and they
could have even tweaked it from going from that to
(15:08):
a big flop, because I can look at Ben Affleck
and think, oh, yeah, he could be Batman unlike maybe
some of these other people, and I think it would
have worked with a better script. But I'm glad that
they kind of went away from that and went with
Robert Pattinson and this new one. I just think overall,
he got a raw deal and I enjoyed him suiting
up as Batman. So I put him at number three,
And before I get into my number two, I want
to give an honorable mention to Will Arnett, who played
(15:30):
Batman in the Lego movies, Because I'm Batman, don't you
think it's time you finally face your greatest fear Snakes,
no clowns, clowns, which I think we're just fun movies
and kind of bridge my gap of wanting new Batman stuff,
but in a different kind of capacity. I thought those
movies were fun, especially the standalone Batman Lego movie. He
(15:51):
brought a fun, comedic side to Batman that I think
nobody really knew that they wanted, but once you saw,
you were like, oh yeah, this is actually pretty good.
So shout out will our Net as Batman. All right.
Getting to my top two now, which there's really only
two left you can go with, and I have to
go and consider who I think is just a more
iconic Batman and who I think just fits the role
of like overall what it should be. So at number two,
(16:14):
I'm putting Christian Bale. I like that. And even though
he put Batman back on the map with the Dark
Knight trilogy and bring in his raw and fresh look
at Batman, I think overall he was a great Batman
and he was able to make it less comic bookie
and just give him a more real life character to
the role. I think what I love most about what
(16:35):
Christian Bell did with him is the voice, Like that's
an iconic voice that I think no one else has
really done before, and it's something you really remember about
those movies, and everybody kind of does their own impression
of it. I think the main reason why I didn't
rank him higher is because in the first one Batman Begins,
that was okay movie. He didn't really have a great
villain in that, and I think later we really ended
up working for those movies where aside from him being
(16:57):
Batman was the villains he had up to go against,
and having really great supporting characters with Joker and Bain,
and a lot of it too was also Christopher Nolan's
vision of the character and story. So while I think
overall the Dark Knight movies are the best Batman movies,
Christian Bale on his own isn't the responsibility of that.
So I put him at number two. And to those
(17:19):
who think it should be number one, well, I have
this for you, Oh good for you? And how was it?
So at number one, we're throwing it way back to
the o g Ninete Batman and Batman Returns. I'm going
with Michael Keaton. I think it was just such an
iconic thing for me as a kid to see Michael
Keaton as Batman. He just worked. Now at the time,
it was a bit controversial to place Michael Keaton in
(17:41):
this role because he was known more as a comedic
actor at the time, because he had just worked with
director Tim Burton, who did these first two Batman movies
on Beatle Juice, and Tim Burton is the one who
wanted him to be Batman. He's like, you can't really
put a straight up action star in that, which is
what they wanted to do. They wanted to cast somebody
like a Mel Gibson, Kevin Costin er even like a
Bill Murray is who they were wanting to go with.
(18:02):
But he was saying, once you have somebody, you take
one of those action stars and put him in the
bat suit, it's gonna be a little more comedic because
you're expecting him just to be a straight up action star.
But with Michael Keaton, you have this character who can
be like a normal guy and what you put him
in a batsuit to fight criminals. It makes more sense.
He was just trying to stay away from unintentional audience
laughs in the movie by putting him as a character.
(18:25):
So Tim Burton fought for him and he ended up winning,
and he was cast in the first two Batman movies,
which were really great movies, not only for their villains
but overall just first the straight up story of Batman.
I think his character just said the tone of that
initial dark Batman role, and it wasn't until later they
came back to it where they saw even more successful Batman.
So I put Michael Keaton as the best actor to
(18:46):
ever play Batman. And with that, now I want to
get into whole I think are the best villains ever
in Batman. So I'm just gonna go one villain, one
person to play them. I'll do that next. So I
think what makes the Batman movies great and really stand
apart from any other superhero franchise is that it has
(19:07):
iconic villains that you remember and that you want to
see played by great actors, unlike Marvel, which I think
has a bit of a villain problem because until Thanos
really came around, all of the villains were really forgettable.
You can't really go back and think of like, oh,
who was the bad guy in that movie? They're really
just put into that movie for like a one off.
Essentially you could argue Venom and maybe some others, but
(19:27):
really there's nobody who stands alone. Unlike in Batman and
the DC franchise, they have really iconic villains. So I
want to go through and just say who I think
are the best villains to ever appear on screen, who
played them, and the movie they were in. So at
number five, I'm going with Tom Hardy as being in
the Dark Knight Rises, which I think was just a
(19:48):
really great interpretation of beIN just basically just from the
mask which everybody did the impression of Plunterford must remo, like,
I love doing that impression, and I think it was
just such a cool and kind of ominous way to
do that character. And Tom Hardy got ripped up with
that movie almost unrecognizable the dock I was born in it,
(20:14):
molded by it, and overall in that movie, he was
really just a character that I rooted against, even though
I loved him. He was one that just seemed undefeatable
and really made that movie worth watching again. Not the
Bane from Batman, and Robin. That band was terrible, but
Tom Hardy has been the number five Batman villain of
all time. At number four, I gotta go Jim Carrey.
(20:37):
I know Batman Forever. It was overall not a great
Batman movie, but I think Jim Carrey as the Riddler
was the really standout star of that movie. He was
just so Jim Carrey in it, playing it so crazily,
and I think overall that's what I remember more than
movie as a kid. But you can call me the
d I think it's funny that him and Tommy Lee
Jones in that movie, who played two Phace, just hated
(20:58):
each other on set. And I think it's mainly because
Jim Carrey out hacked a Tommy Lee Jones and that
and his character is just so over the top, so
kukie everything from the costume design. I was all for it,
and I want to see how it's kind of played
out in this new The Batman movie. I don't think
he will be a Zany, I don't think he'll be
as crazy, and maybe even the costume will be a
bit different. But I think it's such a great character.
(21:20):
Even from back in the TV show, it was awesome,
so I put him at number four. At number three,
I gotta go Michelle Phifer as Catwoman and Batman returns.
First of all, I love the origin story they had
for Selena Kyle and this Batman returns, and I think
Michelle Phifer just played that super great. And I think
Michelle Peiffer was just a perfect fit for that role.
I thought the suit was great, she had some great
(21:41):
one liners in the movie now so am I the
overall she has been the best interpretation of what the
Catwoman character is as Batman's love interest and in the
end of the villain and as we see later down
the line, Catwoman is kind of a hard story to tell.
We saw with the halle Berry flop, and I'm not
really even that big a fan of an Hathaway as Catwoman.
I think her character just a really embody what cat
(22:04):
Woman is, like Michelle Peiffer did and Batman Returns, not
to mention probably one of the biggest crushes I had
as a kid from a movie character. So I gotta
put her at number three. At number two, I'm keeping
it in Batman returns and going to Penguin played by
Danny DeVito, which I think was perfectly cast, just because
Danny DeVito is just such an interesting looking person on
his own, and to put him in the penguin costume,
(22:25):
in the penguin suit, and the way he played him
with just so weird. And so Danny DeVito made him
a great villa in that movie. And that's kind of
why I would have like to see Jonah Hill and this,
because I think you would have brought a similar dynamic,
being kind of a comedic actor and taking on this
kind of dark, twisted role of a villain like Catwoman.
Danny DeVito also had some great one lines in that movie.
(22:46):
I played this snacking city like a heart frum now
and at times you even feel bad for a minute,
but you realize, oh man, he's actually a pretty bad dude.
So that's why I put Danny DeVito as the Penguin
at number two. All right, now, I'm at number one
of the best Batman villain of all time, and it
easily goes to the Joker. But I kind of had
to make a distinction here on whether I go with
(23:07):
Heath Ledger or Joaquin Phoenix, which I've said Joaquin Phoenix
is the best actor to ever play the Joker. I
think because he was given his entire movie on his own,
that he had more time to develop that character and
really sink into what makes the Joker twisted. But I
always said that Heath Ledger was a more iconic role
based on what happened around him, the fact that he
locked himself in a hotel room for like two weeks
(23:29):
to get the voices down right. So at number one,
I have to go with Heath Ledger in the Dark
Night as Joker as the best Batman villain of all time.
I don't think he's a better Joker. I still say
it's Joaquin Phoenix. But I think in Joker with Joaquin Phoenix,
he's not really a Batman villain. Batman doesn't really show
up in that movie. He is not fighting Batman. It's
mainly just the story of Joker. But in the Dark
(23:52):
Night he is straight up the antagonist and just the
perfect villain ever in any comic book movie, because he
is fighting Batman for really no other reason than to
fight Batman. He doesn't care about money, he doesn't care
about any really control. He just wants to start straight
up chaos, And I think that is what made his
character so great and what made that movie work is
(24:15):
that he really didn't want anything other than to test
Batman and what is right and what is wrong? And
I think he set the bar for making that Joker
character again one of the most iconic characters and biggest
roles you can hop into in the Batman franchise. This
also plays into why I put Christian Bale as the
number two Batman because in this movie he is essentially
outshined by the supporting character. While Heath Ledger is in
(24:38):
the movie less than Christian Bale, but every time he's
on screen, that's just so much more attention grabbing to
the audience and the really what you remember most about
that movie. So now I hope they don't make another
Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix. I hope they're done with it.
I don't hope he crossed his past with Batman ever.
I think that movie should just stand alone on its own,
(24:58):
and I still think he's the best Joker ever. But
as far as being a villain to Batman, you gotta
go with Heath Ledger as number one. Sticks to blade
in my mouth. Let's put a smile on that face,
all right. So that's all the Batman for this episode,
I got a movie with you. Next. I saw the
Sonic the Hedgehog movie over the weekend, So let's get
right into that, all right, gonna get into my review
(25:20):
now of the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which I'm
a nineties kid, so I was going into this movie
with the intention of just wanting some good old nostalgia
from the video game back in the day. I played
Sonic on Saga Genesis, and I just wanted to see
a video game adaptation of a beloved childhood character. I
was also a really big fan of the Saturday Morning cartoon,
(25:44):
so all that going into this, I just wanted it
to be at least a decent movie. So right now,
here's just a little bit of Sonic the Hedgehog, and
then I'll give you some background on what happened with
this movie and how it finally came to me. If
they steal my power, they could conquer in the universe.
You have to help me, please, It's life for death.
(26:06):
So this movie had a rough start. It was delayed
about three months because when they first released the trailer
for the movie, people were just creeped down by the
design of Sonic. He looked a little weird and creature ish.
He had like really small beady eyes, his hands had
like these really weird fingers, and even like the shoe design,
people were kind of complaining about. So the movie studio
(26:28):
actually listened to people. They went and redesigned the entire
Sonic character throughout the movie, which took him about three
months to do, and they made his eyes a little
bigger in bulgire, more cartoony. They gave him the actual
kind of gloves that he wore in the video game,
and when they released the trailer again people were generally
welcoming to what Sonic looked like now. But again, I
(26:50):
think the big selling point of this movie is the
fact that Jim Carey was playing Dr robot Nick, and
I realized that when I had this in my highly
Anticipated Movies episode at the beginning of the year, I
was calling him Dr robut Nick because that's what Sonic
called him in the cartoons. So if I sounded ridiculous
saying that back in the day, that's why that cartoon
had that pronunciation embedded in my head. So I went
(27:10):
to see this movie and I kind of realized right
away that the movie was not made for me, which
is fine. I'm a twenty eight year old guy, and
they went the route of making this movie pretty much
towards kids. I was cool with that. I realized that
going into this, of course it's a it's a kid's
character the kids video game. Of course they're gonna make
a tailored more towards kids. But I don't think it's
stopped me from enjoying this movie because I think they
(27:32):
actually did a pretty good job on it. I loved
the subtle references to the video game. It opens up
pretty much. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but it opens
up and even just with the paramount sign instead of
the stars that has the rings from Sonics from the game.
And I think the only thing I kind of was
let down by initially is that they didn't really give
him a full backstory, which I thought, when you give
(27:53):
a character an entire movie, you kind of have at
least more than like a few minutes at the beginning
to kind of and on what kind of world Sonic
comes in. So in this movie, they paint Sonic as
an alien creature who has to leave where he's from
and he is sent to Earth for safety. So but
that whole that whole scene kind of takes place within
Like the first two minutes of the movie. You see
(28:14):
him there as a kid, and then all of a sudden,
he's here on Earth. I would have liked a little
more there, just to see how Sonic was as a kid,
interacting with other kids and kind of making why like
the story of why he was kind of weird and different,
and making him leaving a little more dramatic and a
little more telling to his character. I would have liked
a little more there. But once I actually got into
the story, I thought it was pretty good. It gets
(28:35):
into it pretty quickly, and I think once Jim Carrey
is on the screen, you kind of realize, oh, this
is gonna be a pretty fun movie. Because although Sonic
gets the star of this movie and he is the
cartoon character, I almost think that Jim Carrey Alex shines
him a bit as far as cartooning nous. He kind
of goes back to those days of him being a
spin turish. He kind of has those mannerisms again. And
(28:58):
I think my last genuinely came from Jim Carrey more
so than they did from Sonic. I thought the voice
of Sign did a pretty good job it's Ben Schwartz,
who you may know from Parts and Wreck. The rest
of the cast was okay. James Marsden plays the cop
in this town, which they kind of form a relationship
throughout the movie. I just thought the rest of the
cast wasn't anything special. So I'm not a great judge
(29:18):
of like what great acting is, but I can kind
of feel when there's a bit of a disconnect in
the animated movie like this, because the hard part about
this is Sonic is entirely a c G I character,
so they make him all just with a computer put
in later, so when they're actually filming the scenes, there's
nobody really there they're talking to. So I think that
was a little more apparent in this movie. You don't
(29:40):
really get it from Jim Carrey's interactions. I think he
is a great actor and he can kind of pull
that off greatly, but I think the other actors maybe
it's a little more apparent than like, oh, they're just
talking to nothing, and it's a little harder to exchange
kind of a real dynamic between him and the characters
throughout the movie. So I felt a little bit of
a disconnect with the But again, this is a Kid's movie.
(30:02):
So me analyzing that it is probably sounding a little
overcritical on my part, which I get. Overall, I thought
it was a pretty fun movie. I enjoyed it, and
it's now has like the highest opening ever for a
movie adaptation, making about fifties seven million dollars, which is
way more than they even expected it to make. And
I think in a long line of kind of video
(30:24):
game movies just bombing at the box office because it's
a very delicate thing to do because kind of the
same way book a book adaptations have, like people are
let down because like, oh, you can't explore as much
as you can in the book. With video games, we
grew up with these video game characters and we spend
hours and hours of playing these games, and you often
(30:45):
wonder like, oh, what if they expanded on their story,
what would that be like? So when you do give
it the Hollywood treatment, you see it on screen, you're like,
that's not really what I was expecting. It's nothing is
It doesn't give me that same feeling that I did
with the video game. And I think with this one
you do get those you get that feeling just a bit.
Like I said, I wish they would have exported a
little more in his origin story. They kind of showed,
(31:05):
like in the opening sequence, they did kind of show
what a video game level would have looked like inside
the movie, and then they may just really subtle references
throughout the movie. There was no real adaptation of like, oh,
this is straight up something out of the video game
into this movie. I think they kind of walked that
fine line of like, Okay, we're just gonna make Sonic
and put them on Earth, so take away that expectation
of it being the straight up video game. I think
(31:26):
before this, Detective Peekaju was probably the most successful, which
I liked because in that movie they set it up
as Okay, it's a Detective Peek at you, it's not
a straight up Pokemon movie, so I think you kind
of go into it with a bit of a different expectation,
and I think they get fans of the video game
just enough references to make you feel like, oh, you're
not getting cheated here. There's even like subtle references to
(31:46):
the video game soundtrack, which son it has probably one
of the most iconic video game soundtracks of all time,
and I like the subtle references, like even just taking
like the video game music and putting in like a background,
like a piano version. I thought that was a really
cool touch. So like this one here, that's from the
(32:06):
video game, and this is what they used in the movie.
So stuff like that made it for me. Overall, I
give it three out of five rings, which I think
is pretty high for a video game adaptation because there's
just so much to take on here. And like I said,
that's also factoring in that it wasn't really made for
(32:27):
an adult like me. It's made for kids. And I
think now if I had like a little brother or
maybe even a kid, this would be a movie I
would take them to they would enjoy, and I would
get that feeling of like, Okay, this is cool, and
maybe go back and show them the Sega video games.
So overall, a really great step in the right direction
of Hollywood just not taking a big name and kind
of slapping on a movie to it. And maybe if
(32:49):
they get a little bit of a better cast and
storylines coming out in the next movies, I think it
could be a pretty solid franchise. All right, And that's
my review of Sonic the Hedgehog, all right, And that's
the episode for this week. Before I hop out of here,
I'm gonna give my Instagram shout out of the week
to John Riser R I Z e Er, who said
he was listening bright and early on Monday morning. Shout
out to Josh for checking out the podcast. If you
(33:11):
want to Instagram shout out, all you have to do
is the screenshot wherever you're listening to the podcast and
post it in your Instagram story and tag me and
I'll pick some people post them throughout the week and
then give you a shout out here. Also super cool
if it comes up on your your car dashboard and
you had a little logo on it, take a picture
of that and tag me and that Those are the
coolest ones for me to see again. I announced the
winner last week on my Instagram story, so thanks everybody
(33:33):
for entering into that. Shout out to the winner, Kelsey Waite,
who won that movie prize pack. Hopefully as you get
that this week. If you do, take a picture of
that and tag me in it so I can let
everybody know that I really did give away that prize.
If there's any suggestions you have for the podcast, just
hit me up at Mike Destro on Instagram. I also
have an email Movie Mike d at gmail dot com
if you have any movie questions or topics I should cover,
(33:55):
and until then I will talk to you guys next
week on another Monday. An episode of movie Mike's Movie
podcast later
Welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am movie
Mike on Twitter and Instagram at Mike Destro and this week,
in this episode, I am talking about Batman. It's the
Batman episode because we saw the first look of Robert
Pattinson in the new movie The Batman, and it's pretty
interesting and causing some debate online or whether or not
Robert Pattinson will be a good Batman because everybody kind
(00:21):
of knows him as Edward of Colin from Twilight. So
we'll get into all we know about that movie up
to this point from the director. I'll also rate the
best Batman actors of all time and the best villains,
so all that coming up in the special Batman episode.
And I'll also do a review of the movie I
saw over the weekend, Sonic the Hedgehog, which a movie
that made my most anticipated movies of this year, so
(00:43):
we'll find out if it was even any good. And
if you're new here, Hi, Welcome to the show. I
am Movie Mike. I am also on a show called
The Bobby Bones Show, and I produced a show called
The Bobby Cast also here on the Nashville Podcast Network.
I'm a guy who loves movies. Ever since I was
a kid, I watched a bunch of movies and as
I got older, I just started reviewing them on my Instagram.
A few years later, I have a podcast. But if
(01:04):
you end up listening to this podcast and enjoy it,
tell a friend about it, and if you don't mind,
leave a five star rating and a review on Apple podcast.
Just scroll down there. It's really easy to do. It
takes about thirty seconds and it helped other people like
you who love movies discover this podcast and get in
on this action. So that's all you have to do.
Or wherever you're listening, just hit that follow button, hit
that subscribe and see you get brand new episodes every
(01:26):
single Monday. Alright, So with all that covered, here we
go with a Batman episode. Let's get started. In a
world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one
man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never
before in a movie podcast. A man with so much
movie knowledge. He's basically like a walking on MTV, which
(01:47):
classes from the Nashville Podcast Network. This is movie movie podcast.
So this episode I am dedicating entirely to Batman because
last week we had the first ever look at Robert
Pattinson as the new Batman, and I want to kind
of explain what's going on and what we know so
far about that movie, what I think that Robert Pattinson
(02:09):
will bring to the role, if people even work as Batman,
and then I'll also get into later who I think
the best Batman actors ever were and the best villains.
So first of all, let's just look at what this
movie is going to be. So there has not been
a solo Batman movie since the Dark Knight trilogy. Everything
that came with Ben Affleck was all just it was
Batman versus Superman. He was in the Suicide Squad for
(02:32):
a bit and then they did the Justice League. So
I think Ben Affleck really never had a fighting shot
to be a decent Batman, to show what he could
do in that role, because he never really had his
own solo, standalone movie. It was a bit of a
controversial casting back in the day when that was announced,
just because people don't really see Ben Affleck as Batman,
or they just didn't think he was that great of
an actor. And I kind of feel like Robert Pattinson
(02:54):
is getting that a bit now. It's such a big
role to play Christian Bale. That's such a good job
as the Batman in and now I think it's such
a more coveted role, even more so than Joker what
we've seen with Lakim Phoenix done a really good job
with that. So anybody who's going to play Batman now
has a really just high level that they have to
come in with. So everybody kind of thinks is Robert
(03:15):
Pattinson is still the Twilight guy, and even though that
first movie came out over ten years ago, they just
see him as Edward from Twilight. But after this first
look that we have, if you haven't seen it, the
director Matt Reeves posted this like minute long video. It's
pretty much just a close up on Robert Pattinson in
the bat suit with a really flushed out red look.
(03:36):
So it's just this music playing underneath it and you
kind of get zoomed in. You see the see the mask,
and you see the play and pretty much that's it.
There's no voice, no talking to or anything. That's the
only thing we've seen so far of this new Batman.
So the title of the movie as of now is
called The Batman. The scheduled release date is June my
thirtieth birthday shout out. UM. The cast, we have Robert Pattinson,
(04:00):
Joe Manganello, Colin Farrell, Jeremy Irons, Zoe Kravitz, and Jeffrey
Wright so far cast in the movie. Um. Rumors were
that Jonah Hill was going to be in it. He's not.
He backed out, So this is who we're working with now.
I'll get into all of their roles here in a second,
but I think this first looks pretty promising. I know
he was getting a lot of comparisons as to looking
(04:20):
like the Daredevil from the Netflix series, which I think
it's all because of that red tint. You could probably
argue that the Daredevil suit essentially saw the Batman look,
which I don't think it's a bad thing. Hey, I
would love it if it was resemble that Netflix series
at all, because that's a really great way they pulled
off a comic book character and made it super gritty
and realistic. So if they get back to that, I
(04:43):
think that would be amazing. But with this movie, like
I said, it's the first solo Batman movie they've done
since the Dark Knight trilogy, and I think they're kind
of getting back to Batman as being the greatest detective ever,
because that's essentially what he is. Batman is an aid
to the police in Gotham City, and although he is
a vigilante, he usually works with the police to find
(05:03):
the criminal that they're looking for. And in other movies,
he's already kind of established and essentially the thea villa
that comes to town and he goes in and helps
defeat them. But I think with this one, there's no
role set plot of the movie, but they're saying it's
based on the graphic novel Batman Year One, which is
essentially Batman's first year as Batman, where he's kind of
(05:24):
figured things out as a detective and essentially solving the crime.
So kind of like in the other earlier Batman movies
they did, he's essentially gonna be working with Officer Gordon
to kind of figure it out, which I think is
a pretty cool way to approach this new movie of
kind of giving them back of that initial role as
just being a detective. There's also really no word if
there's going to be any kind of origin story in
(05:46):
this movie, which I think it's something they should probably
stay away from. They tried it in Batman versus Superman,
and I thought it didn't work. I think we kind
of know a Batman's story by now, and maybe it's
a bit overtold. I think kind of what happened when,
like something like Spider Man, we were just kind of
over that origin story being told every single time. We
kind of got fatigue of that character. And what Marvel
(06:09):
kind of did in the new version of Spider Man
is just go right into it. Don't get into his
back story. You make subtle references to it, but you
don't really need to tell or show that again to audiences.
I hope they stay away from that in this movie.
So let's get a look now at where they are
with making this movie. So they started production back on January.
You have Andy Serkis, who will play Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred.
(06:32):
You have Colin Farrell confirmed to play Oswald copper Pot,
also known as the Penguin, which I think is a
pretty interesting casting there. I'm not really sure that I
could find Colin Farrell as a villain like that. You
have Paul Dano, who you might know from a little
Bit Sunshine or There will be Blood. He will be
playing the Riddler. You have Zoe Kravitz you may know
from Big Little Lives, she would be playing Catwoman. Jeffrey
(06:55):
Right from West World will be playing James Gordon, and
then of course you have Robert Pattinson playing Batman. So
this movie has had a pretty long journey as far
as getting made. They started pretty much coming up with
this idea back in before all of the Ben Affleck
Batman movies came out, and after the first reactions of that,
they were like, Okay, maybe we're not gonna really have
Ben Affleck move forward with this project, and he eventually
(07:18):
later tweeted that, like, you know, I'm glad to see
this being taken into production, but I'm not going to
be involved in it. It was a pretty peaceful departure
between the studios and Ben Affleck. So when I first
heard that Robert Pattinson was going to be Batman, I
think I had the reaction that maybe most other people
had of like, oh no, it's Edward Collen was gonna
be Batman. But the more I thought about it, the
more I've just seen his recent work and realized that man,
(07:41):
Robert Pattinson is a really good actor, and if you're
gonna put somebody to kind of compare. I don't even
think you're comparing him to Ben Affleck anymore. I think
that came and went never really stuck. So I think
people are comparing him to Christian Bale because with this
movie they're trying to go that same route of being
that dark, gritty batman again. And I think b casting
what Robert Pattinson, you kind of get a really great
(08:03):
actor who can kind of go and make it that
kind of movie again. I think it's hard for characters
who get typecast, and Robert Pattinson, I think it's someone
who kind of realized that and started taking on. He
was more particular of what roles he took after Twilight.
He really wanted to lean more George Roles. That kind
of showed him as an actor. And I'm pretty confident
(08:23):
in this director of Mike Reeves, who if you don't know,
he did Dawn to the Planet of the Ape or
The Planet of the Apes, which were really great reboots
of a beloved franchise and almost I think better than
the originals. He also did movies like clover Field, and
just by this clip they released, I kind of have
a good feeling going into it again. We have a
pretty long way to wait until but I'm excited to
(08:45):
see more details as they come out about this movie
as far as what they're gonna make it about and
just what this cast is gonna look like on screen together.
But I think when I love the most about this
movie is that has just stacked with the villains, which
I think is what sets Batman apart from any other
superhero franchise. So you're getting Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, and Carmine Falcony.
So I think if they're able to get the writing
(09:05):
right in this script and just have a really good
understanding of the concept of this movie and what this
story is going to tell, if they're basically on that
graphic novel, I think that's awesome. I just think that's
really important, and we'll kind of play out on whether
or not this will be a hit or another flop,
because I think that just the fact that it's stacked
with all the villains. You got Catwoman, Riddler, Penguin, and
(09:27):
Carmine falconi all in one movie, I think they have
a lot working for him. They just have to kind
of nail down the story and get it right, and
also just kind of get Robert Pattinson his suit right
in the movie, and his character like all while in
the suit and while not in the suit. I think
if they can get all those things right, this has
a great set up to be a good Batman movie,
(09:48):
which I think audiences are just ready for. Again. I
think it's a great time to come in and I'm
excited to see when they release the actual trailer on
this and just kind of get more details on the story.
So what I want to do X is go through
who I think are the best actors to ever play
Batman now that Robert Pattinson will be the new one.
And I also want to get into the best Batman
(10:08):
villains ever because I think what sets DC apart from
really Batman, apart from any other superhero is that it
has these memorable villains that you want to see who's
going to play them. So I want to get into
that next here, right after this, on this special edition
Batman episode. All right, I want to get into now
(10:29):
who I think are the best and worst actors to
ever play Batman. I'll rank them from worst to best
starting with number six. So I'm only looking at actors
who played him on the big screen. Um, nothing in
the animated stuff. Sorry, unless there was a movie about him,
they are not making the list. So at number six,
going back to Batman and Robin, which was arguably, in
my opinion, the worst Batman movie ever made, and George
(10:52):
Clooney just suffered a bad script of overall just bad
concept of a movie and I just never really all
him as a great Batman and everything from the suit
with the nipples on it, you remember that. I don't
know why they decided to get Batman nipples, and it
just wasn't a great movie, even though it had some
pretty good villains in it. You had Arnold Schwarzenegger as
(11:13):
Mr Freeze, which is a great villain, but it was
just overall cheesy one liners and just kind of a
hokey movie for Batman. You kind of wasted Uma Thurman
as Poison Ivy. They threw in Bad Girl in there
with Alicia Silverstone, and Bain was in there for really
(11:33):
no reason other than being a big muscle for Poison Ivy.
He never even said a word in the movie. I
think that was a wasted character. I just think overall
that Batman and Robin story was one that didn't need
to be told in the Batman franchise, but I think
everybody did okay after that movie. George Clooney survived at
number five. I went the year before with Batman Forever,
which Val Kimmer played Batman, which I don't think was
(11:56):
as bad of a movie as George Clooney's Bad Man.
I think it was overall a decent movie. I actually
liked some parts of it, but I didn't feel like
Val Kilmer as Batman was really believable and even that
he wanted to play the part because he had a
pretty bad relationship with the director in this movie. They
went like two weeks without even speaking because they were
just kind of going back and forth at each other's
(12:17):
like Val Kimmer was kind of trying to direct the
movie and they were just at each other's throats through
out of it, to where it got to a point
for two weeks they did not speak on the set
and the director was like, those are the best two
weeks of the entire production. So that probably has a
big part to play into why this movie overall didn't work.
So Michael Keaton was actually good to play Batman for
the third time in this movie, but after he got
(12:37):
the script, he realized that it wasn't going in the
direction he wanted it to be in, so he was out.
In days later, they cast Val Kilmer as Batman. That
signal is not a beeper. He was trying to get
under my cape. Doctor try Fireman to take off. There
were also a bunch of other potential cast things from
Daniel day Lewis, Kurt Russell, Alec Baldwin, Ethan Hank, Tom Hanks,
(12:58):
Johnny Depp, and even Billy Baldwin who were all rumored
to be cast as Batman in this movie that eventually
went to Val Kilmer. Overall, I think he just didn't
really fit the part. He didn't really look right in
the suit, and he was outshined in the end by
Jim Carrey's The Riddlers. So I put him at number five.
At number four, I'm going back to the sixties. This
was a movie called Batman the Movie, and probably one
(13:20):
of the most iconic people to ever play Batman could
arguably say if he did not play Batman, no one
else would have to come. I'm giving it to Adam
West first of all. R I p Adam West, but
I think those Batman just the show alone was iconic
back in the sixties, and I remember watching that as
a kid on TV Land, and I was already a
fan of the Batman movies, but watching the show and
(13:41):
watching him in Batman the Movie, I just thought that
it was a really important part in Batman's history. The
zany kind of throwbacks that people go to now, like
the whole they throw a punch and there's a wham
bam on the screen. I think that was really important
to Batman. How it went from a cheesy sixties TV
show turned into movie. I think that was just a
really important thing to know for Batman. I think just
(14:04):
for the suit alone, it's a reason to put him
above the other people. That's an iconic Batman's suit that
only Adam West could pull off. And it's also where
we get the classic Batman theme song. And even though
that movie was poorly reviewed back in the day, I
still think it's a great thing to go back and
watch to get a history of Batman. That's why I
(14:25):
put Adam West at number four, and at number three
I'm going Ben Affleck. I know it's gonna be a
big controversial just because people didn't really like him overall,
but I think he didn't get a fighting chance to
be the Batman. Because he didn't get his own standalone movie.
He was thrown into kind of this whole world. If
they wanted to make him different than Christian Bales Batman,
(14:46):
so they made him bulky here, they made the logo different,
they made him just overall be a different Batman. And
I don't think he was ever really getting in a
shot to make the character his own. While when movies
weren't great, I didn't hate him as Batman, and I
think if they ned to start him out in Batman
versus Superman, he would have had a better chance to
kind of make that role a bit better, and they
could have even tweaked it from going from that to
(15:08):
a big flop, because I can look at Ben Affleck
and think, oh, yeah, he could be Batman unlike maybe
some of these other people, and I think it would
have worked with a better script. But I'm glad that
they kind of went away from that and went with
Robert Pattinson and this new one. I just think overall,
he got a raw deal and I enjoyed him suiting
up as Batman. So I put him at number three,
And before I get into my number two, I want
to give an honorable mention to Will Arnett, who played
(15:30):
Batman in the Lego movies, Because I'm Batman, don't you
think it's time you finally face your greatest fear Snakes,
no clowns, clowns, which I think we're just fun movies
and kind of bridge my gap of wanting new Batman stuff,
but in a different kind of capacity. I thought those
movies were fun, especially the standalone Batman Lego movie. He
(15:51):
brought a fun, comedic side to Batman that I think
nobody really knew that they wanted, but once you saw,
you were like, oh yeah, this is actually pretty good.
So shout out will our Net as Batman. All right.
Getting to my top two now, which there's really only
two left you can go with, and I have to
go and consider who I think is just a more
iconic Batman and who I think just fits the role
of like overall what it should be. So at number two,
(16:14):
I'm putting Christian Bale. I like that. And even though
he put Batman back on the map with the Dark
Knight trilogy and bring in his raw and fresh look
at Batman, I think overall he was a great Batman
and he was able to make it less comic bookie
and just give him a more real life character to
the role. I think what I love most about what
(16:35):
Christian Bell did with him is the voice, Like that's
an iconic voice that I think no one else has
really done before, and it's something you really remember about
those movies, and everybody kind of does their own impression
of it. I think the main reason why I didn't
rank him higher is because in the first one Batman Begins,
that was okay movie. He didn't really have a great
villain in that, and I think later we really ended
up working for those movies where aside from him being
(16:57):
Batman was the villains he had up to go against,
and having really great supporting characters with Joker and Bain,
and a lot of it too was also Christopher Nolan's
vision of the character and story. So while I think
overall the Dark Knight movies are the best Batman movies,
Christian Bale on his own isn't the responsibility of that.
So I put him at number two. And to those
(17:19):
who think it should be number one, well, I have
this for you, Oh good for you? And how was it?
So at number one, we're throwing it way back to
the o g Ninete Batman and Batman Returns. I'm going
with Michael Keaton. I think it was just such an
iconic thing for me as a kid to see Michael
Keaton as Batman. He just worked. Now at the time,
it was a bit controversial to place Michael Keaton in
(17:41):
this role because he was known more as a comedic
actor at the time, because he had just worked with
director Tim Burton, who did these first two Batman movies
on Beatle Juice, and Tim Burton is the one who
wanted him to be Batman. He's like, you can't really
put a straight up action star in that, which is
what they wanted to do. They wanted to cast somebody
like a Mel Gibson, Kevin Costin er even like a
Bill Murray is who they were wanting to go with.
(18:02):
But he was saying, once you have somebody, you take
one of those action stars and put him in the
bat suit, it's gonna be a little more comedic because
you're expecting him just to be a straight up action star.
But with Michael Keaton, you have this character who can
be like a normal guy and what you put him
in a batsuit to fight criminals. It makes more sense.
He was just trying to stay away from unintentional audience
laughs in the movie by putting him as a character.
(18:25):
So Tim Burton fought for him and he ended up winning,
and he was cast in the first two Batman movies,
which were really great movies, not only for their villains
but overall just first the straight up story of Batman.
I think his character just said the tone of that
initial dark Batman role, and it wasn't until later they
came back to it where they saw even more successful Batman.
So I put Michael Keaton as the best actor to
(18:46):
ever play Batman. And with that, now I want to
get into whole I think are the best villains ever
in Batman. So I'm just gonna go one villain, one
person to play them. I'll do that next. So I
think what makes the Batman movies great and really stand
apart from any other superhero franchise is that it has
(19:07):
iconic villains that you remember and that you want to
see played by great actors, unlike Marvel, which I think
has a bit of a villain problem because until Thanos
really came around, all of the villains were really forgettable.
You can't really go back and think of like, oh,
who was the bad guy in that movie? They're really
just put into that movie for like a one off.
Essentially you could argue Venom and maybe some others, but
(19:27):
really there's nobody who stands alone. Unlike in Batman and
the DC franchise, they have really iconic villains. So I
want to go through and just say who I think
are the best villains to ever appear on screen, who
played them, and the movie they were in. So at
number five, I'm going with Tom Hardy as being in
the Dark Knight Rises, which I think was just a
(19:48):
really great interpretation of beIN just basically just from the
mask which everybody did the impression of Plunterford must remo, like,
I love doing that impression, and I think it was
just such a cool and kind of ominous way to
do that character. And Tom Hardy got ripped up with
that movie almost unrecognizable the dock I was born in it,
(20:14):
molded by it, and overall in that movie, he was
really just a character that I rooted against, even though
I loved him. He was one that just seemed undefeatable
and really made that movie worth watching again. Not the
Bane from Batman, and Robin. That band was terrible, but
Tom Hardy has been the number five Batman villain of
all time. At number four, I gotta go Jim Carrey.
(20:37):
I know Batman Forever. It was overall not a great
Batman movie, but I think Jim Carrey as the Riddler
was the really standout star of that movie. He was
just so Jim Carrey in it, playing it so crazily,
and I think overall that's what I remember more than
movie as a kid. But you can call me the
d I think it's funny that him and Tommy Lee
Jones in that movie, who played two Phace, just hated
(20:58):
each other on set. And I think it's mainly because
Jim Carrey out hacked a Tommy Lee Jones and that
and his character is just so over the top, so
kukie everything from the costume design. I was all for it,
and I want to see how it's kind of played
out in this new The Batman movie. I don't think
he will be a Zany, I don't think he'll be
as crazy, and maybe even the costume will be a
bit different. But I think it's such a great character.
(21:20):
Even from back in the TV show, it was awesome,
so I put him at number four. At number three,
I gotta go Michelle Phifer as Catwoman and Batman returns.
First of all, I love the origin story they had
for Selena Kyle and this Batman returns, and I think
Michelle Phifer just played that super great. And I think
Michelle Peiffer was just a perfect fit for that role.
I thought the suit was great, she had some great
(21:41):
one liners in the movie now so am I the
overall she has been the best interpretation of what the
Catwoman character is as Batman's love interest and in the
end of the villain and as we see later down
the line, Catwoman is kind of a hard story to tell.
We saw with the halle Berry flop, and I'm not
really even that big a fan of an Hathaway as Catwoman.
I think her character just a really embody what cat
(22:04):
Woman is, like Michelle Peiffer did and Batman Returns, not
to mention probably one of the biggest crushes I had
as a kid from a movie character. So I gotta
put her at number three. At number two, I'm keeping
it in Batman returns and going to Penguin played by
Danny DeVito, which I think was perfectly cast, just because
Danny DeVito is just such an interesting looking person on
his own, and to put him in the penguin costume,
(22:25):
in the penguin suit, and the way he played him
with just so weird. And so Danny DeVito made him
a great villa in that movie. And that's kind of
why I would have like to see Jonah Hill and this,
because I think you would have brought a similar dynamic,
being kind of a comedic actor and taking on this
kind of dark, twisted role of a villain like Catwoman.
Danny DeVito also had some great one lines in that movie.
(22:46):
I played this snacking city like a heart frum now
and at times you even feel bad for a minute,
but you realize, oh man, he's actually a pretty bad dude.
So that's why I put Danny DeVito as the Penguin
at number two. All right, now, I'm at number one
of the best Batman villain of all time, and it
easily goes to the Joker. But I kind of had
to make a distinction here on whether I go with
(23:07):
Heath Ledger or Joaquin Phoenix, which I've said Joaquin Phoenix
is the best actor to ever play the Joker. I
think because he was given his entire movie on his own,
that he had more time to develop that character and
really sink into what makes the Joker twisted. But I
always said that Heath Ledger was a more iconic role
based on what happened around him, the fact that he
locked himself in a hotel room for like two weeks
(23:29):
to get the voices down right. So at number one,
I have to go with Heath Ledger in the Dark
Night as Joker as the best Batman villain of all time.
I don't think he's a better Joker. I still say
it's Joaquin Phoenix. But I think in Joker with Joaquin Phoenix,
he's not really a Batman villain. Batman doesn't really show
up in that movie. He is not fighting Batman. It's
mainly just the story of Joker. But in the Dark
(23:52):
Night he is straight up the antagonist and just the
perfect villain ever in any comic book movie, because he
is fighting Batman for really no other reason than to
fight Batman. He doesn't care about money, he doesn't care
about any really control. He just wants to start straight
up chaos, And I think that is what made his
character so great and what made that movie work is
(24:15):
that he really didn't want anything other than to test
Batman and what is right and what is wrong? And
I think he set the bar for making that Joker
character again one of the most iconic characters and biggest
roles you can hop into in the Batman franchise. This
also plays into why I put Christian Bale as the
number two Batman because in this movie he is essentially
outshined by the supporting character. While Heath Ledger is in
(24:38):
the movie less than Christian Bale, but every time he's
on screen, that's just so much more attention grabbing to
the audience and the really what you remember most about
that movie. So now I hope they don't make another
Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix. I hope they're done with it.
I don't hope he crossed his past with Batman ever.
I think that movie should just stand alone on its own,
(24:58):
and I still think he's the best Joker ever. But
as far as being a villain to Batman, you gotta
go with Heath Ledger as number one. Sticks to blade
in my mouth. Let's put a smile on that face,
all right. So that's all the Batman for this episode,
I got a movie with you. Next. I saw the
Sonic the Hedgehog movie over the weekend, So let's get
right into that, all right, gonna get into my review
(25:20):
now of the new Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which I'm
a nineties kid, so I was going into this movie
with the intention of just wanting some good old nostalgia
from the video game back in the day. I played
Sonic on Saga Genesis, and I just wanted to see
a video game adaptation of a beloved childhood character. I
was also a really big fan of the Saturday Morning cartoon,
(25:44):
so all that going into this, I just wanted it
to be at least a decent movie. So right now,
here's just a little bit of Sonic the Hedgehog, and
then I'll give you some background on what happened with
this movie and how it finally came to me. If
they steal my power, they could conquer in the universe.
You have to help me, please, It's life for death.
(26:06):
So this movie had a rough start. It was delayed
about three months because when they first released the trailer
for the movie, people were just creeped down by the
design of Sonic. He looked a little weird and creature ish.
He had like really small beady eyes, his hands had
like these really weird fingers, and even like the shoe design,
people were kind of complaining about. So the movie studio
(26:28):
actually listened to people. They went and redesigned the entire
Sonic character throughout the movie, which took him about three
months to do, and they made his eyes a little
bigger in bulgire, more cartoony. They gave him the actual
kind of gloves that he wore in the video game,
and when they released the trailer again people were generally
welcoming to what Sonic looked like now. But again, I
(26:50):
think the big selling point of this movie is the
fact that Jim Carey was playing Dr robot Nick, and
I realized that when I had this in my highly
Anticipated Movies episode at the beginning of the year, I
was calling him Dr robut Nick because that's what Sonic
called him in the cartoons. So if I sounded ridiculous
saying that back in the day, that's why that cartoon
had that pronunciation embedded in my head. So I went
(27:10):
to see this movie and I kind of realized right
away that the movie was not made for me, which
is fine. I'm a twenty eight year old guy, and
they went the route of making this movie pretty much
towards kids. I was cool with that. I realized that
going into this, of course it's a it's a kid's
character the kids video game. Of course they're gonna make
a tailored more towards kids. But I don't think it's
stopped me from enjoying this movie because I think they
(27:32):
actually did a pretty good job on it. I loved
the subtle references to the video game. It opens up
pretty much. I'm not gonna spoil anything, but it opens
up and even just with the paramount sign instead of
the stars that has the rings from Sonics from the game.
And I think the only thing I kind of was
let down by initially is that they didn't really give
him a full backstory, which I thought, when you give
(27:53):
a character an entire movie, you kind of have at
least more than like a few minutes at the beginning
to kind of and on what kind of world Sonic
comes in. So in this movie, they paint Sonic as
an alien creature who has to leave where he's from
and he is sent to Earth for safety. So but
that whole that whole scene kind of takes place within
Like the first two minutes of the movie. You see
(28:14):
him there as a kid, and then all of a sudden,
he's here on Earth. I would have liked a little
more there, just to see how Sonic was as a kid,
interacting with other kids and kind of making why like
the story of why he was kind of weird and different,
and making him leaving a little more dramatic and a
little more telling to his character. I would have liked
a little more there. But once I actually got into
the story, I thought it was pretty good. It gets
(28:35):
into it pretty quickly, and I think once Jim Carrey
is on the screen, you kind of realize, oh, this
is gonna be a pretty fun movie. Because although Sonic
gets the star of this movie and he is the
cartoon character, I almost think that Jim Carrey Alex shines
him a bit as far as cartooning nous. He kind
of goes back to those days of him being a
spin turish. He kind of has those mannerisms again. And
(28:58):
I think my last genuinely came from Jim Carrey more
so than they did from Sonic. I thought the voice
of Sign did a pretty good job it's Ben Schwartz,
who you may know from Parts and Wreck. The rest
of the cast was okay. James Marsden plays the cop
in this town, which they kind of form a relationship
throughout the movie. I just thought the rest of the
cast wasn't anything special. So I'm not a great judge
(29:18):
of like what great acting is, but I can kind
of feel when there's a bit of a disconnect in
the animated movie like this, because the hard part about
this is Sonic is entirely a c G I character,
so they make him all just with a computer put
in later, so when they're actually filming the scenes, there's
nobody really there they're talking to. So I think that
was a little more apparent in this movie. You don't
(29:40):
really get it from Jim Carrey's interactions. I think he
is a great actor and he can kind of pull
that off greatly, but I think the other actors maybe
it's a little more apparent than like, oh, they're just
talking to nothing, and it's a little harder to exchange
kind of a real dynamic between him and the characters
throughout the movie. So I felt a little bit of
a disconnect with the But again, this is a Kid's movie.
(30:02):
So me analyzing that it is probably sounding a little
overcritical on my part, which I get. Overall, I thought
it was a pretty fun movie. I enjoyed it, and
it's now has like the highest opening ever for a
movie adaptation, making about fifties seven million dollars, which is
way more than they even expected it to make. And
I think in a long line of kind of video
(30:24):
game movies just bombing at the box office because it's
a very delicate thing to do because kind of the
same way book a book adaptations have, like people are
let down because like, oh, you can't explore as much
as you can in the book. With video games, we
grew up with these video game characters and we spend
hours and hours of playing these games, and you often
(30:45):
wonder like, oh, what if they expanded on their story,
what would that be like? So when you do give
it the Hollywood treatment, you see it on screen, you're like,
that's not really what I was expecting. It's nothing is
It doesn't give me that same feeling that I did
with the video game. And I think with this one
you do get those you get that feeling just a bit.
Like I said, I wish they would have exported a
little more in his origin story. They kind of showed,
(31:05):
like in the opening sequence, they did kind of show
what a video game level would have looked like inside
the movie, and then they may just really subtle references
throughout the movie. There was no real adaptation of like, oh,
this is straight up something out of the video game
into this movie. I think they kind of walked that
fine line of like, Okay, we're just gonna make Sonic
and put them on Earth, so take away that expectation
of it being the straight up video game. I think
(31:26):
before this, Detective Peekaju was probably the most successful, which
I liked because in that movie they set it up
as Okay, it's a Detective Peek at you, it's not
a straight up Pokemon movie, so I think you kind
of go into it with a bit of a different expectation,
and I think they get fans of the video game
just enough references to make you feel like, oh, you're
not getting cheated here. There's even like subtle references to
(31:46):
the video game soundtrack, which son it has probably one
of the most iconic video game soundtracks of all time,
and I like the subtle references, like even just taking
like the video game music and putting in like a background,
like a piano version. I thought that was a really
cool touch. So like this one here, that's from the
(32:06):
video game, and this is what they used in the movie.
So stuff like that made it for me. Overall, I
give it three out of five rings, which I think
is pretty high for a video game adaptation because there's
just so much to take on here. And like I said,
that's also factoring in that it wasn't really made for
(32:27):
an adult like me. It's made for kids. And I
think now if I had like a little brother or
maybe even a kid, this would be a movie I
would take them to they would enjoy, and I would
get that feeling of like, Okay, this is cool, and
maybe go back and show them the Sega video games.
So overall, a really great step in the right direction
of Hollywood just not taking a big name and kind
of slapping on a movie to it. And maybe if
(32:49):
they get a little bit of a better cast and
storylines coming out in the next movies, I think it
could be a pretty solid franchise. All right, And that's
my review of Sonic the Hedgehog, all right, And that's
the episode for this week. Before I hop out of here,
I'm gonna give my Instagram shout out of the week
to John Riser R I Z e Er, who said
he was listening bright and early on Monday morning. Shout
out to Josh for checking out the podcast. If you
(33:11):
want to Instagram shout out, all you have to do
is the screenshot wherever you're listening to the podcast and
post it in your Instagram story and tag me and
I'll pick some people post them throughout the week and
then give you a shout out here. Also super cool
if it comes up on your your car dashboard and
you had a little logo on it, take a picture
of that and tag me and that Those are the
coolest ones for me to see again. I announced the
winner last week on my Instagram story, so thanks everybody
(33:33):
for entering into that. Shout out to the winner, Kelsey Waite,
who won that movie prize pack. Hopefully as you get
that this week. If you do, take a picture of
that and tag me in it so I can let
everybody know that I really did give away that prize.
If there's any suggestions you have for the podcast, just
hit me up at Mike Destro on Instagram. I also
have an email Movie Mike d at gmail dot com
if you have any movie questions or topics I should cover,
(33:55):
and until then I will talk to you guys next
week on another Monday. An episode of movie Mike's Movie
podcast later
Host
Mike D
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