Watch $27,000 Batman Fan Film City of Scars

accept not except

Everyone should check this out. It's a great Batman fan film.

Anyone else tired of these dark, grisly interpretations of superheroes and other media franchises? First the Mortal Kombat audition tape, now this Batman fan film… Why don't filmmakers attempt to astound us anymore, such as Richard Donner did with his Superman movies?

Schoenke made the most of his budget, but IMO hasn't managed to bring anything original to the Batman mythos. He has simly proven that he has a basic understanding of settings, lighting etc.

Also, I don't care for Batman as a narrator. He loses much of his mystique in the process, and his grim, monotonous delivery is, simply put, annoying. Keep his dialogue to a minimum, so as to give his words more impact.

I couldn't disagree more. First of, you don't get light fare with Batman. Any modern interpretation that isn't dark and grisly just isn't fitting for the character. He's not Superman, he's not Spider-Man, he's not supposed to give you that same feeling. I mean, paying your ticket for a Batman film, hoping it's not going to be dark is like hoping there's not going to be gunfire in a Punisher film.

Plus, I enjoyed the narration. I thought it worked just fine. You guys can say what you want about the acting, but that man carried that film with his voice, and that is something Christian Bale couldn't have done.

I enjoyed it. I thought the plot was a bit light, but besides that, everything looked pretty good. It was great to see a live action Ventriloquist and Scarface as well.

This is my favourite Batman film ever created. Hollywood should be ashamed. This film hit every note properly.

Built Batman with a deep voice and classic suit? Check. Mark Hammil looking Joker? Check. Great story? Check. Terrific acting? Check.

City of Scars tops TDK, B89, BB, BR, B&R, and BF.

Yes, because making Black Canary into a stripper is a fantastic idea.

I won't fault it for production values, but even at 30 minutes, the story and the pace were plodding. The current Batman movies are better, not because of how much they spent, but because they're actually _interesting_. If you're going to do a Batman movie, give us some sizzle with the steak (the psychological stuff wasn't bad, just well worn, like Kevin said).

This felt more like the Daredevil movie than a Batman movie.

Couldn't disagree with you more. This was a waste of $ and time.

I guess you have read a batman comic in the last 30 years. It was a pretty accurate interpretation.

The gravelly voice adapted by Bale's Batman does indeed annoy to say the least. It wasn't as bad at that here though.

This was a solid short, though.

VERY,VERY well done

Great short. Was that Black Canary in the club scene?

Really well done for the budget …. I'm impressed ,,,,,,, Keep gettin' this around so folks can see how ridiculous it is to assume that you need big names and big bucks to make an entertaining film ….

good i like it)”

I imagine a lot of people giving the same arguments against change to a grimmer interpretation 30 years ago. For the last time, I'm not against grim n' gritty, just open to other interpretations. Justice League International is another great example of Batman working outside of a depressing gothic setting. It's fine if you don't want to read it, but I'd love to see something different.

Except that by the time they started writing him grimmer, the majority of his readers had already left in droves because of the camp/cheese. So barely anyone was there to complain. He was returned to his intended, but more updated/current glory in the 70's. Not the 80's. People often mistake Miller as being the one that brought him back to a more serious, dark environment, when it was Denny O'Neil. Miller in fact took him a step too far. The point is, bringing him back to his roots… the dark, moody version? That SAVED his titles.

No matter what, Batman shouldn't be a carefree character. Ever. It's against everything he was meant to be. The world around him, and the story itself can be lighter, but Batman himself still needs to be that guy that's the downer. That takes everything too seriously, and always manages to sneak in that solution that no one else would've thought of, because it's his only use in JLA situations. :-P

There are plenty of other places to get fun loving, laugh worthy characters that make you feel good, and chuckle. If you ask me, there's no reason to ruin Batman just to have another one.

Terrific! The Batman costume here looks better than Burton's (ridiculous) or Nolan's (still too bulky). This is the Alex Ross costume…it looks like it should: form-fitting and functional, without reducing mobility. Why won't Hollywood every take this approach with costuming? CITY OF SCARS is one impressive piece of work.

I liked this. Proved you could certainly use zanier characters like Scar-Face and still have it be creepy and realistic. Characters felt well-cast. It felt like it could've been a live-action TV show, to be honest, and played about how I'd want one to play (albeit with more recognizable cops).

Not much to criticize. Harley just isn't Harley without Arleen Sorkin's vocal inflections, and I'd have like to see a post-credit scene at the morgue where we hear laughter. Joker's been notorious since day one for being “presumed dead” at the end of an issue, and turning up alive and well somehow later.

This is like a bad made-for-TV movie. Terrible.

The acting and writing in this are very well done overall. The Joker is actually the weakest part of it, because the actor spent to much time trying to decide what version he wanted to be. and never settled on any.

Batman is a dark character, and while I enjoyed the old Batman TV show, I would NEVER EVER want to see that presented in film. Joel Shitmaker tried it and failed repeatedly.

As far as those talking about the differences in Bruce and Dick versions of the Dark knight, Bruce was not given the neccessary support after his parents died. He went off on his own with all of his anger intact for years until he found direction.

Dick on the other hand was scooped up by Bruce immediately and was given a direction and an outlet for what happened to him.
This allowed him over time to better come to terms with what happened to him.

This way he is not driven to be a Superhero for the same reasons as Bruce. That is why he can remain less grim about things.

I enjoyed it…most of all because the suit is light years better than the one in the Nolan films…He looed COOL! That mask sucked crap, especially in the last movie. For god sakes, why can a $27,000 fan film's Bat costume look so much better than the one in a bid budget Hollywood flick?!?

This was mediocre at best. It bored me. This is why fans should not be allowed to make the big-budget versions of these films. They fetishize all the superficial aspects of the production at the expense of the storytelling.

Review the film objectively: If you substituted a guy in a leather jacket and a ski mask for the Batman character, and you had the actor play the Joker character without any clown make-up, would you really have watched this thing from beginning to end? And what's with the voice-over narration? That's a lazy filmmaking technique used by someone who has failed at telling the story visually.

And the $27,000 budget is irrelevant. It's either good or it's not. “Swingers” (which was four-times the length of this film) cost $200,000 and was an infinitely better, more interesting, more entertaining film. Charles and Ray Eames made short films in the 1950s and '60s using just still photographs and a musical score that cost a fraction of what this film did (in inflation-adjusted dollars) and moved me more than this did.

If you want the perfect balance of a light and dark Batman, take a look at the Mike W. Barr/Alan Davis run on Detective. Perfect.

I guess you must not be a fan of the Brave and Bold cartoon, then.

This is a milestone for Batman on Film. Just like the Collara films we got something fresh and at the very least something the next franchise should take notes on.

The acting is worth just about every penny paid for it. Obviously these people aren't A-List material. However I did love the Batman performance.

Overall this film is visually stunning. The suit and Bat symbol work and I liked the interface on the Bat cycles computer. Very well done.

I loved the use of Scarface although when he said “Little Man” I was thinking Penguin. Scarface as a club owner just doesn't ring well when we all know that's penguins gig.

The Joker performance was a bit weak in areas however the scene where he was making the bomb was EXCELLENT.

Harley Quinn didn't have the Queens accent and that was unsettling.

The film to me was a great FAN made film. If this was big budget I would be ripping it to pieces but to the film maker well done!

Very good short film. I enjoyed the movie:)

That was actually really good…..some clever camera work and some pretty decent amateur acting. I mean i know the costumes were low budget and everything but it was a really decent mini film…Joker was pretty cool in the beginning sitting at his little mirrorw and stuff. Count me impressed