A flashback in time all the way back to 1966…well, 2017.
Batman vs. Two-Face is a fitting final appearance of our beloved campy 1966 Batman.
DC Animation did a great job of capturing the corny, campy version of Batman that made him a highly-anticipated, weekly primetime show back in the day. When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to see the next episode and how Batman and Robin were going to escape whatever dastardly plan their archenemies had in store for them.
In this animated film, DC not only brought back many of the original 1966 villains, but also managed to get some of the original voices of the characters: Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, Lee Meriwether, and even threw in a William Shatner voice for Two-Face, (yes, I know he was not an original 1966 Batman actor). They also paid a great tribute to the old show with the 1966 Batmobile, and made sure the characters looked as they did in the ’66 show.
This is also such a great tribute to actor Adam West as Batman, as it was his final voicing of the Caped Crusader before he passed away in June of 2017.
I was amazed to see some of my corny, old favorites, even though the bulk of them were mostly cameos – characters like Vincent Price’s Egghead, Caesar Romero’s Joker, Burgess Meredith’s Penguin, Roddy McDowall’s Bookworm, Frank Gorshin’s Riddler, Otto Preminger’s Mr. Freeze, Victor Buono’s King Tut, and Cliff Robertson’s Shame. It was just like a walk through my childhood complete with corny lines and one-liners. King Tut: “I always knew you would make an ASP of yourself, batboob.” Riddler: “Riddle me this: “Why are we like Two-Face’s henchmen? Answer: Because we are doing his bidding” (In reference to bidding on the dynamic duo’s identity, that Two-Face claimed to know)
Now that the nostalgia is out of the way, the summary is Two-Face/Harvey Dent undergoes a procedure by Dr. Hugo Strange to cure him of being Two-Face by removing the evil in him, which goes completely wrong. At first, Harvey seems to be cured, even though the Boy Wonder has strong suspicions something is dreadfully wrong. Especially after crimes are committed by other Gotham villains following Two-Face’s style of crime, all the while Dent seems to be innocent. Bruce defends his long time friend and in his eyes Dick seems only to be jealous of the friendship between Harvey and Bruce. This causes a rift between the Dynamic Duo. In the meantime, it seems a Two-Face imposter continues on with his plans to do evil in Gotham. Needless to say, Batman and Robin settle their differences and continue on to save the day.
Overall the movie itself is not that great, but if you watch it for the nostalgia and the campy, corn factor, it’s off the chart with some good laughs and old school Batman fun. Oh, and if you close your eyes now and then when listening to Two-Face, you can just picture Captain Kirk delivering those corny lines in the usual Shatner style.
This was Reptile’s Random Review and I give this little flashback 4 Stars just for the Corny Fun Factor.
