THE BATMAN VS. DRACULA (2005)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, metaphysical*

I don't remember getting much out of the 2004-2008 animated series THE BATMAN, but it would be interesting to re-watch it some day, now that it's not nearly so overshadowed by the nineties series. I recall mildly liking this DTV film, though, and I think it's more rewarding a second time around. 

One of the better aspects of VS. is the romance-subplot between Bruce Wayne and Vicky Vale. According to IMDB, the lady reporter -- a Golden Age Bat-romance given greater visibility by the 1989 live-action movie-- did not appear in any of the episodes of the regular series. In this DTV, she and Bruce seem to have been acquainted for some time and may have even dated. Rather like the Vicky of the movie, the heroine is more interested in Bruce Wayne than in his masked alter ego, and at one point, while looking at an old article on Young Bruce's bereavement, she comes just this close to figuring things out. It's a much more soulful moment than the comics character ever attained.

Of course, the dust-up between the Gotham Guardian and the Lord of Vampires is the main focus. Yet the subplot of Batman's inability to have a normal life-- something faithful Alfred comments on more than once-- serves as a counterpoint to the hero's dedication to serve as a costumed super-dad to the entire city of Gotham. I'm not wild about the visual design of either Batman or Bruce Wayne, but the script does credit to the overall mythos of the crusader.

The visual design of Dracula is-- okay. He looks like a cadaverous version of Chris Lee, but with more angular features, but like the novel-version he possesses a wider variety of powers than the Hammer Dracula. He is, like some of the movie versions, unable to move about in daytime, but he enlists two of Batman's most prominent villains as his servitors. The Joker gets literally vampirized, meaning that before the movie's over Batman must find a vampirism-cure to return the Clown Prince back to his normal fiendishness. The other servant, the Penguin, functions more as a Renfield-type pawn, and provides some needed humor amidst all the posturing of the two bat-adversaries. 

In an interesting rewrite of the Dracula legend, this version of the Count was married to Carmilla Karnstein, a female vampire in Sheridan LeFanu's CARMILLA, a novel which debuted a little over thirty years before Bram Stoker's famous work. One guess what current Gotham resident just happens to resemble the late Carmilla.

Given that Batman is physically outclassed by his supernatural foe, he's able to use an assortment of quasi-scientific weapons, as well as traditional lore, to defeat the monster. It's a strong, lively end-fight, and if I get around to re-watching the series I'll be curious how the regular episodes handle their fight choreography-- very different from BATS, but with an equal appeal.