If you want to revisit, for the umpteenth time, the parable of the orphaned billionaire who loves to scare bad guys with tights and a cloak, then here is a good opportunity.
This time, the prequel, taking great liberties, explores the period from the death of the parents to the appearance of the dark knight.
The entire saga on Netflix, now on its fifth season, shows us a city that goes from a 1950’s classic mafia crime to the generation of psychopaths on steroids, capable of various atrocities.
All of the key elements and characters that constitute the events of the superhero without superpowers are taken, revisited, sometimes twisted and recomposed several times. Maybe too much. It can happen that enemies become allies and then enemies again for an embarrassing number of times.
The choice of actor’s faces is interesting, in particular that of Bruce and Gordon. The visual atmosphere (photography) is a kind of charged noir, dense and almost theatrical. The caricatured acting, sometimes childish, reminiscent of the Batman of the seventies (in some cases it is expected that onomatopoeia will pop up during fights), with a pinch of nastiness. A world of its own where vintage objects and architecture coexist with cellular phones and advanced technology.
To make it right, certain episodes are subject to kaleidoscopic forcing and bombastic exaggerations. Bodies that can withstand an indefinite number of bullets. Characters who seem to be the focus of the affection of the protagonists who lose their lives in gruesome ways and are forgotten in the next episode.
But perhaps it can be a way to remind us that we are not talking about people, of a specific place or period, but the whole thing is set, as it’s always been, in the collective imagination.
And, for the record, “Chiroptera” is the scientific name for bats.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3749900/
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