Batman Live- a review on the lighter side of the Dark Knight

So on Tuesday as a break from a busy week, a close friend of mine managed to get hold (by hook or by crook I didn't want to ask) tickets for the World Premiere of a new stage show and asked if I wanted to go. My first thought was no then I found out what it was for......BATMAN LIVE!!!!

So off I went wondering what I've let myself in for, is it going to be a musical, ar Batman and the Joker going to break into a duet of "lets call the whole thing off", or even better the 1990's Spitting Image parody, "lets blow the whole world up"?

First impressions, there's a massive screen with Gotham on it as background, then a blimps floats accross, and the clouds move, now that's pretty cool, and then I notice it's in the shape of a BAT! from our seats we can see that infront of the backing scenery there's a stage with the top portions of Gotham's architechture, again all looking pretty cool.

Then the lights dim and a really nice intro of a radio commentator talking about the crimes of the Masked criminals and then introducing the Bat.

Rather than give you a blow by blow account I'm going to point out a few positives and negatives and then see what you guys think.

First the Good:

The Bat shaped big screen is awesome, having a background that shifts and moves to portray depth etc, this was one of the best intergrations of cinema and stage I've ever seen and to be honest that includes Disney World, Universal Studios and Kennedy Space Centre. I loved the use of comic book graphics for transitions as it kept the story moving quickly which has often put me off show's before, especially when they feel the need to stay in one location because of it.

Next up, the Batmobile, this was a nice looking bit of kit and again good use of the screen to introduce it, and even a bit of homage to oldschool batman in there too!

and lastly (not saying that this is it though) the visual experience, I like acrobatics, and to have a cast where 90% plus are gymnasts, not just that, but add in a circus based theme and then you've got a stage where somethings happening all the time. This leads me unfortuantly to the first and major negative

The Ugly:

Yes it's good to have a lot happening on stage, yes it looked stunning, but this is meant to be an Arena tour, now I was sat about 15 rows from the front. and still I struggled to see the actors especially when they were at the back of the stage. I assume there were facial expressions but I could have been wrong. in the Arena in question, there are an additional 40 or so rows behond me rising in stadium seating, need I say more. So why not spend a little more and have a couple of big screens to cover the action on either side, most concerts manage it these days so why not at a completely choreographed event?

now call me oldschool here, but I found that the fight scenes missed a little something, yes that's it now POW or KAPOW, in the second act there were some sound effects for the fights, but not many and intermittent, I'd like to see this fixed.

Lastly I may have loved the Batmobile, but the only part of the show that really turned me off was the 3-4 minute bigscreen car drive to Arkham, I could see no reason for it, nothing happened and it was cheesy CGI so ruined the look of the rest of the show.

So All in All I liked it,

If anyone sees it let me know what you think

more moview reviews soon

TR

IndieGoGo is a Go

Sorry folks,

It's been a long road
Getting from there to here
It's been a long time
But my time is finally near

ok so cheesy Star Trek themes aside, this is an update to let you know I'm trying to move onwards.

Actually not just onwards but upwards, so to help with this I've taken on a co writer and now begging bowl in hand I've started a campaign on IndieGoGo to try and both promote this cause but more importantly we want http://www.survivningmovies.com/ to be reborn better and stronger than before, because yes we have the technology but now we just need the six million dollars (ok actually aiming for $500 but I can dream)

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