Actually, I think most grown men would like to be Batman.
And who wouldn’t want to be? You get to drive a supercool car around a dark city, battling baddies and tussling with Catwoman and Poison Ivy on rooftops.
But, the latest cinema outings for this hero have been just that tiny bit too serious.
Christopher Nolan’s excellent trilogy painted him as one of the bleakest men alive and Batfleck managed to up the ante on that even more by making him so dark that he actually went around branding criminals in Batman Vs Superman. (I think Ben Afleck was a great batsy by the way!)
But where’s the fun in all of that?
This is a guy who has to do battle with people dressed as clowns or covered in question marks or even man/crocodile hybrids whilst dressed up as a bat. It’s not exactly a world that adheres that closely to reality.
The film-makers should have taken a cue from the Sixties TV series which was like some fever dream involving a live action panto and someone dressed as a giant rodent.
Okay, maybe that wouldn’t be such a good idea.
Or maybe they could have at least met them halfway by looking at Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin for inspiration. Urm. Actually that’s an even worse idea. Bloody hell, Schumacher, what were you thinking? Bat nipples! Really?
Scratch that then, maybe the studios should keep the bat dark. I mean he is a vigilante who lost both his parents (spoiler warning) in Crime Alley and then vowed to make it his life’s work to never rest until the streets are clean of crime. It lends itself to darkness and angst and brooding and being serious all the time even when fighting someone who can control people using a hat.
But, just maybe, it doesn’t all have to be that dark. Maybe we could have our live action ‘bat-branding’ dark knight but we could also have a version that basically just takes the mick out of itself from start to finish.
This is where Lego Batman comes in.
If any of you out there saw the amazing Lego Movie you will know what I’m talking about as Batman stole the show.
We’re talking Will Arnett’s Batman here. A more ridiculous and hilarious take on the character you’d be hard pressed to find.
And the studios liked it so much they even rushed ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ into production and it looks epic.
It comes out in February and is already looking like it will be the funniest thing to happen to superheroes since that time Thor used Mjolnir to lock Captain America in the toilet at a Burger King in one of the many deleted scenes from the last Avengers.
They’ve even managed to get the ever wonderful Michael Cera along to play Robin and Ralph Fiennes will be Alfred Pennyworth.
With the same creative team behind it as The Lego Movie I’ve definitely got high hopes for this one.