Free Thought: Analyzing Back to Back Batman Weekend

            I don’t know about everyone else in class, but every time something superhero related comes up I look at it as if it is for class. While watching the Iron Man 3 trailer I tried to determine why the producers choose the scenes they did. How the choices I make can fit into my superhero profile, and many other situations that happen. This was most prominent during ABC Family’s Back to Back Batman weekend.

ABC Family played every Batman movie since 1989 leading up to the network premiere of Batman Begins. So I noticed how Batman and Robin opened up with a Bat symbol followed by a Robin symbol coming together to signify who the movie was about, and later them coming together not just as partners but as a family. I never noticed that when I was younger. I noticed the sad irony in Batman Forever when Dick Grayson did the Death Drop in the circus performance but was the only member of his family that didn’t drop to his death. However, Two Face also fell to his death just like the Grayson family. You reap what you sow. I also took notice of when the cameras would zoom into a characters face and that what just happened affects them on an emotional level. The biggest point I was trying to determine was not from the movie perspective but from ABC Family’s.

            The marathon went in the order of Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, Batman, and Batman Returns. Not only is this not chronological as far as story line, but it isn’t chronological of production. The whole weekend I wondered why they decided to do this. It is because they are ending in Batman Begins. ABC Family is making an assumption that their viewers have not seen any of the Batman films and do not know that whatever will happen in Batman Begins has nothing to do with what happened in the previous four. If viewers were to watch the first four and notice that the last two don’t follow the story line of the first two when they get to the final film they would not be surprised that there is a new storyline.

            It is not only the creators of the superhero plot and themes that needs to think about the viewers and how it relates to the bigger picture being presented, but also the people who use these medias after their initial release. If this was someone’s first time seeing Batman Begins the producers needed to find a way to build up the excitement, but they also needed to inform the audience that what happened previously did not matter so they showed them out of order. An interesting method, but it works.