Batman Series

Batman ★★, Batman Returns ★★, Batman Forever ★, Batman and Robin ★, (all with Michael Keaton as Batman), Batman Begins★★★, The Dark Knight ★★★ (both with Christian Bale as Batman).
These are two series that illustrate that too much of a good thing usually goes bad. Unfortunately, in this case, it was a lot of a mediocre theme. Both series can be criticized for very poor character development, characters being more trivial and immature than super-heroes or super-villains. The first Batman film is excellent only in that the Joker with Jack Nicholson was superb. Nothing else about the film was praise-worthy. The remaining Michael Keaton series attempted to wow the audience with high-tech graphics while forgetting about storylines that are meaningful or consistent. Unfortunately, the films often made the worst of good actors, like Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Mr. Freeze. It was especially unnerving when the immature and irresponsible characters of Robin, and then Batwoman come on the scene. There were more than a few ipecac moments. The second series lapsed into its own problems, the first film attempting to offer a realistic start for Batman, where he goes off to the East to learn the disciplines of the Buddhist Kung-fu experts, only to discover that they were the ultimate enemies of Gotham City. All in all, the storyline was simply stupid and inane, not really worth watching. Again, both films of this second series show an inability to maintain a quasi-realistic storyline or develop real characters. The second series did flow better, especially the Dark Knight, which is why it received three rather than two stars.