Beware the Batman premiered this morning. Though I wasn't able to see it when it first aired, I have seen it now and am going to give my thoughts. This is going to be long, and there is going to be a lot of jumping around. First and foremost this is very different from any Batman we've seen on screen before. Not that everything previously has been the same thing, but there are things in this show that none of the previous shows have done. Admittedly, when I first heard about this show around the time it was announced I was anything but excited. Who needs, or even wants, another Batman show, right? Well, luckily for me I completely forgot this was even a thing until yesterday when I saw a commercial for it. My initial reaction to remembering this was not all that good, but after remembering how I had been completely wrong about Teen Titans Go, I decided to reserve judgement for this until I had seen it. Having seen it now, I have to say I really like what this show seems to be doing. As mentioned above, this shows modus operandi seems to be, "let's do something that is undoubtedly Batman, but something people who only watch television have never seen before", which I think is a fantastic idea. This show does two major things that none of the previous Batman shows have done before. One, It strays away from Batman's a-list villains in favor of lesser-known villains, and two, Alfred is a former spy with physical capabilities that allow him to assist Batman. Now, from what I've heard this is not a new concept and has been done in the comics before, but as far as television goes this is something totally new, and I'm all for it. I hate the animation. I think it's ugly. I don't know why they feel the need to keep doing this ugly cg type animation that they did with the Green Lantern show that I never watched, but it's hideous and I want it to go away. That said, the character designs have grown on me. Batman's head still looks a little goofy, but it's not a huge deal. As much as I don't like the look of the animation, I think it did fairly well during the action scenes. Their movements did look a little jerky, but it wasn't terrible. The voice acting was okay. Nothing outstanding, everything is good. One of the things I loved about this premier was that it actually had some detective work in it, in fact, this entire thing is based around a mystery that Batman has to figure out. Although he solves it fairy easily, it is nice to see that this show seems to (for the time being) have that at its core. I hate how it has those stupid laser guns rather than guns with bullets. If I remember correctly they had originally planned to use bullets, but because of Sandy Hook they did it for sensitivity issues. Whatever. I find this odd though considering that one thing this show had going for it was that it doesn't stray away from the violence, and what's more is that the violence had consequences. Of course the violence isn't over the top, but it's not blunted. The show also mentioned death, which seems to be something that children's shows always shy away from. One of the lines said in the show is, "Gotham's not a nice place, people get killed", which I think is a fantastic line in that they immediately set the tone for what this show is. Time will tell how far they are willing to go with this, though. From what I saw in the episode, this Batman is supposed to be one who is somewhat new and not perfect at everything. He looses at least one of the fight/action scenes in this. His detective work isn't flawless either, and because of this Alfred gets kidnapped. So yeah, I thought it was decent. Personally, I would rather not have another Batman show, but since what they're doing with this is so drastically different from what previous shows have done, I'm okay with it. I'm definitely going to keep with this show for now. I want to see this show be good, I really want this to be that intelligent yet entertaining show that kids can watch. I think it's great that they're not using the popular villains and exposing a larger group of people to villains that aren't as well known. Although it's not my Alfred I like the direction they're going with for that character. All in all I thought it was decent and would recommend it to any of the skeptics.
Looked it up after seeing this thread. When I first heard of it, I wasn't too keen on it. After watching it, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be (I mean, lesser known villains is always a plus. Not to mention, Anarky as a bad guy? Hell yes. Hoping Azrael pops up, eventually). The whole Alfred being an ex-spy that trains Bruce isn't something I was always fond of (Batman: Earth One did a play on this, though), but the series carried it well. Katana being the new partner also works, though it's too far off of my Batman mythology for no Robin, but we'll see how this develops. Professor Pyg was delightful, though. But...WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MICHAEL HOLT? THAT'S HOW YOU TREAT MISTER TERRIFIC, THE WORLD'S THIRD SMARTEST MAN? COME ON! The bullets to laser thing didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but it's still a shame. Glad to see the detective work being included in, though. As for the CGI, I still don't like it. Batman's eyes seemed too...narrow and slanted and the profile of his face seemed weird. Then again, I didn't like Green Lantern's animation style and it quickly grew on me. Bruce Wayne, however, looked really suited for this style. I'll give it a few episodes, at least.
