The 'serial world' has, as I've been for some years vaguely aware, its own fanbase which overlaps to a degree with that of vintage film in general; but on the basis of this, my first serial experience, I can't say that I'm a convert just yet.
I wasn't expecting anything very sophisticated, and I can live happily with elements that others mock: non-ironic dialogue, costumes, special effects. Supposedly beyond-the-pale racism doesn't worry me much in the context of a wartime adventure, although I did boggle at the story-internal logic of the American government's carrying out a praiseworthy internment of all the slant-eyed Japs it could find, then apparently being surprised that those who evaded this round-up should be hostile! Inevitably, in low-budget live action, the imagination is expected to supply translation of certain trappings into their comic-book equivalents -- swirling capes, super-athletic leaps, sinister electric apparatus -- but to do actors and studio justice, they often manage quite well. Batman and Robin climb nimbly, drop convincing distances and do their best to sprint and leap in suitably heroic costumed pose; in the absence of modern fabrics, this Batman's tights have an admitted tendency to wrinkle, but he really doesn't merit the sarcastic 'Fatman' epithet. And as an actor, Lewis Wilson does a good job of differentiating charmingly ineffectual Bruce and his masterful alter ego.
No, my problems with this serial were mainly with the sheer mind-numbing boredom that began to set in around Chapters Four to Ten. It was the massive degree of padding -- inside this fifteen-chapter epic, there is a reasonably-paced six- or seven-chapter story waiting to come out. It was, once the novelty of a superhero who loses his fights had worn off, the tedium of endlessly-repeated episodes in which Batman and/or Robin get beaten up and left for dead in order to provide the cliff-hanger of the week; in fact, it was, above all, the monotonous succession of flatly-resounding fists and bruisefree knockdowns that seemed to be the serial's staple diet. Whatever happened to insanely complicated evil schemes? What became of tying victims to train tracks, attaching them to rapidly-ascending hydrogen balloons, suspending them over pits of snakes with acid eating through the cord, or subverting their defences with irresistibly alluring Oriental houris? Watching a constant diet of rough-hatted gangsters trading punches got very dull very quickly. I felt like cheering every time a character actually got killed -- especially when this involved being eaten by ravenous crocodiles!
The villains are, of course, regrettably stupid (the most interesting episodes are those in which they actually make some advance, posing a genuine threat to the heroes, rather than being constantly foiled). Perhaps the crowning example is when a man is put into suspended animation and revived momentarily by high technology before dying... all in order to *hand* over a message which could have been delivered far more simply in the same package without him! The scenario might at least have made it a cryptogram with a verbal key carried only by the doomed bearer...
Daka is the most interesting opponent as he is the only one who is actually intelligent (he comes up with the more plausible theory that there is in fact a whole rival organization of uniformed Batmen, rather than a single one who perpetually survives reports of his certain demise!). Even when apparently defeated, he is constantly devising further expedients to reverse the situation, and our heroes, being lovable non-violent types, manage to dispose of him only by accident as Robin hits the wrong switch on the control panel; a twist that actually struck me as an ingenious in-character solution that preserved the respective abilities of both parties. (For originality, it certainly beats fighting the Evil Overlord on the edge of a precipice so that he can stupidly tumble in without your connivance.)
The beginning of the serial looked mildly enjoyable, at an inoffensive 6/10. The final chapters, ten or so weeks later, pick up again on quality. But the middle chapters, where the villains have lost their superweapon in Chapter 1 and spend all their time trying to get fuel for a replacement and punching people in the interim, become a soporific and lengthy exercise in spending time getting nowhere. It isn't bad enough to be entertaining in itself -- it's just boring.
Watching the entire run in one marathon cinema session is not, of course, the way this serial was ever intended to be seen, and it brings an unfair emphasis to the inevitably repetitious formulae of the genre. But to be honest, if I hadn't been thus trapped in front of the screen I doubt if I would have bothered to keep following the chapters week after week in the hopes that the plot would finally progress. Like certain recent TV series I could name, it would just have annoyed and bored me too much to stick it until the promised grand finale. I'm not the greatest of fans of the season-long 'plot arc', and I don't think I'm cut out to be a full-fledged member of the serial squadron just yet...
I wasn't expecting anything very sophisticated, and I can live happily with elements that others mock: non-ironic dialogue, costumes, special effects. Supposedly beyond-the-pale racism doesn't worry me much in the context of a wartime adventure, although I did boggle at the story-internal logic of the American government's carrying out a praiseworthy internment of all the slant-eyed Japs it could find, then apparently being surprised that those who evaded this round-up should be hostile! Inevitably, in low-budget live action, the imagination is expected to supply translation of certain trappings into their comic-book equivalents -- swirling capes, super-athletic leaps, sinister electric apparatus -- but to do actors and studio justice, they often manage quite well. Batman and Robin climb nimbly, drop convincing distances and do their best to sprint and leap in suitably heroic costumed pose; in the absence of modern fabrics, this Batman's tights have an admitted tendency to wrinkle, but he really doesn't merit the sarcastic 'Fatman' epithet. And as an actor, Lewis Wilson does a good job of differentiating charmingly ineffectual Bruce and his masterful alter ego.
No, my problems with this serial were mainly with the sheer mind-numbing boredom that began to set in around Chapters Four to Ten. It was the massive degree of padding -- inside this fifteen-chapter epic, there is a reasonably-paced six- or seven-chapter story waiting to come out. It was, once the novelty of a superhero who loses his fights had worn off, the tedium of endlessly-repeated episodes in which Batman and/or Robin get beaten up and left for dead in order to provide the cliff-hanger of the week; in fact, it was, above all, the monotonous succession of flatly-resounding fists and bruisefree knockdowns that seemed to be the serial's staple diet. Whatever happened to insanely complicated evil schemes? What became of tying victims to train tracks, attaching them to rapidly-ascending hydrogen balloons, suspending them over pits of snakes with acid eating through the cord, or subverting their defences with irresistibly alluring Oriental houris? Watching a constant diet of rough-hatted gangsters trading punches got very dull very quickly. I felt like cheering every time a character actually got killed -- especially when this involved being eaten by ravenous crocodiles!
The villains are, of course, regrettably stupid (the most interesting episodes are those in which they actually make some advance, posing a genuine threat to the heroes, rather than being constantly foiled). Perhaps the crowning example is when a man is put into suspended animation and revived momentarily by high technology before dying... all in order to *hand* over a message which could have been delivered far more simply in the same package without him! The scenario might at least have made it a cryptogram with a verbal key carried only by the doomed bearer...
Daka is the most interesting opponent as he is the only one who is actually intelligent (he comes up with the more plausible theory that there is in fact a whole rival organization of uniformed Batmen, rather than a single one who perpetually survives reports of his certain demise!). Even when apparently defeated, he is constantly devising further expedients to reverse the situation, and our heroes, being lovable non-violent types, manage to dispose of him only by accident as Robin hits the wrong switch on the control panel; a twist that actually struck me as an ingenious in-character solution that preserved the respective abilities of both parties. (For originality, it certainly beats fighting the Evil Overlord on the edge of a precipice so that he can stupidly tumble in without your connivance.)
The beginning of the serial looked mildly enjoyable, at an inoffensive 6/10. The final chapters, ten or so weeks later, pick up again on quality. But the middle chapters, where the villains have lost their superweapon in Chapter 1 and spend all their time trying to get fuel for a replacement and punching people in the interim, become a soporific and lengthy exercise in spending time getting nowhere. It isn't bad enough to be entertaining in itself -- it's just boring.
Watching the entire run in one marathon cinema session is not, of course, the way this serial was ever intended to be seen, and it brings an unfair emphasis to the inevitably repetitious formulae of the genre. But to be honest, if I hadn't been thus trapped in front of the screen I doubt if I would have bothered to keep following the chapters week after week in the hopes that the plot would finally progress. Like certain recent TV series I could name, it would just have annoyed and bored me too much to stick it until the promised grand finale. I'm not the greatest of fans of the season-long 'plot arc', and I don't think I'm cut out to be a full-fledged member of the serial squadron just yet...