I guess this can be considered a fan film worth watching. Only if you’re willing to endure what it has to offer in the way of pathos and cruelty. “Batman: Ashes to Ashes” pretty much re-thinks the mythos of Batman while knocking off classic movies in the process. Directors Samuel Bodin and Julien Mokrani take from “A Clockwork Orange,” “Batman Returns,” and heavily relies on imagery reminiscent of “Sin City” to get its story moving, while characters like Harley Quinn are turned in to femme fatales with major villains playing only small parts.
The rest is centered around a lot of cruel and mean spirited scenes involving mutilation, torture, and graphic violence, all of which feels gratuitous and not really instrumental to the story it’s attempting to tell. I would compliment the visual style, but I loved it more when Robert Rodriguez accomplished it in “Sin City.” After petty thugs break in to the Wayne mansion in an effort to steal Bruce’s diamonds, Alfred attempts to keep Bruce’s secret, and pays for it by being murdered by a group of petty thugs. And the directors unnecessarily focus in on Alfred’s murder, providing a drawn out scene with Alfred getting his head bashed in on-screen.
Batman meanwhile is transformed in to an Ingmar Bergman monster whose sole journey of revenge is reliant on avenging Alfred’s death as he murders pretty much every criminal he comes across and is only pictured as a man with a Bat like cape and cowl and really nothing more than that. Batman lays out many criminals in a cruel manner even reveling in gouging a victim’s open wounds. Much of the film is centered on endless screaming, a really brutal anal sex scene, and does anything of this scream Batman to you? Did I mention the grotesque misogyny? No? Well, at least actress Marielle Guerber makes for a sexy Harley Quinn. There’s that. Normally I’m very easy on even the weakest fan films, but “Batman: Ashes to Ashes” is best summed up by three words: artsy fartsy crapola. I’m not sure what this film is about but this certainly is not Batman. Not by a long shot.