{"id":41564,"date":"2023-10-28T17:38:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-28T21:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41564"},"modified":"2023-10-28T17:39:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T21:39:57","slug":"mask-of-the-phantasm-is-still-the-best-batman-movie-ever-made","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/28\/mask-of-the-phantasm-is-still-the-best-batman-movie-ever-made\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d is Still the Best Batman Movie Ever Made"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We can get argue about Batman in the movies all day long but when it comes down to it the best Batman movie I\u2019ve ever seen is \u201cMask of the Phantasm.\u201d It\u2019s shocking that the movie initially didn\u2019t do well at the box office since Batman was still a hot property in the 1990\u2019s. Back in 1989 when \u201cBatman\u201d was unleashed, wearing his symbol on a button or t shirt or hat was like a fashion statement, while in 1992 Michelle Pfeiffer just made wave portraying Catwoman in \u201cBatman Returns.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So naturally \u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d should have been met with big box office dough. I\u2019ll never understand what about the movie failed to translate to a big audience in 1993, but today it\u2019s still my favorite Batman.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>With the sad passing of Kevin Conroy, and now Richard Moll, it\u2019s become ever more apparent that even amounting to what Bruce Timm contributed to the Batman legacy will never really be toppled. Bruce Timm and Eric Randomski’s \u201cBatman: Mask of the Phantasm\u201d dares to do something wholly different than what we were seeing in the live action features. While Tim Burton opted more for Gothic camp, the animated interpretations just took Batman so much more seriously. \u201cBatman: The Animated Series\u201d didn\u2019t play the audience for fools, depicting him as a morally just, complex, and dark hero living in a world filled with corrupt monsters.<\/p>\n

\u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d is a mature and conceptually beautiful film that not only delves in to the massive past of Bruce Wayne, but how his and the Joker\u2019s pasts ultimately parallel one another\u2019s. Returning for this big screen outing are Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, both of whom were just amazing working side by side as their respective nemeses. Although the premise of a darker more violent vigilante had been explored in the series before with \u201cLock-Up\u201d and \u201cOn Leather Wings,\u201d The Phantasm is an anti-hero that we\u2019d never seen before.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Almost a darker more horrifying manifestation of the corners of Bruce’s mind that he never discusses. Dana Delaney (who\u2019d later go on to play Lois Lane Bruce Timm\u2019s interpretation of \u201cSuperman\u201d) plays Bruce\u2019s first love Andrea Beaumont, whose own path of revenge collides in to Bruce\u2019s. \u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d explores what led Andrea down this ultimately violent path and it eventually explodes in to a fury of violence perpetrated by the Joker. \u201cMask of the Phantasm\u201d wasn\u2019t just a turning point for the Batman Universe, and the DC Animated Universe, but it set the template for future series\u2019 and spin offs including \u201cBatman Beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s set a bar that has yet to truly be reached as Bruce Timm injected so much of the indefinable flair and complexity that not many of the live action Batman outings have been able to rival.<\/p>\n