Double Entry Review- Batman XXX: A Porn Parody Vs BatFXXX: Dark Knight Parody

This review is written by a well known comics reviewer whose site wasn’t interested in them writing a review these products. So, naturally, this prson turned to Bleeding Cool…

Ever since I heard that Vivid and Bluebird were making separate pornographic ‘parody’ Batman movies, I’ve been intrigued by the idea. Not because of the sex itself, but because the idea of creating a Batman story filtered through an overtly sexual lens actually felt like it held a certain amount of potential – if only to see how bizarre and outlandish it would feel to throw an all-ages character like Batman into such a resolutely adult scenario.

Happily, both Batman XXX and BatFXXX: Dark Knight Parody turn out to have more going for them than simply being knock-off Batman stories in which the characters just happen to have sex every other scene – but one of them impressed me far more than the other, to the extent that I’d almost go so far as to say it’s one of the more interesting and original Batman stories I’ve ever enjoyed.

Batman XXX is perhaps the better known of the two Batman porn parodies. It was the first one to appear on the scene, and it also had the easily-marketable gimmick of being a direct parody of the 1960s Batman TV series. And, unsurprisingly, it’s as a parody that the film excels.

Not only is the costume design uncannily accurate (thanks to hiring some of the same costume designers that worked on the original TV show), but the impersonation of Adam West’s Batman by lead actor Dale DaBone is pretty spot on. His opening scene makes the film feel instantly charming and amusing, and suggests that the movie has been made by someone with real affection for the show.

The references to the TV series continue with a faithful animated title sequence, a cameo from the original Batmobile, a silly sideways-shot sequence in which the dynamic duo climb walls with their bat-rope, and even a closing cliffhanger. There are also plenty of smaller well-observed details (like the Joker clearly having a moustache under his white face-pain just like Cesar Romero).

However, once you get used to the fact that Batman XXX is a pretty affectionate and well-observed parody, there isn’t really a lot to recommend it beyond that. The pantomime performances are fun and evoke the actors of the original show effectively, but the actors don’t seem to be able to keep it up (so to speak) during the sex scenes as well as the non-sex sequences. And the sex itself feels fairly mechanical and meaningless – which might well be the norm for porn but doesn’t sit well with the otherwise goofy tone of the film.

There’s also a sense that much of the appeal of the film is on a surface level. When you look past the costumes and the lead performance, it actually feels like the movie has been fairly cheaply and shoddily made. Sets look bare and almost non-existent at times, and the drama is all fairly flat and dull. It might seem ridiculous to say this about a porn version of the 1960s Batman TV show, but at times there’s a feeling that the movie could have been better if it had just tried to be a little bit more outlandish and outrageous: because if you can’t out-parody the material you’re trying to emulate, what’s the point?

In stark contrast to Batman XXX is Bluebird’s BatFXXX: Dark Knight Parody. As BleedingCool readers will probably already know from the clips that have been posted here (which you can also see at the movie’s official site, along with a decidedly NSFW trailer), the BatFXXX movie adopts quite a different tone to the retro camp kitsch of Vivid’s effort – and for me, it’s the superior of the two movies.

From the start, the BatFXXX movie feels as though it’s had more time and effort put into it. The special effects are slicker (with some genuinely well-conceived action scenes and well-realised Batman gadgetry), the cast is much larger, the sets are more elaborate, and there’s a lot more content: two 2-hour DVDs worth, compared to Batman XXX‘s comparatively slim running time of just under two hours. It also feels as though it’s been put together by someone who really knows and loves the many incarnations of Batman that have been seen over the years – not just the campy 1960s version.

It might sound pretentious to say it, but in some ways, the BatFXXX movie also has a certain amount in common with what’s going on in the current Batbooks under Grant Morrison. Like Morrison’s run, BatFXXX draws on many different incarnations of Batman to construct an original vision of the character’s world that feels both familiar and unusual.

It mixes the gritty voice of Christian Bale’s Batman and the unsettling unhinged antics of Heath Ledger’s Joker with a neon-noir visual sensibility that feels as though it’s been ripped from the Joel Schumacher movies. And at the same time, BatFXXX‘s Catwoman analogue – and her relationship with Batman – also manages to embody the freakily seductive leather-fetish subtext of Burton’s stylised costumes.

And the similarities with Morrison’s work don’t end with the mix-and-match, anything-goes approach to Batman lore. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the writer’s Arkham Asylum when I saw that how the producers of the BatFXXX movie integrated its sexual elements into the Joker/Batman relationship. Obviously, this being a pornographic film, it was always going to have a sex-based plot, but the way that the Joker and his allies use sex as a weapon to threaten the relatively repressed Batman analogue is exactly what Morrison was going for in the Arkham Asylum scene in which the Joker slaps Batman on the ass to unsettle him.

The film got me thinking that using sex as an offensive strategy against Batman is actually exactly the kind of thing that some of his more twisted villains would do – especially when the film deals with characters that are specifically designed around the idea of sexual manipulation, like Poison Ivy. A group sex scene at Poison Ivy’s lair in which Batman is tricked into sexual couplings against his will is really just Ivy’s character concept taken to its logical conclusion (as is Two-Face’s natural inclination to have a threesome with a blonde on one side and a brunette on the other), and it makes me wonder why DC have never got around to putting out an adults-only Batman comic in which creators can really cut loose with a truly twisted version of the hero’s rogues’ gallery.

As well as raising some surprisingly provocative questions about the way that Batman stories could be viewed through a sexual lens, BatFXXX succeeds more impressively than the Batman XXX movie on a more basic level, too. Namely, the sex. The various couplings that BatFXXX comes up with are a lot more varied, imaginative and inspired than Batman XXX (although like Vivid’s movie, there’s a conspicuous reluctance to apply the obvious sexual interpretation to the Bruce/Dick relationship here – notably because BatFXXX‘s Robin has been cannily cast as a girl).

The BatFXXX filmmakers also seem to realise that part of the appeal of a pornographic version of Batman is in making the viewer feel that they’re actually watching versions of these characters throughout the movie, rather than just in the sequences that bridge the sex scenes. This means that the actors make more of an effort to stay in-character and in-costume (at least partially) for much of the movie. This might give the sex scenes a bit of a strange edge – it actually feels like you’re watching Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle going at it – but if you’re going to make a pornographic Batman film, there’s no point in shying away from trying to play the characters as though they’re the real thing even during the sex.

And in the end, it’s BatFXXX‘s sense of commitment to trying to tell a legitimate Batman story in its own right that distinguishes the two movies. Whilst Batman XXX is a parody of something that was itself already more or less a parody of the original Batman concept, BatFXXX is prepared to take things a little more seriously and thoughtfully, and turns out to be much the better film as a result. Whilst it’s obviously not going to be to everyone’s tastes, I’d actually recommend it to Batman fans as an affectionate (if somewhat twisted) tribute to the character that actually throws up some interesting ideas that I’d pay good money to see explored in the official batbooks.