Many batman fan films and fan films in general are missing two crucial elements: believability and originality.

Now it doesn’t matter how realistic a film is, the most unrealistic film could be very believable (look at star wars). What I mean by believability is simply how relatable the film is to the audience, in other words if the audience “buy it”. You could also call believability “Truth” because now matter how ridiculous the story as long as the story and characters have truth to them the audience will buy it. The TV show the Office is the same way, it’s hilarious, but there is truth to it because there are actually people like that in real life.

Originality is vital, if a film is to be successful. Who would want to watch the same batman plot over and over? With the same costumes, music, and acting? I wouldn’t. Look and Burton and Nolan’s Batman films they are very original, and that’s what made them successful. I mean a cape that can become rigid and turn into a glider? That was never done before, same with the grapple gun or spear-gun from Batman, which at the time had never been thought of.

Unfortunately those two vital elements are missing in many fan films. Instead of making the films that are character driven and story driven, they instead become effects, or action driven. The film Batman Dead End is a classic example. The cinematography and choreography are fantastic, apart from the lack of story, minimal originality, poor acting, and of course it’s not believable. Dead is a perfect example that a lot of money can’t make up for poor storytelling and will not make a successful film.

If anyone thinks batman fighting the joker and randomly fighting Predators is original, I must say that I BEG TO DIFFER! a toddler could have came up with the same plot! We have seen Batman fight the Joker 1 million times! There is nothing new here. “Oh we will add Aliens and Predators, that’s original!” No it’s not. That would be like remaking the Raiders of the Lost Arc and instead of Indiana Jones fighting Nazis he fights Wookies.

The Acting is awful too, I mean if you had a lot of money wouldn’t you chose people who actually can act? the guy who played batman was a weight trainer for god’s sake.

Batman’s costume is sooo boring, it’s no way original at all, and what’s with the flaring nostrils on the mask; that’s like adding nipples on the batsuit!

The point here is that the audience can’t relate to the characters and story because it’s so unbelievable. Batman in this film is just some dude who wears tights, a funny mask & cape, and beats up criminals on the street. The audience isn’t going to buy it, because it just isn’t believable and Batman isn’t relatable either. I mean a guy running around in tights fighting people is very hard to sell. Batman is a complex character he is more than a guy who beats up people, he is a detective, emotionally damaged person, a ninja, a billionaire, and a lonely person.

Plus when you make a batman film or any superhero film the filmmaker has to make the reason for wearing the costume believable. In Nolan and Burton’s batman films, the whole point of the costume was to elicit fear and terror. In dead end the reason for the bat-suit is never really explained nor is it in Burton or Nolan’s batman films, but in their films it is implied that it is to scare bad guys. The difference is that in dead end the costume is not scary at all, more laughable. With Nolan and Burton the audience could see how the bat-suit could scare the shit out of someone, but the audience doesn’t get that with Dead End.

Ultimately Dead End Looks Pretty, but that's about it.