Hiya!

When I found out Warner Bros. was making a live-action Batgirl movie, I have very, very, very low expectations. It was going to be an HBO Max Original movie, meaning it wasn’t going to be a big blockbuster film you’d see on the big screen but rather more like a made-for-television superhero flick. It was probably going to be made on a low budget. I did find out it cost them $90 million to produce and that seems like a lot of money to us but, in the grand scheme of the superhero movie making business, it’s not that huge.

It didn’t matter whether I wanted to watch it or not, however, as Warner Bros. decided to can the entire Batgirl movie, despite it being almost complete. There are reports regarding test screenings mentioning it’s bad and it may actually be more financially sound to scrap the project as they could get a massive tax break with this.

Well, you’ve pique my interest, Warner Bros! Now I really want to see Batgirl! So, let me take the time to persuade the head honchos over there and try to convince them to release this supposed $90 million trash fire of a movie.

I do get cancelling Batgirl is more of a financial decision as, like I said, the presumed quality wasn’t going to be good. It may have some top-class actors involved, such as JK Simmons and Brendan Frasier. They even got Michael Keaton to revise his role of Batman/Bruce Wayne from the Tim Burton Batman movies, which would’ve been a blast to see! I mean, I like those movies find and, in fact, sets the tone immediately that Batgirl isn’t going to be all that serious like the Christopher Nolan Batman films.

This does lead to my first point as to why it would be okay to release Batgirl to the public. It’s a continuation of the old Batman movies. Once they see Michael Keaton don the original Batsuit, people won’t really mind that it’s not going to be all that serious. I mean, let’s face it, as much as I love that version of Batman, the tone isn’t super serious and has a level of cheesiness to it. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, that’s one of the reasons why I like it a whole lot. If Batgirl isn’t going to be all that good, well, that’s going to be expected.

Another reason why Warner Bros. should release Batgirl now is because even a bad movie always has a chance to be a big hit. I cannot talk about the quality of the film as I haven’t seen it (and I probably never will with the way things are going), however, there are so many terrible movies which have been became cult classics. So many movies of dubious quality have been made and have been enjoyed ironically.

Heck, before Marvel hit its stride, they made a horde of awful movies based on their characters like Howard the Duck and the the 1990 Captain America movie. DC and Warner Bros. themselves have made several terrible superhero movies like Batman and Robin which were critically panned. However, as bad as they were, they eventually found their fanbase. It is people who enjoy bad movies but it’s a fanbase nonetheless. Why destroy a potentially “so good it’s bad” movie, Warner Bros?

There’s also something to be said about releasing Batgirl… but not on HBO Max. If Warner Bros. is getting cold feet regarding releasing the film under their own banner, why not license it out to other streaming services? I mean, the biggest reason as to why you’re not releasing Batgirl is because you can use it as a tax write off. So, essentially, the main reason is more financial.

If that’s the case, why not sell the movie to another streaming service for a huge chunk of change! I’m not a tax guy or anything, so correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you can fully recoup Batgirl’s $90 million budget via a tax credit. Now, I don’t think a company like Netflix or Amazon Prime would be entire $90 million spent but you can probably get a good chunk of it back. Heck, once you give it to whatever streaming service who’s willing to pay for it, have them finish everything else which needs to be done! You get to get some of the money you’ve spent on this supposed turkey. I call that a win in my book!

The biggest argument as to why Warner Bros. should announce they are not cancelling Batgirl and releasing it on HBO Max is, well, ironically all the publicity they’ve unintentionally generated from cancelling the movie in the first place! Let’s be honest: what was your reaction when you learned there was even a Batgirl movie slated to be released on HBO Max? If you were like me, it was a very uninterested “meh.”

Now that I know this Batgirl movie is never going to be seen, well, I really want to see it all of a sudden! It may be because of some morbid curiosity just to see how bad it really is. It may be the fact that DC and Warner Bros. are willing to lock this movie away for no one to see despite shelling out $90 million to produce it in the first place. It even may be because there is a chance it could be a cult classic or, in a shocking twist of events, it might actually be good!

I don’t think we’ll be seeing Batgirl released on HBO Max or in movie theaters in the near future, despite my arguments. I’m sure the order to can the entire project came from the higher ups for whatever reason and when have you known these bigwigs to change their mind? They’re simply content with cutting their losses instead of try to recover most of what they budgeted for this film. However, I honestly do think Warner Bros. is selling the Batgirl movie’s potential short.

Byee!

What do you think Warner Bros. should do with the Batgirl movie? Should they just lock it away, never to be seen by human eyes or should they release it despite is maybe being one of the worst movies ever? Let me know in the comments section below!