The Plot of the CANCELLED Batgirl Movie... Was it ANY Good?

so today a bit of a different video

because we're gonna go over the plot of

the canceled Batgirl movie for the

longest time details have been out there

but there's been a little thread on

Twitter posted shout out to neb there

Gathering a summary of what the actual

plot of the movie was and I thought it

would be fun to go throughout the

details I know a lot of people like to

clown over this movie given what has

been said was it even gonna be good

anyway but regardless I just thought it

would be fun for us to all go through

what was going to happen in the story

what was that girl's story what was

Brendan Fraser's Firefly story of course

we can't forget about JK Simmons as

Gordon Michael Keaton carrying on as

Batman after The Flash movie we can't

forget this was a whole different

direction post flash reset if you will

now what's already been said very

briefly as a bit of a recap about the

movie even by James Gunn and Peter

Safran is that bad girl's a character

that inevitably we will include in our

story on the back golf front it's not

about late in the process of the film

getting canceled I saw the movie and

there are a lot of incredibly talented

people in front of and behind the camera

on that film but the film was not

releasable and it happens sometimes that

film was not releasable I actually think

that president and CEO of Warner

Brothers Discovery David zoslov and the

team made a very bold and courageous

decision to cancel it because it would

have hurt DC it would have hurt those

people involved I think that they really

stood up to support DC the characters

the story the quality of all of that I

spoke to Ideal and Bilal the directors

last week we were chatting we'd love to

be in business with all those folks

Christina Hodgson wrote it some people

are already back in business with us as

I said a lot of talented people were

involved but the film just was not

releasable it would have not been able

to compete in the theatrical Marketplace

it was built for the small screen so

again I think it was not an easy

decision but they made their right

decision by shelving it and as many of

you know in this process what Warner

Brothers Discovery did is they did a tax

write-off of the Batgirl movie in where

I believe they spent 90 million dollars

on it but since they're not releasing it

what they can do even though they put

that money into it is that they can take

that off of their profits for their tax

so they quite simply do not have to pay

tax on the 90 million that they spent on

the Batgirl movie but as a result of

that because I'm still seeing some

people confused the reason why they

cannot release this movie even though

it's already shot is because once you

write something off for tax if you're a

company like Warner Brothers and you're

in the business of making movies TV

shows you can't take that off of your

profits so you don't pay tax on it and

then still release it to the world it's

just not how it works if they did do

that then they would have to pay back

the tax that they saved on the 90

million so let's go through what the

plot would have been about out and how I

feel about the story like does this seem

good to me but I do want to add one more

thing in there whether you thought this

movie was going to be absolutely

terrible and not from what you've heard

to be fair a summary like this still

misses out so much context so it could

have still been better arguably than

whatever I'm about to read out and by

the way I haven't read this out like I'm

reacting to this for the first time so

again shout out to nebs good takes on

Twitter for summarizing this for us so

they say the plot of Woolen Brothers

Council back girl film starring Leslie

Grace Brendan Fraser JK Simmons Rebecca

front and Michael Keaton this was

stitched together from a few different

sources and I've tried my best to make

it coherent however many details are

still missing so we start with a young

Barbara Gordon in ballet class she sees

the martial arts class through a window

and sneaks in she meets her best friend

sir Jason Bard and Elisa yo with the

help of a photographic memory she uses

some moves she saw to to take down a

bigger kid which is true Batgirl does

have a photographic memory that's been a

thing for I think decades and decades so

yeah I guess she sees the martial arts

class sneaks through the window from a

ballet class she meets her best friends

there and I guess this is what I mean

about missing context I guess the scene

would unfold they said hey do you want

to be a part of this class do you want

to spar and because of the photographic

memory she has from maybe observing she

already knew how to conduct those moves

I I don't know but anyway carrying on

her Mum and Dad pick her up from class

and discuss if Barbara should be allowed

to go on a patrol with Jim he's

uncomfortable with the idea but

eventually gives in getting Barbara

excited Gordon is almost killed by a

gang on patrol but Batman saves him

which amazes Barbara and now that's

that's kind of interesting going on a

patrol with Jim Gordon in Gotham City

that is pretty dangerous you know I'm

not surprised that it made Jim

uncomfortable but they did it anyway

which does make sense because again I

remember covering this very scene when

we had those these Batman Michael Keaton

shots now this is the same suit from The

Flash movie believe it or not and yeah

this makes sense uh Batman appears a

younger Michael Keaton Batman saves

Jim's life and I guess he would have had

a again context missing no matter what

you think about the film you have to

kind of fill in the blanks imagine the

cinematography here I guess the camera

would have panned on Barbara maybe being

a bit terrified but then in awe of this

masked vigilante and they'd already set

up that she you know snuck into the

martial arts class so you can see what

they're going for here but neb continues

to say later Jim Hears A call over the

radio saying his house is on fire he

arrives to see his home in flames and

his wife screaming in the window he

struggles to get inside but his front

door losing my voice his front door

explodes knocking him out Barbara walks

in and sees a large man before passing

out and we've got some more set photos

here so wait yeah I guess Barbara Gordon

Barbara's mother Jim's wife dies in this

fire cut to many years later Barbara now

works a desk job at the gcpd with Jim

being retired as he suffered a heart

attack she often stays at home to take

care of him while also spending time

with her best friend Elisa and her

boyfriend Jason meanwhile we see

Garfield Lin's Firefly but at the end of

the thread neb does mention here that

he's actually the Ted Carson version of

firefly so whenever I guess we see

Garfield here it's actually Ted who

works at a grocery store and I remember

this being filmed as well but is fired

for his temper he tries to get his old

job with the bressy crime family back

but is rejected by the boss because he's

running for mayor Garfield burns down a

pharmacy for his sick wife's meds now

this is one of the things that I felt

quite bad about of the film because I'm

a big big fan of Brendan Fraser I think

he's absolutely incredible it is

fantastic that he's made a big comeback

and I do think he would have been really

good as Firefly now a lot of people you

know like to think of firefly in a

different iteration saying it was

Brendan Frazier really Firefly but I do

feel like in this take Brendan Fraser

would have given it his all and I think

he could have convinced a lot of people

that he would have been quite a cool

casting but I do also like the touch of

how what is somewhat motivating his

backstory here is the fact that his wife

uh is sick that probably wears him down

maybe he doesn't make a lot of money his

wife is sick he's got a bad temper then

he's at this point I guess with all of

the missing context that we still don't

know the in between shots may be getting

a bit more into his scenes then goes to

a pharmacy maybe even has a bit of a

disagreement there doesn't have the

money they won't give him the meds and

then sets this place on fire and walks

out with them now Barbara dies her hair

red and the tenza Halloween party hosted

by Bruce Wayne she wears a Batman

costume while Jim shows up wearing his

no normal trench coat with a sign on the

back saying nudist on strike it's

interrupted by killer moth who brought

goons to rob the party now maybe I can

see some people having an issue with

this when you look at the picture of

kill him off there I can imagine some

people looking at that being ah not so

much of a comic book look it's just like

a tattoo on the back of his head now I

wouldn't expect or wouldn't have

expected anyway this um you know

accurate you know Killer Moth look in

this movie necessarily with it with a

gun and the actual outfit maybe even a

killer moth helmet but I can't imagine

too many people would have been like oh

that's amazing you know the thug look

bringing along your goons but either way

yeah uh kill him off shows up with a

bunch of goons to rob the party now

Barbara drops in from the ceiling and

begins fighting the goons along with

Bruce saving his life wait so Batgirl

saved Batman's life here really that I

would love to know the details behind

that moth escapes but is incinerated by

five fly who knew he was on The bressy's

Hit List Garfield takes his grill and

brings it back to the bresses as uh

proof of his kill being rehired so now

we have Firefly Ted Carson allowed back

into that crime family uh because he's

proved his worth so again this kind of

room forces with the information we've

already learned about Brendan Fraser's

Ted Carson Firefly that he's been trying

to live a fairly ordinary life but he

has been involved in things before but

ever since losing his temper ever since

being fired from his job at the grocery

store and then setting fire to the

pharmacy getting his sick wife's meds

he's looking for alternative means to I

guess lead his life make money saw his

opportunity to take down killer moth and

now is allowed back in but another

confusing thing is with this video being

recorded here that's like a Christmas

party so I don't see how this is

Halloween I'm not sure if these details

line up or maybe that's what was

originally planned maybe they changed it

to Christmas but but yeah I don't see

how that's a Halloween party at all it's

Christmas decorations absolutely

everywhere and it is pretty cool the way

she kind of flops in there and like

grabs a hold of the Christmas tree

because it is like rookie vigilante

Vibes isn't it later Barbara sees Alicia

at her bar she asks if Barbara dyed her

hair red to be like Batgirl as some

other people apparently did after the

news of the new hero from the party she

plays along to not seem suspicious but

realizes she loves being a vigilante and

saving others so this was clearly a big

thing for Batgirl's first proper

appearance in Gotham I suppose you could

say she saved a bunch of people from

killer moth and his goons so I I guess

it does make sense that people would

look up to her to the point I guess of

dying their hair red and her friend

Elise is just like oh I guess you've

done that as well now back at the gcpd

Barbara breaks in to the gcpd evidence

lockers using her photographic memory

she sees Harley Quinn's bat from suicide

Squad interesting and that that makes

sense I guess with regards to post flash

reset you know Keaton was staying on

some things would have been kept like

Harley Quinn Margot Robbie's Harley

Quinn so the bat would have been the

same and the mullet from birds of prey

she grabs an old batarang and also finds

Catwoman's cow which she uses to make

her own cow having now made her own bat

suit Barbara goes on patrol for the

first time she's grappled by Batman who

tells her to stop being a vigilante and

then drives off in his classic Batmobile

however Barbara is able to steal his

grapple gun in the process interesting

so what I do like about this so far is

that we see in a superhero origin story

movie Her actually going out on patrol

as a vigilante now I don't know if we

would have got a bunch of her stopping

crime or if as she just started a patrol

Keaton's Batman grapples her and you

know tells her to stop but I do like the

idea or the concept of this because you

know normally in these superhero origin

stories they're caught up in the very

thing that even got them there in the

first place there's not really a day in

the life of but clearly Barbara here is

trying to do a day in the life of Patrol

as a vigilante but that's when Batman

gets involved and I guess she uses the

powers bestowed upon her from her

Catwoman made Batgirl Cal to steal his

grapple hook without him realizing so

Barbara begins to investigate fireflies

she believes he's the one who killed her

mother in the process she begins to fall

for Anthony bressie son of the crime

family who's working to help Gotham's

homeless in the sewers this hurts her

relationship with Jason this is somewhat

of a missing context thing like how did

she meet Anthony Bressi was it as neb

says it when she begins to investigate

Firefly since he's back in that crime

family maybe through her investigations

and scoping out he bumps into her but

Anthony isn't like immediately hostile I

mean it seems like he could be

somewhat of a good kind of crime family

person if he's helping out the homeless

in the sewers like maybe you know that's

what Barbara likes and him oh he's he's

from a bad family but he's not

necessarily a bad guy I don't know if

that's the vibe I don't know how

interested I would have been in the

relationship side of this movie but yeah

I think maybe that is roughly kind of

what they were going for and naturally

Jason's just there like but what about

me Barbara is upset with her dad as he

says he didn't see anyone on the night

her mum died she lights up the bat

signal to ask Batman for help but he

inspires her to solve it on her own

Firefly goes to kill Jim but is stopped

by Batgirl who somehow discovers he was

a firefighter okay so Batman responds to

the bat signal being lit up fair enough

but he inspires her to solve it on her

own I mean is that something Batman

would do I can I can see like both sides

here like if if Batman was asked about

this and he knows that Barbara Gordon is

the daughter of Barbara Gordon but also

Jim maybe you would have thought he

would have heard a route and been like

well Jim Jim's but Jim's my boy and like

to be fair yeah her case has never been

solved if you've got some information

maybe maybe you could tell me what you

know and if I deem it credible enough of

information to kind of look into I will

I can see Batman doing that out of you

know friendship for Jim but at the same

time I can imagine him also seeing this

wannabe vigilante and just be like yeah

but at the same time there is that kind

of um not cliche but this essence of ah

if you want to prove yourself I already

told you to stop but I see you're still

going do this one on your own and it's

maybe obviously a bit of a test by what

I assume is the end of the movie him

taking a run to train her now again a

lot of missing context here with regards

to Firefly goes to kill Jim but stop by

Batgirl fair enough I would have liked

to have seen those scenes even like

earlier with Jim and what JK Simmons

could have done in that scene with

literally watching his wife burn alive

you know that could have been quite a

scene and uh here you know Batgirl

saving her dad that interaction of Jim

standing there not knowing it's his

daughter that could have been really

cool as well so Barbara investigates

Garfield lands or Ted Carson's files and

sees they were already taken by Jim

finding out her dad was secretly

investigating him too I like that it

shows that Jim never really did give up

but maybe he just always somewhat hit

that dead end to an extent that he he

never really pinned him and took him

back to the gcpd now she confronts the

corrupt head of the gcpd and learns that

she sent Firefly to kill Jim that night

but Mrs Gordon was there instead so yeah

I'm guessing in the flashback or at the

beginning of the movie when Barbara was

a kid and saw Batman save Jim and then

you know go back to the apartment and

then his wife was there dying I'm

guessing Jim wasn't commissioner and Jim

in the early days of the gcpd as many of

us know was one of the few good cops but

ruffling a lot of the corrupt cops

feathers to the point of where they sent

somebody to kill him but his wife was

the collateral damage despite their

relationship being tense Barbara goes to

Jason and tells him about all of this

while keeping her back girl identity a

secret they find out Firefly is going to

enact a massive plan to burn down Gotham

I I if I was Jason but like how do you

know all of this maybe that would have

been explored but she would have been

like ah my dad I went for his files and

found there would have probably been a

scene like that to stop her revealing

her vigilante investigations to Jason

neb goes and say hey I'm not actually

sure why but I'd guess his sick wife

died yeah and this is what I mean again

a lot of missing contexts a lot of

missing scenes I suppose after

everything fireflies thrown away at this

point you know he he lost his job the

pharmacy thing killed kill him off to

join back to the bressey crime family

and throughout all of this and his bad

temper getting worse and worse and us

maybe she dies and that just sets him

off even more just just having this huge

disdain for maybe the system Gotham and

he's like you know what let it all burn

on paper I do think that sounds a bit

too typical of a story but I I would be

willing to bet that Brendan Fraser's

performance would have sold that to make

it a lot more uh interesting I guess you

could say because right now it's like oh

you know my wife died ah you know I'm

gonna now burn down Gotham so up next

Firefly arrives at the mayoral speech

for the head of the bressy family and

kills him with fire Batgirl chases him

on her bike but he escapes as there's

fire bursting out from all of the sewer

Gates Jason arrives with a fire truck to

try and help but Firefly boards it I I

remember this scene being filmed like

five live is just on top of it and

Flames are going everywhere as you can

see in some of these photos at this

point I'm wondering why Firefly decides

to kill the head of the bressy family

who is running for mayor I guess

um maybe again now his wife is dead

maybe even though he he got rehired by

them they were difficult to him and he

just got resentment for them as well I

really have no idea Jason tries to fight

but Firefly hits him in a leg with an ax

he sprays fire all over the city while

Batgirl manages to catch up with him on

her bike and they fight on top of the

truck for a bit Barbara and Jason

managed to get off the truck before it

crashes into a hole now I hate to be

that guy but at this point when all of

this is happening in Gotham I do feel

like asking where is Batman I guess you

could say the film could have set that

up with how he's dealing with something

else much bigger in Gotham but at the

same time lots of projects these days

they don't always even bother to do that

so I hope this film would have done that

especially considering that Batman has

met up with uh bat goal a couple of

times at this point in the movie The

Hole led to a village for the homeless

Garfield or Ted Carson's badly injured

from the fire truck and Anthony bressie

arrives with his goons they hold back

girl back as he shoots Firefly in their

head what now knowing Anthony's role in

all of this Batgirl tells him she'll

stop him one day wait so

so Firefly is just

dead like that now I I don't like it

that often really when villains die in a

movie I'm more of the fan who you know

rather have them put away for example

Matt Reeves is the Batman Riddler I

guess you could have argued could have

died at the end of the movie but he

didn't he goes back into Arkham even

though we wouldn't have seen probably

Brendan Fraser's Firefly again it's

still the head cannon that I kind of

like from the comics and how it's not

just that one appearance of them being

Firefly so to speak and then they're

dead kind of like black mask in uh Birds

of Prey I just don't always like the

appearance and then the death at some

point in the movie we cut to Christmas

where Barbara and Jason have gotten back

together and are setting up decorations

alongside along with Alicia and Jim

Gordon believes she can go out on patrol

with the gcpd now but Barbara declines

and she uses the database from her desk

job to catch criminals so maybe we would

have seen a few scenes of her still

taking down criminals but using their

data from her desk job to do that

Barbara has now started to work from an

Old Clock Tower which is pretty cool

Batman arrives asking if she's ready to

be a hero so again somewhat cliche here

you know ah you've proved yourself are

you ready to be a hero would have been

good if we had your help Batman it seems

like he doesn't really have much of a

presence in this movie he just would

have appeared every now and again and

maybe it would have felt better having

seen the movie because again as I said

at the beginning of this without

actually seeing it and when you're just

reading a summary like this it just

doesn't seem that great or the ideas

just sound relatively very very

straightforward especially with Batman

just coming back saying are you ready to

be a hero she accepts and is given a new

armored suit but decides to combine it

with her old one keeping the cape and

cows she made from the Catwoman suit and

that's when we saw

um after the movie was canceled the

actual Batgirl suit here that she would

have been wearing right at the end and I

suppose in any future role that we would

have seen Dean Leslie Grace starring as

back goal in the old regime's future DC

EU which as we know is no longer a thing

because that all got scrapped and we're

getting the DCU now but then it goes on

to say Batman and Batgirl have a

discussion about how they felt lonely

for so long bonding over their traumatic

lives Barbara and Bruce get on a

gargoyle and jump off together gliding

through Gotham City as the ending shot

of the film which I can't deny that

would have been a very very badass shot

but one thing about this is you know

just imagining this old regime's future

Direction I know some people like the

ideas of plenty of things because Henry

Cavill would have stayed on we would

have got a man of steel two but you know

it's hard for me to imagine like Michael

Keaton staying on as Batman after The

Flash movie again like once the timeline

was restored so the original scene at

the end of The Flash movie instead of

George Clooney it would have been Keaton

staying on this Batgirl movie would have

released so you would have had Keaton's

Batman with Henry Cavill you know

standing side by side at some point

point he would have done his Man of

Steel to I guess we would have had Sasha

Kai's Supergirl carry on it's just um

not exactly the lineup I would have

imagined or like you know as we all

would have thought originally you would

have had Ben Affleck there or a somewhat

younger Batman uh but that new universe

truly was keeping Keaton on he was going

to train Batgirl by the end of this

movie they probably would have brought

more people into the fold we heard that

Keaton was gonna kind of be the the

grandfather-esque role in multiple

different movies of the DC EU would we

have seen him interact with Henry Cavill

Superman I guess at some point because

at the end of the day he would have been

the Bruce of that DC EU Direction and

then it would have eventually gone on to

Walter Hamada's teases for a crisis on

infinite Earth's movie but some notes

Brendan Fraser's performance was as

deranged as you would expect for Firefly

he just also happens to care for a sick

wife and hates the system for cutting

his benefits Natalie Holt Loki composed

the score no idea why there are

Christmas decorations at a Halloween

party this movie took place in a new

timeline as we just went over that the

flash movie's original ending set up

with bat Keaton replacing batflick and

Supergirl being alive a lot of people

are saying it sounds average which I

don't entirely disagree with but it

hadn't gone through standard reshoots

yet and David zuslive didn't want to

spend money on reshoots for a streaming

movie that wasn't going to make profit

anyway from what I understand it would

have been impossible to legally release

the movie in any capacity as I went over

early you can't do that if you've

literally written something off for tax

even officially but I could definitely

see some of it leaking during a massive

strike that would be funny yeah you

never know you never know so my overall

thoughts on this is that look as I said

in this summary it does sound like yeah

you know I've said this whole time I

really don't think it's as bad as what a

lot of people run with on social media

saying oh that movie would have been

absolute complete utter garbage this

that and the other I think they could

have made something out of it for a Max

release it wouldn't have been a

theatrical release movies like this

usually go through reshoots they would

have test screened it it didn't get that

opportunity so it would have been padded

up from the unreasonable state it was in

and even then like they say it's

unreleasable but they had finished

shooting but we're only in the extremely

early days of post-production so they

hadn't really like started properly

putting it together just despite all of

the scenes being shot so when we saw it

I I do think it would have been

entertaining but I do wonder and this is

something I can't deny just like what

even neb said at the end there I don't

know if it would have been that special

but maybe given reshoots maybe some time

in post-production they could have

actually made something that people

would have still enjoyed that's not

saying it would have been great that's

not even saying it would have been like

that's pretty good it could have still

been like average and like okay Kim's

Batman oh you know JK Simmons is called

oh this is pretty cool Brendan Frasier

was awesome that it could have been one

of those movies and I mean for crying

out loud two years after shooting it's

on its first day Aquaman 2 is still

getting reshoots as of a couple of weeks

ago so do you see what I mean like that

movie is still being completely you know

ironing out the creases all the time the

amount of reshoots that movie has had

and the reason why I'm mentioning that

is just to give you an example of how

they've really been taping together and

trying to make something of Aquaman too

I do think something could have happened

out of Batgirl but something we can't

forget as well all of this coincides

with what was happening behind the

scenes at DC anyway even unofficially

they would have known around about this

time that the future direction of the

DCU Cannon and story The Future Universe

post-flash movie was gonna completely

contradict the premise of this movie in

the first place so you can look at it

like maybe one of the deciding factors

not like the main one at all but maybe

one of them was like why are we gonna

release a Batgirl movie that was

intended for the future direction of the

DC EU under the old regime in where

Michael Keaton stays on after the flash

he's now the Batman and Bruce Wayne of

the DC EU this would have been in that

Universe with Black Adam Margot Robbie's

Harley Quinn the the Man of Steel 2

everything like that it's just on the

bottom line doesn't make sense to

release that movie when the whole future

direction of DC no longer adhered to the

previous DC eu's plans whether they were

going to eventually go into crisis and

everything like that so I know people

it's like you could release it anyway

like oh you know you made the movie like

just release it anyway but I do

understand from a business perspective

if you're going to start advertising for

a Max movie label it a DC Batgirl movie

and it's got Keaton in it because he

survived from The Flash movie that's why

they re-shot the end uh it might confuse

some people again I'm not saying this is

like a huge reason because some people

argue well you could have made it else

worlds but overall like with just

everything if you scrunch it up into a

ball they're just like yeah let's just

leave this one and do a tax write-off I

suppose but I would love to know what

you guys think down in the comments

below what do you think about the

summary what do you think about the plot

details that we went over in today's

video bearing in mind that even with

what we went over we're probably still

missing some other things that could in

the film's defense made it seem a little

bit better I don't know or are you still

like no matter what after you what

you've read out that couldn't have been

made much better and I I just wouldn't

be interested in seeing it even if it

did get released let me know any and all

thoughts guys I hope you enjoyed this a

bit of a different video today if you

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previous video that I uploaded yesterday

it's a bit of a DC news Roundup but

until next time thank you so much for

watching I hope you all have a lovely

rest of your day and I'll see you fellow

people of the DCU in the next video

goodbye