The Great Batsby, or is it Gatsby?

I like the idea of an over-the-top gothic Gatsby for the 21st Century, and this version of Fitzgerald’s novel looks like it could be an amazing ride in 3D. I only wish they’d gone for period music in the soundtrack, or orchestral music simulating period music, or even electro dance pop incorporating period music. Gatsby is the great novella of the jazz age, why not frame the story with orgastic brass bursts rather than tedious U2 covers?

EPB’s own Peter Dysart sums up the concerns of literary purists everywhere. “I fear this film will play too hard at connecting with current 20-somethings that it will miss its own decade by a wide margin,” wrote Dysart in a social media post.

And he has a point. This trailer looks less like an advertisement for a literary adaptation than it resembles a preview for a iPhone-era Marvel Comics/Classics Illustrated fusion story called The Great Batsby wherein Bruce Wayne, Alfred Wolfsheim and a closet full of bat costumes would move into the East Egg mansion across the bay from the green light of Daisy Catwoman’s West Egg Dock. Adventure would ensue when the caped crusader and his loyal butler take neighbor Dick Grayson Carroway under their wing to fight dreaded Long Island criminals such as Owl Eyes and the twisted and much-feared oculist, Dr. TJ Eckleburg.

Ink 19 film critic Steve Stav sums it all up by writing, also in a social media post, “I fear that this movie will be a good-looking piece of crap.”