When it comes to the films which get released this time of year, there are a good number which shall we say smell not like Teen Spirit but more like something left in the bin a bit too long in the hot blistering sun.

You cannot help but get suspicious when something gets tipped for so many awards even before it makes it to these shores, and even more so when they happen to be based on true stories where every actor in it tends to be so emotional crippled or serious, you’d want to just go over and give them a tissue and a sandwich while saying there there.

Just look at that overly dramatic sh*t judging from the trailer, Foxcatcher where everyone looks like they are about to go hunting for food while avoiding dinosaurs and afterwards draw pretty things on the cave wall about discovering fire.

And thus, you get the idea of the mindset going into our next contestant, Birdman, (or the other bit they tagged onto the title.)

Last time I ever go to a wedding…..

Rather than reflect the cartoon antics seen mostly in the 60s or indeed the more recently outrageous and highly entertaining Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law (Ha Ha, Phil Ken Sebben sorely missed) we actually get a tale where things are on the downward spiral for one Mr Riggan Thomson (who is played by Batman)

Basically Batman is a washed-up Hollywood actor who was only famous for playing Birdman in some films a good few years ago and gets annoyed when he sees Robert Downey Jr getting in on the action via one certain Iron Man series.

Riggan hopes to add some new spring back in his step and get lots of fame, fortune and flapjacks by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway adaptation of something. But as you an imagine, it’s not going to go that well is it?

Well for a starters, he’s bat sh*t crazy. (Heh heh, Batman’s bat sh*t…you get it??!? Ah never mind….)

Seriously, when the voice of a character you used to play is in your head a lot of the time taunting you about everything going on, and you imagine having lots of powers to be angry enough to throw things across a room just by waving your hand….yeah….that’s the time everyone else looks at their watches and say they have to go feed their hair and wash the cat.

Ah wait….wrong Birdman….

This bears out over several situations during the course of the film such as during some initial scenes where we see rehearsals going on, a light out of nowhere just falls onto an actor and apparently Old Riggan had something to do with it as he didn’t like the actor it hit in the first place.

Enter Edward Norton who himself just doesn’t seem to give a flying f*ck about anything most of the time and just does what he likes, even getting upset about not having gin during a scene to be more realistic.

We also get introduced to Sam, played by Spiderman’s Girlfriend Emma Stone. She is Riggan’s daughter, who also is his assistant and coming down from doing naughty things that are classed as illegal. So far so mellow. At some point, Sam and Ed Norton get to liking each other and that…is as far as we ever know as at some point, the story just wanders off from that. What the hell happened?

There is also a good number of scenes where everyone is just in their underpants of one scene, less as after going out for a smoke, Riggan accidentally locks himself out of the theater, gets his lovely dressing gown caught in the door and has to walk in his underwear through Times Square in order to get back inside the theater, just in time for the final scene to play out where he points his hand out like a gun.

Heh heh, they didn’t close the curtains before they started….

This is where it gets a bit more strange. I honestly don’t know how I should be feeling about this as a film. There were funny bits but not really anything laugh out loud, in some cases it was down right cringe worthy as what was happening to our wonderful crew of the SS DOOMED.

Zach Galifianakis gave a decent performance as the director / lawyer friend of Batman, which was very much appreciated as the last time watching him in Due Date… well let’s just say even Mcdonalds wouldn’t have employed him to clean the floors. In fact, one would argue that everyone was on fine form in their general malaise, especially Micheal Keaton.

The camera work and editing also have to be commended for making it almost a seemless transition from one scene to the next, almost as if we were watching a play about a play and everything was being moved around while everyone got ready for the next part.

The music however, was at first, fair enough as we were engaged with various levels of drumming and weird jazz which signified more about Batman’s mental state at times, but this slowly got on my nerves as time went on and frankly I would have paid more money to ensure the guy on drums took a long break. Possibly only coming back after everyone else had gone home.

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry….like when I wasn’t in the Avengers….

But this is where we stop. This is not really a film that you would go out of your way to watch more than once.

It didn’t really leave a lasting impact aside from the characters all requiring the assistance of the happy lady in the white coat who gives out pills to calm you down and to be honest, the main thrust of it all, particularly during the scene where Birdman is chatting with Riggan while he walks down the street drunk, was that there was no real art any more and that we, the audience only wish to see big glitzy action films where everything explodes in an attempt to escape our mundane lives.

Err…. yeah?

Let’s be honest, if Jeff from accounting wanted to go and watch superheroes on screen while eating that third tub of chocomatic ice cream, why the hell not? There’s room for everything in this world, hell Micheal bloody Bay showed us that!

Perhaps with the award season coming up, there is only going to be a huge dose of cynicism floating around the films which arrive on our doorstep between now and March and that in turn may taint everything we see.

For now though, I can only say that Birdman has its moments, but damned if I can actually say it’s something to rush out to see at a moment’s notice. Maybe in 6 months when the hype dies down, it’s worth another look.