An evil organisation called Claw led by masked supervillain Drago wants
to take over the free world and subject it to communism - so the NBI (sort
of the free world police) hires superhero Batman (Dolphy) plus sidekick
Robin (Boy Alano) as well as superagent James (think Bond - Dolphy again)
to track the baddie down and prevent him from destroying the free world
(he can do that, he has given plenty of proof). Now neither Batman and
Robin nor James really have the first clue where to look for Claw, but
Drago is so determined to not lose his face that he orders his men to
track them down and capture them, even if that gives everyone plenty of
leads to his organisation ... Shirley, the daughter of the Chairman of
the free world, is in love with Batman, but her sister Delia is dead-set
against it, insisting she has to marry money rather than some masked
stranger. Somehow, the Chairman and both his daughters are captured by
Claw, despite Batman, Robin and James's best efforts to prevent just that
- but then again, Batman, Robin and James are made captives as well. One
hour until Drago wants to destroy the free world if his demands - total
surrender - are not met, he presents his key ally: The chairman of the
free world, who because he has never gotten rich in the free world despite
his brains, has decided to give communism a shot. His daughter Delia
stands by his side proudly ... however, his daughter Shirley, who nobody
has paid much heed to until now, has freed herself and teamed up with
another NBI agent to start the fireworks in the Claw headquarters before
Drago can destroy everything worth living for, and ... well, the whole
thing ends happily, and Shirley even gets a chance to make her father to
see the error of his ways and saving all the others giving his own life,
while Drago and the Claw-crowd get their just (and lethal) desserts - and
in the end, everyone gets his girl, too ... even if James doesn't like the
one in store for him too much ... At the first height of the James
Bond series and when Batman
was the hit show on the small screen, Filipino producers obviously decided
it might be a good idea to blend the two properties to properly spoof them
- which was kind of a weird idea, since Batman
was already the mother of all spoof shows, and the James
Bond-series didn't take itself too seriously either (which is
why decent James
Bond-spoofs are so few and far between). And thus, James
Batman falls quite a few feet short of being a good (or even
acceptable) parody, the jokes in the film are almost all non-topical, the
story, in its attempt to feature not one but two main heroes, becomes
incredibly slim in the process, and somehow, the action setpieces lack any
real highlights, and especially since they all go on for quite a bit, they
become quite repetitive (even if they're expertly staged). Worst of all
though, the whole thing is decidedly less than funny ...
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