Movie Review #26: Batman

Next up for Toast’s Blog Batman Movie Reviews is Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) starring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger and co-starring Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Cough and Jack Palance. The wonderful Danny Elfman supplies the score and Prince supplies so many songs for this movie that one would think it’s the only CD available in Gotham City.

After the fame of the Adam West television series died down, the comic books turned a new chapter in the Caped Crusader career. Mainly, they put the Dark back in Dark Knight. The one credited with this revamp is Neil Adams whose new costume design and storytelling have impacted everything to do with Batman and Robin ever since. Batman now had a mission: rid the crime-infested Gotham City of the psychos and loonies that run the streets and avenge his parents. The villains were not just theme-villains anymore, they were now dangerously crazy psychos to the point that Batman had to toughen up for the job. Batman became violent. Not killing anyone, but seriously doing damage. The whole mood changed and the fans loved it. The franchise boomed and Warner Brothers proposed the making of a new movie based on this style.

And who better to direct this dark, gloomy, storybook movie than the dreary and macabre Tim Burton! His take on Batman was every fan’s dream come true. Tough, smart and a detective to the end and a drab, dank and dirty Gotham City, where 50’s style cars and colour big screen TVs live in perfect unison. What makes this movie stand out above other ‘firsts’ like Spider-Man, Superman and Daredevil, is that Burton did not use half of the movie to tell the origin story. Rather, he cut it up so the viewer learns more as the story progresses and (unlike the Green Goblin) the Joker’s character could be given the development it properly deserves.

The story has Jack Napier (Nicholson) get horribly scarred by falling in a van of acid that bleaches his skin and turns his hair green. He adopts the Joker moniker and begins to terrorize Gotham City in order to get revenge on ‘the other loony in town’ Batman. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne (Keaton) falls for Vicky Vale (Basinger), a photographer set out to capture a picture of the elusive Batman. She, of course, gets kidnapped and has to be saved by Batman.

Keaton is not a good Batman but is the best out of the three (Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney). He doesn’t seem suave, cunning, or built enough to be Bruce Wayne. But Nicholson was perfect for the role of the Joker. His characterization was so good, it left a mark on how the Joker is now and will forever be portrayed. This film also has the best costume and Batmobile out of the quadrilogy. Billy Dee Williams was an odd choice for District Attorney Harvey Dent. First, he’s black and Harvey Dent in the comicbooks (and in the third movie) is white. And second, Williams is just Lando and will never be anything but.

This movie was good but only just paved the way to the superior sequel, Batman Returns.

See you next week (I promise),
Toast!