After watching this movie again recently, I have realized what a terrible joke this film is compared to the newest Batman film, "Batman Begins". The way people talk about this film on here, you would think that Tim Burton is some kind of legend, but that's hardly the case. If you honestly thought that this film is true in spirit to the comic book series, you are most decidedly wrong, but there are other problems at work here.
First of all, watching this film will make you realize just how little focus is actually spent on the title character. Bruce Wayne's back-story is almost completely glossed over, and as a result, it doesn't feel like Bruce is trying to save the city he grew up in. Rather, the film makes him look like a complete psycho (especially evident in the "You wanna get nuts?" scene) who picks on petty thieves. Batman is supposed to be a detective, but it sure doesn't feel like he does much detective work here. Instead, he just waits until someone alerts him to a problem, then he shows up and saves the day.
As I said in the title of this review, the film should have been titled "Joker", if only for the reason that, for most of the film, we follow Jack Nicholson around as he exploits to kill all the residents of Gotham. Not that Jack Nicholson is a bad actor, mind you, because he does what he to jazz up the role. However, I already understood his purpose within the first few minutes of seeing him, and I didn't really require seeing him sitting in his hideout cutting out pictures of Vicki Vale.
Batman does not kill. EVER. He has a sense of morals, and a sense of justice. He doesn't just run around beating up and killing guys, especially to the point of blowing up an entire chemical factory with criminals inside. It may look cool on the big screen, but it's not who he is.
I also found it surprising how stupid some of the characters are. For example, it seems that Bruce has no problem driving a woman to the Batcave, bringing her in, showing her around the place, THEN SEDUCING HER. Better yet, I also wondered how foolish the people in Gotham were when they were blindly grabbing money from the Joker's henchmen, in light of the recent event where he poisoned a woman on television who was using one of his products.
I found Michael Keaton's performance...underwhelming, I guess would be the right word. He plays Bruce Wayne like a jittering, nervous wreck, the type of guy who probably spent his high school years cramming for exams in the basement. Even when he's in the Batsuit, he looks small and unassuming. As for the rest of the cast, they do commendable jobs, especially with Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon and Michael Gough as Alfred.
If anyone hasn't this yet, and is wondering if the film is faithful to the comic books, prepare to be disappointed: this is nothing like the comics. There are several differences between the film and the comics, some of which work, and some of which don't. I guess having the Joker being the one who killed Bruce's parents may have worked on screen, but it sounds absolutely ridiculous once you realize that Bruce actually remembered who killed his parents all his life, and waits until the END of the film to tell Joker about this fact.
What this film doesn't do is show how the general population reacts to Batman's exploits. Like one poster stated, the people living in Metropolis in "Superman: The Movie" and the people living in Gotham City in "Batman Begins" both react to what is happening around them. People actually care what is happening to the person that is saving them. Here in this film, we have no clue if anyone knows what's going on, or for that matter, if anyone even cares about what Batman does, aside from the city paper (and even they believe he's not real) and Commissioner Gordon.
The action scenes in this film are also short and unsatisfying. It feels like Batman can just single-handedly beat up anyone, which is hard to believe, especially given the fact that we know from dialogue spoken in the film that Bruce hasn't been out doing his Batman thing for very long. Even the climactic battle with the Batwing is rushed and pointless. We never get to see the full capabilities of what Batman can do here.
Bottom Line: I am giving this film a 4 out of 10, largely because of the strength of the supporting cast. This film really hasn't aged well. I would recommend that you watch either Batman Returns or Batman Begins.
First of all, watching this film will make you realize just how little focus is actually spent on the title character. Bruce Wayne's back-story is almost completely glossed over, and as a result, it doesn't feel like Bruce is trying to save the city he grew up in. Rather, the film makes him look like a complete psycho (especially evident in the "You wanna get nuts?" scene) who picks on petty thieves. Batman is supposed to be a detective, but it sure doesn't feel like he does much detective work here. Instead, he just waits until someone alerts him to a problem, then he shows up and saves the day.
As I said in the title of this review, the film should have been titled "Joker", if only for the reason that, for most of the film, we follow Jack Nicholson around as he exploits to kill all the residents of Gotham. Not that Jack Nicholson is a bad actor, mind you, because he does what he to jazz up the role. However, I already understood his purpose within the first few minutes of seeing him, and I didn't really require seeing him sitting in his hideout cutting out pictures of Vicki Vale.
Batman does not kill. EVER. He has a sense of morals, and a sense of justice. He doesn't just run around beating up and killing guys, especially to the point of blowing up an entire chemical factory with criminals inside. It may look cool on the big screen, but it's not who he is.
I also found it surprising how stupid some of the characters are. For example, it seems that Bruce has no problem driving a woman to the Batcave, bringing her in, showing her around the place, THEN SEDUCING HER. Better yet, I also wondered how foolish the people in Gotham were when they were blindly grabbing money from the Joker's henchmen, in light of the recent event where he poisoned a woman on television who was using one of his products.
I found Michael Keaton's performance...underwhelming, I guess would be the right word. He plays Bruce Wayne like a jittering, nervous wreck, the type of guy who probably spent his high school years cramming for exams in the basement. Even when he's in the Batsuit, he looks small and unassuming. As for the rest of the cast, they do commendable jobs, especially with Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon and Michael Gough as Alfred.
If anyone hasn't this yet, and is wondering if the film is faithful to the comic books, prepare to be disappointed: this is nothing like the comics. There are several differences between the film and the comics, some of which work, and some of which don't. I guess having the Joker being the one who killed Bruce's parents may have worked on screen, but it sounds absolutely ridiculous once you realize that Bruce actually remembered who killed his parents all his life, and waits until the END of the film to tell Joker about this fact.
What this film doesn't do is show how the general population reacts to Batman's exploits. Like one poster stated, the people living in Metropolis in "Superman: The Movie" and the people living in Gotham City in "Batman Begins" both react to what is happening around them. People actually care what is happening to the person that is saving them. Here in this film, we have no clue if anyone knows what's going on, or for that matter, if anyone even cares about what Batman does, aside from the city paper (and even they believe he's not real) and Commissioner Gordon.
The action scenes in this film are also short and unsatisfying. It feels like Batman can just single-handedly beat up anyone, which is hard to believe, especially given the fact that we know from dialogue spoken in the film that Bruce hasn't been out doing his Batman thing for very long. Even the climactic battle with the Batwing is rushed and pointless. We never get to see the full capabilities of what Batman can do here.
Bottom Line: I am giving this film a 4 out of 10, largely because of the strength of the supporting cast. This film really hasn't aged well. I would recommend that you watch either Batman Returns or Batman Begins.