The only thing even remarkable about this film is Jack Nicholson. The production looks now very much outdated, so much so that I cant honestly say anymore what looks campier, it or the 1960s television show starring Adam West. But like the television show, its old-before-its time quality sorta doesn't really matter. Burtons world always has a fairytale cardboard reality to it, so you can overlook it for the most part. Its annoyingly colored in deep purple too, a la the bat costume, bat-mobile, et al. Its all done I'm sure to as closely replicate the comic book experience as possible. Its too much though, and it gets annoying. You find yourself gasping for some fresh air by the end of the film. Burton's very heavy hand and his very Burtonlike vapid storyline and dialog are all borne gladly because of one thing; Nicholson's unbelievable one man show. In fact, his performance utterly carries the film past the embalmed forgettable non-performances of the rest of the cast, with the exception of perhaps Palance. I don't want to sound harsh, i recommend this film all the way. In a strange sense all of the negatives of Batman meshed with the dark purple backdrop gloom and merely emphasized further Nicholson's brightly colored clown get-up and Richter scale ham-fest. Its movie magic as they say. Jack deserved more credit for this. It's the type of award winning acting that sadly never receives awards. Boo.
