Rated PG-13 for language and violence
Starring Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger, Pat Hingle, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough
Directed by Tim Burton
The Story:
Bruce Wayne (Keaton) is a billionaire with a secret: he's Batman! A hushed urban legend, he wants to help the Gotham City Police Department, including Commissioner Gordon (Hingle) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Williams). However, Gotham is riddled with crime, and the latest crime boss suffers an accident at the hands of Batman and he becomes...The Joker (Nicholson). With the police, reporters and photographer Vicki Vale (Basinger) on his trail, can Batman save the day without being caught or killed?
Happy 25th Anniversary to the movie, Batman.
I have never watched the film before.
Shocking, I know. You'd think I would have been all over this one.
However, I was relatively uninspired by the selection of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, and between all the snippets of music that year and clips on TV, I felt as if I'd pretty much seen everything I needed to with this film.
So, I finally sat down and watched it this weekend, and I'm reminded of a time when superhero movies generally sucked.
This film doesn't change my perception of that time, and I figure the popularity of the film came because it had been a long time since Superman: The Movie, and people wanted to like this, or any, superhero film.
Because...
It's pretty bad.
Those with rose-colored glasses who have 25 years of happy memories will disagree, and that's fine...
But wow.
A credit to Burton, he made a Gotham that looks and lives up to its place in the movie as an actual character.
However, the movie really should have probably been called The Joker, because let's face it, that's what most of the movie centered around.
Hey, if you're throwing all of your money and top-billing to the bad guy, you might as well make him shine.
Nicholson does his job, eating scenery and pulling out all the stops as The Joker.
Keaton does a fine job of portraying Wayne/Batman. No real complaints there either.
The movie itself though, seeks too much synchronicity by making the Joker responsible for creating Batman and Batman responsible for creating The Joker.
Gag.
Vicki Vale provides nothing but eye candy and damsel in distress moments that grew old and tiresome by the 2nd or 3rd time she screamed in terror.
Then, by the third act, when Batman's billion dollar jet cannot hit The Joker even though it targets him perfectly, and the Joker is able to shoot down said jet with one bullet from the most ridiculous gun in movie history...
Yeah...
This is not the Batman you want... it's the Batman you deserved.
Ben Affleck can do better than this with his eyes closed.
Final Grade: C+
Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: I went 25 years before seeing it. I think I'm good for one lifetime.
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