Batman

A legend. I prefer the new Batman of the new millennium, but this is a proper classic. An excellent cast, "gothic" music by Danny Elfman, and a demonic Jack Nicholson. The set and production design are slightly theatrical, but that’s fine. This film has a overall different feeling than the polished and realistic comic book movies of today. It's a different era and a different vision of the director. Tim Burton is an eccentric and he made an eccentric film. The gloomy atmosphere is hard to surpass. (13/10/2013)

In 1989, the authors of any comic book movie could literally come up with whatever they wanted. And since in this case, the project involved Tim Burton, it was clear that you surely wouldn’t be disappointed. Even after almost thirty years I can say at least that, as opposed to today’s comic book movies, this one absolutely has the spirit of the playful visionary that is Burton. In this one, Batman is as dark as midnight, Joker is as deranged as a train gone wild and the music in this case is so genial that in connection with Tim Burton, who put a layer of gloss and visual aesthetics on all that wackiness, disappointment was simply not an option. It’s nice to see how it was all about entertainment with movies like this one back in the day. Today it’s all about colors, digital effects, pseudo-realism and forced catchphrases in the mouths of characters who don’t even deserve them. Here, you can simply focus on the scene and you are good. For instance, the scene where Joker storms into the museum and while listening to a divine song by Prince, he and his thugs spray and draw over one Renaissance painting after another. I mean that’s so genius that it can’t be beaten even by the entire arsenal of the Marvel of today. (13/02/2017)

Burton gives the impression of a man who is on his home turf, as if the visual freedom of the comics had untied his hands and allowed the film to be legitimately saturated with his peculiar vision. Batman is thus a film in the best Burton tradition, full of great shots and bold artistic solutions, which give the whole an unmistakable atmosphere on the edge between a fairy tale, a horror and creative phantasmagoria. The cynical allusions to mass character and manipulability are also excellent, as well as a great comic insert with editorial staff not wearing any makeup. However, the centerpiece of the film remains "the man with two faces" Michael Keaton (the duality really suits him) and especially Jack Nicholson's Joker, whose contagiously extravagant conception of a new deadly avantgarde is among the best villain mannerisms in the history of film. Batman feels modern for its time, as if the film was ahead of the period development and belonged more to the current wave of comic book adaptations, with all the ease, visual pickiness and resistance to vain heroism. Unfortunately, the story of the film is far too sparse, has no gradation and near the end it contains boring and purely self-serving spots, and although Burton's film vision shines, there is no tension... Batman Returns suffered from a very similar syndrome. Nevertheless, I rank the introductory adventures of the Batman on the pedestal of comic book adaptations as a film that set the direction. And I ask why Nolan et al. feel the need to retell it? (19/12/2006)

The biggest problem for me was the choice of director. I can't help but find Tim Burton's style terribly dull, and his Batman lacks pace, insight, and everything else that would adorn Nolan's dynamic spectacle 15 years later. Michael Keaton was bland and demonic, Jack Nicholson's flawless performance wasn't enough either. At least Kim Basinger was nice to look at....60% (11/02/2012)

I have to say that that film doesn't make as much of an impression on me anymore as it did when I was a child. I thought it was much darker back then. That's why it's better to watch Burton's films as a child. They have a much stronger impact on you then. But that doesn't change the fact that Jack Nicholson is still excellent and this Batman adaptation has nothing to be ashamed of. (20/05/2014)