1989 Batman

I'm going to be starting a new "series".

I have access to all the Batman movies since 1989. Unfortunately I haven't seen all of them.

I was born in a time right when Batman was not really cool again yet. I was alive when Batman and Robin came out but I never saw it. But believe me, I will get to Batman and Robin.

Batman originally came out in 1989 under the direction of Tim Burton. Burton who was, at the time, a relatively new director. Now when it comes to Burton and this movie, it mainly is about the set. Gotham city is a very fascinating environment in this movie because its exactly what you expect as a Gotham city made by Tim Burton. I don't know what it is about Tim Burton but he always has to have his cities and environments look like it was farted out by fairies on a very psychedelic acid.

The thing about Batman is that Burton was going into uncharted territory with this movie. The only other Superhero movie that had been this well known was the Superman films with Christopher Reeves. Those movies were upbeat, hopeful, and sometimes comedic. That doesn't exactly fit the bill for a subject like Batman so they needed to take it in a different direction. Ergo Tim Burton.

Here's the basic premise of the movie. Batman, a masked vigilante, is fighting crime in Gotham, a city that suffers by his high crime rate. When a new foe dawning the name of the Joker comes to town, poisoning cosmetics and wanting to cause chaos, Batman must stop him before innocent people in Gotham die.

Tim Burton delivers a very dark representation of Batman... now when I say dark, I mean 80's dark. The movie is very comic booky and looks pretty good... for a movie made in 1989. It is fascinating to see the costumes and approaches used by Tim Burton early on in the comic book movie game, but lots of the time it just looks silly and something you might see out of the Adam West TV series.

And that's basically what this movie accomplished I think. It bridged the gap between the campy, not dark at all TV show that was the only basis for the subject of Batman on a screen, and the new age of Superheroes in movies. It made Batman the dark, edgy, caped crusader that he is today. And for that I have to give the movie credit.

However, the costumes are the things that get me the most. The Batman costume to me looks really silly. And Keaton wearing it looks even more silly.

Maybe I was spoiled by the awesome looking costume of the Dark Knight Trilogy but there were several moments where the costume just looked silly on Keaton. There's a moment where he's running in the streets with Vicki Vale and the way he's walking, the cape and just the entire costume looks really silly.

And I suppose that gets me into Keaton as Batman himself.

I should probably give Keaton more credit, he was the first actor to play a serious Bruce Wayne. And considering he came from comedic movies like Mr. Mom before this movie, thats a pretty good range. But Keaton just doesn't sell it for me. First as Bruce Wayne. They tried to make Bruce Wayne this down to earth guy even though he's a multimillionaire, and Keaton does an alright job at that to a fault. He does it almost too much that there is no room for this Bruce Wayne to have a darker side he hides from everyone else. The movie tried, but it just didn't work for me. Along with that, I didn't buy that Keaton was a multimillionaire. He played the down to earth guy so well that he just seemed out of place in Wayne manor. Which again, that's what they were going for, but he needs to at least look like he has millions of dollars just laying around.

And as Batman, Keaton doesn't really look it. The suit just looked big on him and like I said before, it looked silly. Keaton also didn't have that fear tactic that I think of when I think of Batman. He raised his wings sure but that wasn't really scary. And when he said He was Batman... it was just like he read the line "I am Batman." I don't know, maybe I'm not being fair to Keaton. I think it was good for its time and as a transition from the Adam West Batman, but I don't think its a role that survives the test of time.

Speaking of roles that stand the test of time, I'll get into the Joker, played by Jack Nicholson.

I found it interesting the correlations with the origins of the Joker from the comics this movie made. One of the alternative origins is that the Joker was once a criminal that went by the name of the Red Hood. During a heist in a chemical factory, Batman accidentally caused the Red Hood to fall into a vat of chemicals. The chemicals disfigured the Red Hood making his skin white as if he was wearing clown make up. Thus, the Joker was made. Now in the movie Jack Nicholson is not the Red Hood, he is a unbalanced mob lieutenant sleeping around with the boss's woman. He's framed during a heist and Batman inadvertently sends him into the vat of chemicals. Thus making him the Joker.

What's interesting about this role is... well what isn't interesting about it? It took the campiness of Cesar Romero and gave it a really, really dark edge. Jack Nicholson still is an incredibly silly Joker... I mean there's an entire scene where he's twirling a baton to a Prince song, he always has a guy following him with a boom box, and a gun with a huge barrel he pulls out of his pants. But at the same time he disfigures his girlfriend's face and makes her follow him around with a creepy mask, he kills people with a gas that makes them laugh so hard they die with a smile on their face, and he kills Bob for no reason. Its an incredibly fascinating character.

The downside is that they don't delve into that Joker enough. There's not enough explanation on either sides of the coin in this movie. The movie doesn't delve much into why Bruce Wayne becomes Batman or why the Joker wants all this chaos.

I may be going a little hard on this movie but the truth is I really liked it. It's interesting to look back at where our current looks at Batman originated from.

The other characters in this movie are pretty good. Vicki Vale screams a lot but she was a very good romantic interest. I'm not the biggest fan of this representation of Commissioner Gordon but again, I've probably been spoiled by the The Dark Knight Trilogy. Although Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent is awesome! I'm so sad he didn't stay on that role. It definitely looked as though that character was going to get a bigger role in sequels to come but Burton ended up not going that route. But who knows maybe Billy Dee had other things to do, like commercials for Colt 45.

The only other thing I'll say about this movie is... fucking ninjas. I don't know how they did it but they made it so the Joker's henchmen were Ninjas... cool? Again, very comic booky. Not in a bad way... just comic booky.

I'm looking forward to Batman Returns. Let me know what you thought of the 1989 Batman. Do you like Keaton? Nicholson? Comment below.