Batman (1989)
 DJHufford  rates it:    Community rates it:
   236 of 512 readers found this review helpful.

Batman is an Icon. You know that, I know that, Tim Burton knows that. Burton had 50 years worth of Batman stories to draw from. He could have taken any approach he wanted. He could have taken from the most infamous stories, like "The Killing Joke" or the "Dark Knight" series. No, that would have been too easy for Burton. He decided to make an original story, and make it as iconic as possible to best represent the Dark Knight.

How do you make a movie about an icon iconic? You take the dark scenes, and make them darker. You take a big city, and make it bigger. You take the Joker, and make him flamboyant. You take the batmobile, and add a jet engine. You assemble an all-star cast. Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger, and Jack Palance definitely qualify for all-star status. Heck, he even took the batcave, and made it cavey-er. Top it off with a soundtrack by Danny Elfman, and you have iconic.

One of the biggest complaints with any comic book based movie, is that they tend to not follow the comics faithfully. This film is no exception. There are a zillion discrepancies in this film. Yet, nobody seems to care. This film got a free pass. Why? Because this film followed the true spirit of the Batman. Regardless of storyline, he is dark, conflicted, and scary. This film embodied all of those traits.

This film plays like an origin story. As it begins we are introduced to Batman taking out a couple of street thugs who terrorized a small family, mirroring his own story. From there we quickly learn that Gotham City has become a haven for crime. The cops are crooked, and a crime syndicate pretty much controls everything. It's up to Batman to stop them. Along the way he runs into Jack Napier. After accidentally falling into a well placed vat of acid, he becomes the Joker. The Joker quickly establishes his rank as the crime leader.

The Joker is as evil as they come. His dramatic fall into acid somehow erased his balance of right and wrong. He is willing to kill anyone at anytime by any means necessary. The Joker has extremely high expectations. He wants nothing more then to gas the entire population of Gotham City. He figures the only way to accomplish such a feat is to release poisonous gas via balloons at a festival. Will Batman be able to foil this dastardly deed? You'll have to watch the flick. Now you may remember I said the Joker was evil? Perhaps I should mention how evil. He is so evil he liked dancing around to some very bad Prince songs. Now that's evil.

The special effects/props/makeup in this movie are nothing short of amazing. The Batmobile may be the best looking batmobile of all time. From the absurdly phallic length, to the jet engine in rear, this car just screams "I'm badass". Batman also likes to play with a newly introduced vehicle called the Batwing. It's like an airplane, yet considerably smaller, and shaped like the bat symbol.

The supporting cast does a great job of filling in any gaps. Robert Wuhl plays a local reporter to comic perfection. This was probably the last reputable role I’ve seen him in. Burton also introduced a new character to the Batman mythology, Vickie Vale. She was played by Kim Basinger, back when Basinger was still hot. What's interesting is at the time of the film, Vale was a brand new character. Now, years later, she has become a staple in the comic books due to this movie. Bill Dee Williams played Harvey Dent. You may remember Harvey Dent was also Batman's villain Two-Face. Sadly, we never see that side of him in this film.

Overall, this movie became an instant classic. It had an absolutely intriguing storyline. It had big wonderful movie sets. The casting was nothing short of brilliant. Michael Keaton may just be the best candidate to fill the cowl. He absolutely devoured this role. He understood that in order to make Batman come to life, he had to do a lot of acting through his eyes. When your covered in latex that’s about all you have. It kinda goes without saying that this is 5 cans out of 5. You know you should own this. Every redblooded American should own a copy. Besides, it gave us one of the most memorable lines of all time, "Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moon light?"

Added:  Sunday, September 10, 2006

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