When Batman first came out, its dark, gloomy and very uncamp style was praised. Tim Burton, as ever, used the deep reaches of his dark imagination to give us a tortued Dark Knight, grieving still for his slain family. We later find that Jack Nicholsons show- stealing Joker did the dirty deed, while Kim Basinger's photojournalist Vicki Vale provides the impossible love interest for Bruce Wayne.
Most viewers would remember Batman as either the camp 60s/70s TV show, or as the Saturday morning cartoon and comic book, so what they see was totally alien. Michael Keatons Bruce Wayne has the perfect mix of grief, thought and anger, as his alter-ego roams the 302- style Gotham City, terrifying the cities criminals with his rubber suit and cool weapons. Who hasn't wanted one of those dartguns? As Batman is the first charcahter to show up, we begin to think that The Joker stands no chance against Batman, and I doubt anyone but the dangourus Jack Nicholson sould have pulled off the Joker. Joker is most definately a madman. As the film progresses, we see the Jokers creation in a vat of acid, the scuplting of his face in a seedy udnerground dentists surgery, the mutlation of his girlfriend, and his attempt to poison Gotham City with his laughter gas. The scene with the TV newsreader first sniggering then ending up dead, with the Jokers smile shwos us what a madman he is. Joker is oen hell of a villan. Basingers Vicki Vale is the go- between between Joker and Batman, or rather, Bruce Wayne. Adored by Joker and Wayne alike, she is the one they are fighting over in what becomes nto good vs. evil, but a battle for love. As we gradually see Joker winning, with the people dying from 'Brand X', the attack on the art gallery and the shooting- down of the Batwing (dammit!!) we see Joker is more than a pretty face.
The effects are great, the style is perfect and the atmosphere Burtons creates is fabulous. This isn'f a film, its a cinematographic masterpiece, totally alone in its mood, so in touch with its charachters. Brilliant!
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Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
After a young boy witnesses his parents' murder on the streets of Gotham City he grows up ... more
to become Batman a mysterious figure in the eyes of Gotham's citizens who takes crime-fighting into his own hands. He first emerges out of the shadows when the...
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Gotham City, not the safest of places to live, but that is about to change with the ... more
emergence of a new super hero, who intends to inspire fear into the hearts of the evil, and hope into the hearts of the honest citizens of that city! Who is Batman?
Advantages: Great story, Great effects and make up, great soundtrack great performances. Disadvantages: Not enough of Alfred and commissioner Gordon shown
Gum 22.07.2000 ·
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Review of BATMAN (DVD)
Advantages: good acting from a few, good story, funny bad effects! Disadvantages: Wooden acting from the villians, some may be disappointed by the effects