TIM BURTON’S BATMAN
BATMAN (1989) BATMAN RETURNS (1992)
Batman is so dumb. BIFF! BAM! POW! Are you serious?! Him and the boy wimp Robin, why the hell would they want to make a movie out of that?!?! In 1988, before the internet, nerdy magazines like Starlog(Really miss that mag) started talking about a movie called Batman. Most people, me included, knew Batman from the Adam West/Burt Ward TV series as well as the extremely vanilla Super Friends cartoon. I didn’t like either, yet. Neither show had the nostalgia factor going for them then and no one realized how brilliant Batman ’66 truly was. When I get to the DC TVerse, I will let you know brilliant it still is.
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Bottom line, Batman was not cool in 1988, at least outside of comic books fanatics. In 1939 Bill Finger and Bob Kane, the co-creators of Batman, had always envisioned The Dark Knight to be just that, dark. He even let bad guys die! Much darker than what he became in the late 50s into the 60s and somewhat into the 70s. Then Neal Adams and Denny O’Neil got a hold of him and turned him back into the Dark Detective he was always meant to be. After that door was creaked open, a man named Frank Miller Bat-Booted the door wide f’ing open with what is now the Bat-Bible, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Of course I love TDKR and it is definitely in my top 5 Batman stories even if it’s not number 1, but no one can ever deny it might be the most important book in Bat-History, next to Detective #27. In this instance, Batman became literature.
Movies based on comic books took quite a step back with SUPERMAN IV yet Warner Bros was not deterred. They were going to make a Batman or die trying, proverbially of course. Enter Tim Burton. The man who brought us PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE and BEETLEJUICE and he’s bringing Mr. Mom with him. “Oh my, who now” was the collective cry from nerds everywhere and if there was an internet, it would’ve been broken with this news. They are making the funny, campy Adam West Batman. How could they?!?!? Thousands of letters flooded Warner Bros. production offices. The hate was flying.
I liked Pee-Wee and Beetlejuice and I liked Mr. Mom and Michael Keaton and I didn’t read comics yet, so I was cool with him as Batman, in fact that may have been one of the only reasons I was excited for it. Yet there were so many voices shouting “NOOOOOOO” or “PLEAAAASEEE ANYBODY ELSE”, and then those cries grew a little quieter. Jack Nicholson as the Joker? Ummm… Ok, I might be able to get behind this.
Then came that flippin’ trailer. 11 year old me lost his mind!!!
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First trailer in history where people were buying tickets at the cinema just to see it and then walking out before the movie they bought the ticket, for started. Once that Warner Bros logo hit the screen and greatest score Danny Elfman ever wrote began, I was hooked. 2 hours, leaving the theater with Joker smile from ear to ear, beaming that this was the greatest movie EVER!! Even with all that, I still didn’t realize how much this movie impacted my life or was about to. I started buying comics to sell to the neighbor kids earlier that year, I read a couple of titles, Spider-Man and Usagi Yojimbo exclusively but mostly my brother, cousin and I bought grab bags worth of comics, 20 for 5 and sold each one for a buck. Not a bad profit, though I wish I still had some of those books. After the weekend of June 23rd 1989, Comic books became a quintessential part of who I am. I own about 4500 of them today and while I don’t collect with the vehemence I once did I feel one day I will be back.
Tim Burton wanted the audience to believe they were in a living, breathing comic book and he succeeded. The Production Design team created Gotham out of scratch at Pinewood Studios in England and combined that with beautiful matte paintings that brought Burton’s gothic, art deco world to life winning an Oscar for their acheivement. A look and tone that would carry on to the greatest piece of entertainment based on a comic book property, Batman The Animated Series.
BATMAN RETURNS may not have been as big a money maker for the studio and at the time, it was considered to be somewhat of a failure. Even though critics dug it, in fact more dug it then the first one, tonally it went even darker and that didn’t sit well with a lot of people. In fact, I remember a gentleman when I went to see it opening night stand up and shout “That movie sucked!” I didn’t agree with him but it seemed more than I thought, did. As a result of the ultra-realism that was Chris Nolan’s masterpiece, THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY, people seem to remember Burton movies as camp. Not at all. Schumacher, yes and we will get to him. But Burton’s two Batman flicks while highly stylized were earnest and very, very dark.
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How do you top Jack Nicholson? You don’t. However, bringing in Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Christopher Walken as The Penquin, Catwoman and Max Shreck respectively. This movie is violent and Batman blows up a dude! Yeah, he has guns and rockets in the first one but those are just for intimidation, right Tim? I’m all about artistic license and new interpretations, that’s how Comic Books have manage to stay alive for the last 80 years, but there is one thing that should never change about Batman… He should never use guns. They are the instrument of his parents death. Batman doesn’t cross two lines, No guns. No kill. Simple. Maybe one kill early in his career before he decides to pull back and say, no I need to be better than them. So only one, No guns. But in every movie Batman incarnation on screen, guns. C’est la vie.
JOEL SCHUMACHER’S BATMAN
BATMAN FOREVER (1995) BATMAN & ROBIN (1997)
BAT NIPPLES!!! ASS SHOTS!!! Homoerotic fantasies aside, JS took these movies in an entirely different direction than Timmy. Batman Returns was a commercial and critical success, unfortunately it made less than it’s predecessor so Warner panicked and bowed to the whiny parents who believed the film went a little too dark. Maybe, but it’s what Batman is meant to be. There’s nothing in in it that good parenting can’t counteract but, I digress.
FOREVER!!! WB saw that Burton was going to keep it the dark realm he started in so he was told “Hey! we are firing you as director, but you can produce and help pick your replacement!” How much he really had in that decision is still up for debate but Joel came in and made it bit more toy selling friendly. I loved it when it first came out. Not even close to the love and admiration I had for the Burton movies but Val was very good, Nicole Kidman was mesmerizing and Jim Carrey was so wonderfully over the top and at that time, he was as good as gold to me. Plus, it looked really pretty.
Batman Forever is also a member of former practice that I really miss, words that used to excite me every time I went to Sam Goody or The Wearhouse and saw the words MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY THE MOTION PICTURE… enter any major movie released from 1984 – 1999 and you will find a album containing those words. Some were in most cases, better than the movie themselves, like GODZILLA ’98 aka Jurassic Park 2.5. Godzilla the movie is terrible but the soundtrack is all kinds of awesome. Some enhanced the movies themselves like WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO + JULIET with modern rock while others transported you back to the time the flick was set a la DAZED AND CONFUSED.
Then there is the Batman Forever which in retrospect, is a way better soundtrack than a movie. But the movie still has it’s charm and is ten times better than that turd goblin that is Batman & Robin.
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One of the greatest love songs ever.
BATMAN & ROBIN
They wanted to sell toy (it’s not your fault George), funny if your high or drunk with friends and you haven’t seen it in 15 years and it has an amazing soundtrack but…
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Yeah, no. Just no.
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S THE DARK KNIGHT TRILOGY
B&R killed Batman for a bit but like any good comic book hero, he didn’t stay dead for long. As he has done many times before in comic book form, he was resurrected. And like a Phoenix from the ashes, it was beautiful to behold.
I have a few problems with Nolan’s Batman Series, but they are so small and personal that it does not impede my enjoyment of them. We will start at the beginning and when we come to the end… we will stop.
BATMAN BEGINS made Batman real, like really really real. Burton’s Batman was earnest and the cast and crew took what they were doing very seriously without a hint of winking at the camera, but it was very stylized and felt like we were stepping into a comic book. Which, as I mentioned, was what Burton intended. Nolan asked the question, what if Batman was real?
There are a few fantastical elements that stretch real world logic but for the most part, you take the bat suit off and you got yourself an old fashion crime thriller, especially the near perfect DARK NIGHT.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, while a very fitting end to a magnificent trilogy, exposes the problems I have with the DT saga. Once again, I want you to bear in mind how much I love these movies and these are very tiny, gripes. Like Doozer size gripes. Remember the Doozers kids? You Fraggle Rock fans know what I am talking about.
My problems are this, Batman should never use guns which I have said before, Batman should always have a little bit of a detective in him and finally Bruce Wayne would never, ever quit. In the Nolanverse, he quit twice. Once between DK and DKR and then AGAIN at the end of DKR. Batman’s job will never be done, hence him training Terry McGinnis in Batman Beyond.
I understand that it fits what Nolan was doing, making Batman a symbol. Bruce said it himself, As a man I can be corrupted or destroy but as a symbol… So I get it. Now if you would’ve had a montage that showed Bruce training John Blake(Joseph Gordon Levitt) aka Robin that would’ve been more satisfying to me. Bruce had years of training, John Blake would just die. First mission against someone like Bane, dead. Bye Bye symbol. I know he quit in the world of Dark Knight Returns but the beginning of the book is him rearing up to come back because Bruce doesn’t quit.
Like I said, small quibbles. I love The Dark Knight Trilogy. I love Batman. And I really, really love the Joker.
Compelling stuff. I miss you very much Heath Ledger. Critics be damned, I can’t wait to see BVS.