In retrospect, Batman(1989) is really baadd
- Thread starter RAMA
- Start date
The 1989 Batmobile is pretty much the definitive one other than the Lincoln Futura one in the 60s TV series.
I hope the Batmobile in the next Nolan movie can live-up to it. (Another problem with the Nolan movies the Batmobile, for me, wasn't impressive.)
I hope the Batmobile in the next Nolan movie can live-up to it. (Another problem with the Nolan movies the Batmobile, for me, wasn't impressive.)
RAMA is blasphemous!
I think it did hold up pretty well and still one of my favorite movies of all time. Keaton was quite good as Batman, Bale is too, but Bale's "growling" is a sound for sore ears!
Its hard to imagine a movie of this note that it is LESS blasphemous to talk about. I think if half these people who still seem to like it go back and look at it after not seeing it for a long time, they will probably be surprised at how much they dislike it.
At least Bale is a human being...can speak two words in a row both as Batman and Bruce Wayne. Keaton as Batman...epic fail before it its time.
RAMA
Funny, I had the opposite development with Burton's Batman in that I have grown to like it much more than when I first saw it.RAMA is blasphemous!
I think it did hold up pretty well and still one of my favorite movies of all time. Keaton was quite good as Batman, Bale is too, but Bale's "growling" is a sound for sore ears!
Its hard to imagine a movie of this note that it is LESS blasphemous to talk about. I think if half these people who still seem to like it go back and look at it after not seeing it for a long time, they will probably be surprised at how much they dislike it.
At least Bale is a human being...can speak two words in a row both as Batman and Bruce Wayne. Keaton as Batman...epic fail before it its time.
RAMA
If I was stuck on a desert island and could only take one BATMAN movie, it would have to be the 1989 version--for all the reasons I've stated already.
It's just the most stylish and atmospheric of the bunch. I guess I just like my BATMAN pulpy and Gothic. Like some classic old comic book.
(I will, however, concede that the Prince songs have aged badly.)
It's just the most stylish and atmospheric of the bunch. I guess I just like my BATMAN pulpy and Gothic. Like some classic old comic book.
(I will, however, concede that the Prince songs have aged badly.)
I HATE the 1989 batmobile...I hate the stupid gauges from the 1950s, I hate the front air intake. I think it looks like an overpowered but sluggish and unmaneuverable mess. I don't think the Nolan Tumbler is "definitive" but it sure makes a hell of a lot more sense than the comic book vehicle.
The best Batmobile...circa 1943.
RAMA
Honestly, I think we're dealing with two very different aesthetics here, and your comment there gets right to the heart of it.
Some people want Batman to make "a lot more sense than the comic book" version. And seem to think that the more realistic and less comic-booky the better.
And some of us think that misses the point. If I want a realistic crime drama or action movie, I'll watch THE FRENCH CONNECTION or something.
For Batman, I want an outlandish, larger-than-life pulp adventure about a masked avenger striking fear into the hearts of evil-doers. It's about myth, not reality.
Like in the comics.
Yeah, we can't have comic book vehicles in comic book films about comic book characters.
TESTIFYGreg Cox said:
I want BOTH!! I want a world I can believe exists where a real hero just might exist but is different...an alternate history. Oh perhaps a Gotham that isn't unrealistic, but still has major feature changes over cities we know...sayy an el train on arches hundreds of feet high...sound familiar? Yes, Nolan's world is more believable, but still with enough accoutrements and scenery that firmly establishes it as a comic derived world..its not every day you see scarecrows wandering around the streets or men with memory fiber wings floating around town is it?
But the 1989 movie fails on other levels than comic expectations, so its still awful in my opinion.
RAMA
I accept and agree with that modification.
Okay, I suspect we're just repeating ourselves at this point, but I'm curious: when you watch an old Hammer Film or Ray Harryhausen flick, do you expect "a world I can believe exists?"
And if not, why should BATMAN be any different?
I guess, when you get right down to it, I don't expect BATMAN to be "more believable" than KING KONG or FLASH GORDON.
It's all pop-culture fantasy stuff. That's what's great about it.
For the longest time I didn't see the appeal of the '89 Batman movie but then I undeerstood the idea of it being operatic and I understood how it worked. And although I was alittle iffy about the casting of Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman I think he made the most of the role given the script.
Count me as one who still sorta likes but never really did love the 1989 film. However, I love, cherish, and adore Batman Returns. Watching that one in the theater in 1992, I remember wishing it would just keep going for hours and hours.
I refuse to compare Batman Returns to the Nolan films. The Nolan films are excellent, but they are so different you won't get me to try to say whether they are better or worse than Batman Returns.
I refuse to compare Batman Returns to the Nolan films. The Nolan films are excellent, but they are so different you won't get me to try to say whether they are better or worse than Batman Returns.
I had a chance to rewatch Batman '89 just recently, as part of a four-DVD set. I thought it wasn't great--but it wasn't bad, either.
I was mostly struck by how campy it was--it seemed much closer in tone to the TV series than I remembered it being.
Even the theme music struck me as somewhat silly: "Ba-ba-ba-BAT-man! Ba-ba-ba-Bat...Bat-MAN!"
I found it was most effective on the occasions when it got serious. The scene where the Joker puts the broken mask on the mantle, and then smashes it, for example: Nicholson seemed actually menacing in that scene. For the most part, he was just buffoonish. Entertaining, but not really threatening.
The Schumacher films, by contrast, were much worse than I remembered them being. They were shockingly bad.
I was mostly struck by how campy it was--it seemed much closer in tone to the TV series than I remembered it being.
Even the theme music struck me as somewhat silly: "Ba-ba-ba-BAT-man! Ba-ba-ba-Bat...Bat-MAN!"
I found it was most effective on the occasions when it got serious. The scene where the Joker puts the broken mask on the mantle, and then smashes it, for example: Nicholson seemed actually menacing in that scene. For the most part, he was just buffoonish. Entertaining, but not really threatening.
The Schumacher films, by contrast, were much worse than I remembered them being. They were shockingly bad.
Really? I thought for sure I remembered a scene with the Red Triangle gang poring over blueprints of the batmobile. Maybe it was in the novelization or comic book adaptation?
You're not wrong there. But nowhere do they say where they got it.
I'd say the movie hasn't aged that well.
And while it originally appeared as pretty dark compared to the 60s TV show, it now appears as pretty campy compared to the Nolan films. It's almost as if the 1989 film (and Batman Returns) consitutes an intermediate step between the TV show and Batman Begins/The Dark Knight.
And while it originally appeared as pretty dark compared to the 60s TV show, it now appears as pretty campy compared to the Nolan films. It's almost as if the 1989 film (and Batman Returns) consitutes an intermediate step between the TV show and Batman Begins/The Dark Knight.
It was beter than the overly campy Batman TV series of the 1960ies; plus it was the first film version of the more 'Dark Night'-esque version from the popular graphic novel released just a few years prior.
Also, the hype on the movie wasn't all that much about 'Batman' - but about Jack Nicholson playing a VERY phsychotic Joker. Again, this is more accepted as the commonplace 'style' for the Jioker today; but in 1989, fans hadn't seen a really psychotic Joker caharacter on TV or in film.
^^^^^
This is what generated a lot of media/fan buzz and interest for the film back in 1989.
