Burly Tim Burton 3 3

[Randall Ries]

1989 was a sorry year for the Dark Knight. 1986 was the year he was christened "The Dark Knight" by Frank Miller. As far as I know. Then Michael Keaton accepted the role of Batman in Tim Burton's ridiculous-a-thon "Batman". To the horror of all of us. Batman fans and Michael Keaton fans. Keaton is a comedian.

Back to Gotham City as a giant playground. With giant props. With a goofus Joker again. And we got who? Talia Al Ghul as Batman's love interest? Awesome! MIGHT have been. But no. We got Vicki Vale.

Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, Terry Austin, Marshall Rogers, Jim Aparo, Bob Haney and Frank Miller must have sat in the theater in 1989 and wondered why they had put all that thought and effort into revitalizing the character just to watch DC Comics pander to their children.

"Daddy! Make Batman wear a dress! Tee hee!"
"Ok, honey!"
"Daddy! Hire Tim Burton to direct your Batman movie! We LIKED Beetlejuice! He was fuuuunny, Daddy!"
"Ok, Sweetheart!"

I mean, come on. Tim Burton had manlier shoulders than Batman, fer Chrissakes! Tim Burton is 6'0. Batman was supposed to be around at least 6'4. "A huge man dressed like Dracula". Michael Keaton? 5'9. About a foot short.

Don't believe me? How about....YOUR OWN EYES? Here's Michael Keaton as The "Dark" Knight and Tim Burton. Here we see Keaton standing bolt upright with the graceful, sloping shoulders of a high school lab partner. Tim Burton is humped over like Wybie in "Coraline" and he had a majestic shoulder spread compared to Batman in this photo.

[Ken Aldred]

Despite being short, still far better than George Clooney in the role.

[Randall Ries]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:37 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Despite being short, still far better than George Clooney in the role.

Irrelevant to the topic at hand.

[Ken Aldred]

On 2/2/2022 at 3:38 AM, Randall Ries said:

Irrelevant to the topic at hand.

The heightism is irrelevant. He was a really good Batman, and Bruce Wayne.

[Jesse-Lee]

I loved the Batman movie, but to your point, I was in 6th grade in 1989. I loved everything about it back then - the hype, the soundtrack (I still have songs from the soundtrack on my regular driving playlist), and even the casting. Kim Basinger was hot and smart, Jack Nicholson was funny but scary with a nice touch of pomposity. And Michael Keaton was a smart-aleck, with just enough darkness behind the eyes that made him seem dangerous (again, at least to a 12-year-old). I'll never not look on that movie without fondness.

I would love to see a live-action DKR adaptation with Keaton and Nicholson reprising their roles. It might be a little late with Nicholson, but I think they could pull it off with some movie magic. But now that we better know these actors' ranges - how dark they can be, how much more you can be cinematic with "superhero" movies, etc. - I think it would be an intriguing choice.

[Randall Ries]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:48 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

I loved the Batman movie, but to your point, I was in 6th grade in 1989. I loved everything about it back then - the hype, the soundtrack (I still have songs from the soundtrack on my regular driving playlist), and even the casting. Kim Basinger was hot and smart, Jack Nicholson was funny but scary with a nice touch of pomposity. And Michael Keaton was a smart-aleck, with just enough darkness behind the eyes that made him seem dangerous (again, at least to a 12-year-old). I'll never not look on that movie without fondness.

I would love to see a live-action DKR adaptation with Keaton and Nicholson reprising their roles. It might be a little late with Nicholson, but I think they could pull it off with some movie magic. But now that we better know these actors' ranges - how dark they can be, how much more you can be cinematic with "superhero" movies, etc. - I think it would be an intriguing choice.

That's exactly my point. The movie was beamed into your 6th grade face. You and your classmates were like Manchurian Candidates.

[Randall Ries]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:44 PM, Ken Aldred said:

The heightism is irrelevant. He was a really good Batman, and Bruce Wayne.

It isn't "heightism". 5'9 is better than average height for a male. It was the wrong choice of Batman and Bruce Wayne. We all thought so. LCS and their clientele at the time. That photo to me doesn't look like a respectable Batman. And that is the point. People who flipped over the movie can't even believe their own eyes.

[Jesse-Lee]

On 2/1/2022 at 9:56 PM, Randall Ries said:

That's exactly my point. The movie was beamed into your 6th grade face. You and your classmates were like Manchurian Candidates.

That's why I always lose large chunks of time whenever I hear "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

[MetalPSI]

The movie was campy but entertaining 

Michael Keaton brought just the right amount of crazy that we have yet to see again in Batman. 

Jack Nicholson brought the exact amount of crazy to the joker, and if they had made it more gritty than campy, we would have gotten the Joker we deserve. An R rated Nicholson would have had absolutely no peer in the role

[Randall Ries]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:01 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

That's why I always lose large chunks of time whenever I hear "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

Well, HOPEFULLY that's why. LOL!

[Randall Ries]

On 2/1/2022 at 11:17 PM, The Meta said:

Jack Nicholson brought the exact amount of crazy to the joker, and if they had made it more gritty than campy, we would have gotten the Joker....

The dude at the beginning would have been even better. That guy was a chill fest.

[MetalPSI]

On 2/1/2022 at 9:31 PM, Randall Ries said:

The dude at the beginning would have been even better. That guy was a chill fest.

Exactly. But they wanted a movie kids could watch

[Larryw7]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:37 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Despite being short, still far better than George Clooney in the role.

And better than Val Kilmer.

[Cat]

I find the movie to be completely unwatchable these days. 

[comicginger1789]

As an adult, it is not a great Batman movie

As a child, it is great

Visually, I never had a problem with Keaton as Batman. I never would have known as a kid the existence of the Dark Knight but I can see how one would be disappointed as an older teen or young adult when the film came out if one was hoping for that same dark vibe that story gave off. I will be honest as years go by though and I look back and re read Dark Knight, I find it kind of horrible more and more. Sure I get what it did for comics but I despise the artwork which for me is the main reason to enjoy comics. The story also feels old now, maybe because the narrative has been spun before since in different ways. But that could apply to anything as time progresses. It is tough sometimes to stand up to the tests of time. 

[october]

I still enjoy the movie, but it's certainly not perfect. 

What it certainly WAS, however, was a quantum leap forward in legitimizing Batman and superheroes in general. Never forget what the most popular mass media portrayal of Batman was prior to it....

[VintageComics]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:33 PM, Randall Ries said:

1989 was a sorry year for the Dark Knight. 1986 was the year he was christened "The Dark Knight" by Frank Miller. As far as I know. Then Michael Keaton accepted the role of Batman in Tim Burton's ridiculous-a-thon "Batman". To the horror of all of us. Batman fans and Michael Keaton fans. Keaton is a comedian.

Back to Gotham City as a giant playground. With giant props. With a goofus Joker again. And we got who? Talia Al Ghul as Batman's love interest? Awesome! MIGHT have been. But no. We got Vicki Vale.

Neal Adams, Denny O'Neil, Terry Austin, Marshall Rogers, Jim Aparo, Bob Haney and Frank Miller must have sat in the theater in 1989 and wondered why they had put all that thought and effort into revitalizing the character just to watch DC Comics pander to their children.

"Daddy! Make Batman wear a dress! Tee hee!"
"Ok, honey!"
"Daddy! Hire Tim Burton to direct your Batman movie! We LIKED Beetlejuice! He was fuuuunny, Daddy!"
"Ok, Sweetheart!"

I mean, come on. Tim Burton had manlier shoulders than Batman, fer Chrissakes! Tim Burton is 6'0. Batman was supposed to be around at least 6'4. "A huge man dressed like Dracula". Michael Keaton? 5'9. About a foot short.

Don't believe me? How about....YOUR OWN EYES? Here's Michael Keaton as The "Dark" Knight and Tim Burton. Here we see Keaton standing bolt upright with the graceful, sloping shoulders of a high school lab partner. Tim Burton is humped over like Wybie in "Coraline" and he had a majestic shoulder spread compared to Batman in this photo.

Wow. 

Why the hate fest? 

The movie is etched in my 18 year old heart as one of my favorite movies of all time.

You can NEVER tell how tall anyone is, relatively speaking in a well made movie and not once did anyone suspect Batman was short in this movie. Just look at Tom Cruise - you'd never know he was 5' 7" (or is it 5' 6"?)

Nor would you know that the Dwarves in LOTR were all normal humans. 

I don't get the dislike for the movie. 

[VintageComics]

On 2/1/2022 at 10:59 PM, Randall Ries said:

That photo to me doesn't look like a respectable Batman

The photo is not representative of the movie at all, just like a photo of Gimli and the dwarves standing up on a set wouldn't be representative of the movie at all. 

[Badger]

On 2/2/2022 at 10:25 AM, october said:

I still enjoy the movie, but it's certainly not perfect. 

What it certainly WAS, however, was a quantum leap forward in legitimizing Batman and superheroes in general. Never forget what the most popular mass media portrayal of Batman was prior to it....

Exactly. First time on screen, big or small, the Joker was "scary." Maybe not Leto or Jared scary but still light years ahead of anything else seen so far. Nicholson was awesome.

[Randall Ries]

On 2/2/2022 at 3:06 PM, Badger said:

Exactly. First time on screen, big or small, the Joker was "scary." Maybe not Leto or Jared scary but still light years ahead of anything else seen so far. Nicholson was awesome.

What they tried to do was alienate no one. And by doing that made a ton of money and set the tone for the rest of the movies which - just IMO - all suck. Nicholson wasn't scary to me. But I wasn't a kid. To me, he was a nuisance.

Really? Bruce Wayne swinging upside down like he was a bat hanging off the roof of a cave? Show me any other reference to that. Wacko.

And sure. I get it. It seems like most of the commenters here were kids when they saw it and it must have seemed awesome and that is fine. But y'all grew up, right? Try watching it through my lens as an adult who was conned into going to see it. I had read the -script one year before production and man. It was terrible. And they didn't change one single word. I refused to go see the movie and my wife made dinner out plans with friends and after dinner, guess where we ended up? I tried. I got to the line "I'm Batman" I said "Yeah? I'm outta here", tried to leave and they had to trank me back into my seat.

It's funny to think about now. Back then, it wasn't universally accepted as a good movie among Batman fans. Lots of eye rolling.

So, I as an adult (an admittedly cranky adult) I am still waiting for my grown up Batman movie. Think anyone could please pull off a DKR movie that stays faithful to the 4 books? That cartoon is terrible as well. Look at Sin City. That was amazing as a film.