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Review by:TK-Bear Director: Tim Burton Writer(s): Bob Kane (Batman characters)' Sam Hamm (story) Producer: Peter Guber Publisher: Warner Brothers Year: Peter Guber Category: Comic Book Movie Status: 1989 Rating:  |
| Description: My personal favorite Batman movie of all times. Batman 89 IMDB Page Intro So the following is my review of Tim Burton's Batman from 1989, and as I said, it is my personal favorite comic Hero movie of all time. My favorite Comic movie is Sin City, but that is another review for another time. Yes, this is also after I saw Dark Knight. When I watched the Dark Knight I thought it would become my favorite, up until just after the Magic Trick. Up until that point Joker was very very very Joker to me, after that he became the Riddler to me. As Cadet and I said it is like Jim Carry played the Riddler as Joker, and now Ledger player Joker as Riddler. Disagree all you want, that is why these are opinions. Now you can go ahead and argue till you are blue in the face, but I simply could not see the character Joker when watching Heath. Although his performance was great, the person who I see as Joker is Jack, and that is what this review is about; now that I am completely sidetracked. Batman 1989 If you have not seen Batman 89, stop right now and get it! It is a must for any comic book fan. While I know some people complain about the movie being cheesy, too dark, or that Tim Burton not being a comic fan I felt as though the movie really captured better than any other the imagery I always imagined when reading my Batman Comics. Batman I will be the first to say I had no idea that Keaton could pull off the roll of batman, let alone that I would believe him as the Batman, but I did. His Bruce was just as good. He portrays Bruce as Silent, confident, unwilling to commit in a relationship and many of the quarks I always picked up on when reading the comics. My only grip is the same as it is with all the movies, and Bruce / Batman is supposed to be a huge guy. Look at the comics, very seldomly is Batman not a large bodybuilder sized guy. But I am ok with no one ever going with such an actor as they tend to not really be able to act all that convincingly. But what was cool about Keaton was I saw him portray the character as Batman, not Bruce who dresses up like Batman at night. The best example was when he walks up to Joker with all the henchmen firing wildly and he is not dressed as batman, but you can tell at that moment he is Batman, not Bruce. Bruce died along with his parents in that ally. Yes, I know Joker did not kill his parents in the comics, but it works for this film. Another thing I love, that many hate is the "Keaton Turn" where when he was batman he would turn his whole body because the suit limited mobility. I don't know if it was just me but it makes batman seem like a bad ass to me. No he isn't turning just his head, he is turning his whole body and saying bring it on bitch. This Batman has, "The wonderful toys," a great costume, great sets and more. The Setting / Look & Feel If you put this film in the context of it being made back in 1989, you have to give the effects serious credit. They did them well, and while some look cheesy today, I think I love this film a little more than others because it was before the dawn of CGI. It just feels believable to me. The focus on story here, and not just effects. Now I know many newer films are going for "More Realistic", but this one I can suspend belief when watching it and really get into the dark atmosphere and feel of the film. Yeah the city is not completely realistic looking, and some of the effects are fairly fake, but I don't want real when watching the film. I want something I can get into and enjoy. A good "popcorn flick" and if I want real I will watch the news and I hate the news, Joker What makes this film in the end for me is Jack as the Joker. When he first becomes the Joker and sits at the desk of his dead boss just saying "hooop, hooop, hoop HahHAhAhahahaAHA" I laugh every time. You realize this guy went crazy once he was dropped in that vat, and does not care about anything from that point on. Now I hate to reference Dark Knight again but this is what I like the most about this film. In Dark Knight Joker has this elaborate "plan" to prove that "plans are pointless." To me that is to elaborate for the Joker. When I read the comics I see a guy who turned himself in once because he killed someone and there was no punch line. He kills because he is crazy, but there is always a punch line. As he tells Harly in one comic he cannot just shoot Batman, but Bat's death must be the most grand Punch Line of all time! In this film Joker strikes me as the JOKER! He kills people with chemicals hidden in beautiy Prodocts aka Joker Products! Joker finds it hillarious that people are dieing from their vanity which freezes them in a joker looking state. This joker is also a chemical genius just like in the comics, and what seals him as joker for me is his final strike against the public. When he offers the crowed free "money' thrown from floats in a parade, the fact that he is killing people out of their greed, because it is funny to him is the most Joker you can get. He gains nothing from doing this other than amusement of watching people die because they wanted free money. The end gag which doesn't come across in the film, but is in other adaptations of the film via comics and books, is that this is all funny money. Joker is the face on every bill. Then when it all goes wrong, joker, to cheer himself up, just randomly kills his number 1 guy. Because everyone knows random oddities make us all laugh. Final Thoughts My Final thoughts are that I love this film, and it will always be up there with some of my top films of all time. I hope that everyone can at least watch this film once in their lifetime, and enjoys it at least half as much as I have. I sometimes wonder what this film would be like if they would have let Tim make it as dark as he wanted to, but then some things we will never know. One thing I will point out though, for those who think the new Joker is more deadly, pay close attention when watching this film. Joker kills a ton of people that you don't see. Remember they had to hide a lot of the violence in this film. And one more thing, I do not hate the film the Dark Knight, as many people think I do. As a matter of fact I love it and re watch it regularly. It had great acting, great writing, and a solid story but it wasn't Batman and Joker to me, and I thought it was a little overrated and drawn out in the end. Don't take those comments out of context, but Batman 89 is Batman to me and will always be my Favorite Batman film......unless someone comes along and can get even more of the comic feel......and maybe add mark Hamil's voice to the joker. :) | |
Batman 89
