Comments on: Batman The Movie

By: Kinja

Kinja — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:09:55 +0000

“Another thing I never noticed: Vicky Vale can’t keep her shoes on. She has dinner with Bruce Wayne and looses her shoes. She goes off running with the Batman and looses her shoes. She goes climbing with the Joker and she… looses her shoes. I don’t know if that’s a metaphor, but it’s in there. )”

In reference to this comment – a woman losing one or both shoes is used to portray one as a
damsel in distress which Vicky Vale is in this movie.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:03:49 +0000

I reviewed this on my blog here..., but not very well. I like what you say, but I think that Batman Begins is the best, maybe it reflects its own times best, although its an eternal story. WRT why Vicki Vale's always losing her shoes, its probably a Kim Bassinger/Michael Keaton hieght thing. Batman is meant to be tall.

By: James

James — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 12:54:24 +0000

Forgot to say. Even though the mantle of directing Batman has been passed on from Tim Burton, his invention
of Batman’s costume does appear to have been his most lasting legacy. I noticed in Batman Begins that he still retained fully black body armour instead of black/grey saggy tights and tiny ears with more of
a soldier’s/carpenters style utility belt.

By: James

James — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 12:50:41 +0000

Batman Begins

Well as a self confessed nutcase who’s been obsessed with Batman on numerous occasions, seeing this film left me with mixed feelings as did the two by Tim Burton.

1) Bruce Wayne was a much stronger character as was the spoilt only child having a bad tantrum
as he always should be.

2) The fights were very good as well as the general plot and is well worth buying later

However here are the problems

1) Alfred was entertaining but again was not accurate, a cockney this time rather than a type-cast well spoken english senior citizen.

2) Jim Gordon was hopelessly weak, and when on earth was he meant to be a Gotham Cop? – he hated Gotham as a cop, couldn’t wait to get out of it if I remember correctly. And he wanted to capture Batman by his groin rahter than join in with his escapades immediately – bit poor this rendition of him, but still more accurate then Burton’s

3) Wayne Manor burning down – this was unforgivable, what happens now? – does he go back to living in his penthouse and using an abandoned subway for his headquarters like he did in the 70′s and early 80′s?

4) There were other hopeless inconsistencies with the Batman Legend but are too too numerous
to count, I mean Ra’s Al Ghul as one of his sensei’s – yeah right!!

As for the Tim Burton collection, well from an artistic point of view they were excellent. The blending of neo-gothic and art deco architecute via reinventions of Broadway, Rockefeller Center etc really
was truly excellent.

However he did use far too much artistic licence with the characters. Selina Kyle as a Jewish
Secretary instead of a prostitute, plus having an equally type cast Jewish New Yorker mother was an interesting varient. Aside from that his indepth characterisations of Selina Kyle’s and Oswald Cobblepot’s
grief alone left poor old Brucie taking a back seat. But Batman Returns still remains my second favourite Batty film purely for it’s outstanding artistic achievement. Problem is after that his films just became a much of a muchness in a lot of ways.

By: Jason Kirk

Jason Kirk — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 23:36:05 +0000

There is an interesting interview with Michael Uslan at the Pulse – he’s been the producer or exec producer of every Batman film since the 1980s (check IMDB he’s even exec producer on all the animated direct to video Batman releases). He’s got an interesting quote on the comparison of Batman and Batman Begins, “Batman Begins is a better film that elevates comic book movies to a new plateau (It’s a great film, not simply a great comic book film.), but Batman was revolutionary.”

Batman Begins is a terrific film and is one of the high points of the genre, but it doesn’t have the iconic stature of the first film. I think we often forget just how big an event the 1989 Batman film was – it was the first DC film to have a video game spin off, it powered a massive number of commercials (just think how many places you saw Alfred in TV commercials), it prompted serious academic discussion on superheroes and their icons, and it created a merchandising phenomia the almost rivalled Star Wars.

I really wish they’d put out a DVD boxed set of the Batman The Movie (1966), Batman (1989), and Batman Begins (2005) – just a pure collectors dream.

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 02:21:39 +0000

Batman Begins is far better. Tim Burtons Batman was a good effort and a soild comic book movie but it doesn’t reach true greatness. Batman Begins was a fantastic adventure that might be the best comic book movie ever. It totally got into Bruces head and totally explained everything about his character. Micheal Keatons Batman is underdevloped and poor at martial arts. Jack Nicholoson was a good joker but doesn’t quite match Hamils preformance in the animated series. All the villians in Begins rocked and were totally believalble. Overall Begins is the best by far in my opinion.