HCR Rates The Movies #27: BATMAN

[DTM]

So, our next film, Classic or Crud, Hit or Miss, what say you ALL?

Our next film open for discussion, and ultimately an Overall RATING by you all:

BATMAN
VRqa47-jv0M

Let the discussions flow. Likes, dislikes, classic film or overhyped trash, and DONT FORGET to place an Overall Rating when youre done.

Its easy, just give a Rating from 1 (Jaws 4:The Revenge) to 10 (Jaws), and thats it. Course I'd love to have you all give reasons as to why you feel it deserves this Overall Rating, and more than encourage discussions with us all about them.

So, what say you all?

Next Film: ??????

[Wyldstaar]

Adam West or Michael Keaton?

[DTM]

Uh, were talking the Tim Burton/Micheal Keaton 1989 blockbuster Batman here, not the Adam West campfest Batman (which I think was called Batman: The Movie)

[ReZourceman]

I know Ill probably get slated for saying o, but I just didnt really enjoy this movie. I have nothing more to say other than ;

6 Out of 10 from me.

[Aminar]

8/10
Burton as a director rocks, Keaton is not Bruce wayne, and I hate rubber suits on batman(Or any other hero.) Good movie, bad star(for the role) and bad costume.

[lobo1]

this may be biased but whatever.

9/10

this movie is the reason i got into comic collecting when i was 9 years old. if it weren't for this movie i don't think i would be the comic geek i am today. :)

cheers

[xXHushXx]

8.2/10

Solid film. Batman Begins is still better, IMO. But maybe because I think Batman Begins is arguably the strongest comic book film.

[Wyldstaar]

Despite it's many flaws, Batman was a great film. Burton's dark style meshed well with the material. Nicholson's Joker was well played and the make-up FX were superb. Keaton made a believable Batman despite already being far too old to portray the character in it's early days. The score by Danny Elfman created the perfect mood for every scene it was featured in.

Since I can't stand Prince, I've got to take off for that. Every scene his songs were shoehorned into distracted from the onscreen action. The storyline clearly indicated that these were Batman's first forays into the streets of Gotham City as it's defender, yet Keaton was as I've said too old to do it the way it should have been.

8 of 10

8 out of 10

[Wyldstaar]

D'oh

[Magnito]

It's an alright movie. Good the first time, but every time after that, I can only poke holes in it. It deserves an average rating. (or what I consider average. On your list of movies, this will actually put it near the bottom. People around here rate movies way too highly)
7.8

[Inbetweener]

I know I've missed alot of these lately (sorry) but I figured I'd pop in for this one...Batman should be thought of in terms of it's time. I mean to say that it was a totally refreshing take on the character as he was known in mainstream pop culture in the late 80s. Tim Burton is a director that is all about cinematography and setting and executes a unique otherwordly but not quite unearthly feel that dominates Gotham City in general...and it works extremely well (this element worked even better in the overall lesser sequel Batman Returns). Keaton is unconventional but that is what makes him so cool as both Bruce Wayne and Batman. The movie's dialogue is bad at times but in the context of the whole film in perspective is works well enough and actually quite good at times. Like most Burton films the Elfman soundtrack fits perfectly and even enhances Burton's aim as a director. All that and Batman still falls short of Batman Begins, which of course is sort of unfair to mention because Batman Begins was that good. Then there is Nicholson. I can absolutely believe that Christian Bale is a better Batman than Keaton...I'll concede to that argument reluctantly, but I can say with great confidence that there will never be a better Joker than what we see here. Let them prove me wrong. :)

Rating: 9.0

[DTM]

(or what I consider average. On your list of movies, this will actually put it near the bottom. People around here rate movies way too highly)
7.8

Do you really think so? I mean, look at the movie list above and their overall scores, do you think that so many of them are listed so inaccruately (as in alot higher than they should be?)

Sure we get our shares of 9s and even 10s (though 10s really only for the Classics) but we also get our share of 1s, 0s and even an occassional negative number. :)

All in all, in looking at the above listing, Id say things arent too off the mark (my mark anyway), and I see more that are lower than expected, again to me, that those that are too high.


Current HCR Member Rating:

BATMAN - 8 / 10

[VandalSavage]

I'm a huge a comic fan and this movie was very good at the time....


Score : 9.1

Mr. Savage

[BigSoph]

7.5
Keaton was the best Batman, but possibly the weakest Bruce Wayne

Bale, IMO, did Batman 95% as well and Bruce Wayne perfectly

Want to make Batman Begins near 100%

Remove the scene where Katy Holmes asks him who he is and he spouts her drivel about "what we do" et al

Replace with
KH: We're all going to die here...at least tell me who you are
Batman looks like he is about to say, stops, stands tall and, just before he turns and vanishes, says "I'm Batman"

[Aeturnus]

I don't like Tim Burton.

-3/10.

[Magnito]

Do you really think so? I mean, look at the movie list above and their overall scores, do you think that so many of them are listed so inaccruately (as in alot higher than they should be?)

Sure we get our shares of 9s and even 10s (though 10s really only for the Classics) but we also get our share of 1s, 0s and even an occassional negative number. :)

All in all, in looking at the above listing, Id say things arent too off the mark (my mark anyway), and I see more that are lower than expected, again to me, that those that are too high.


Current HCR Member Rating:

BATMAN - 8 / 10

Although I agree with most, I'm just saying that there are a heck of a lot of movies that scored above 8, and I don't think they all deserve it, but I've always been a hard marker.

But then again, you are right. The movies you pick have been top of the line for the most part. If you wanted bad rating, you'd have picked bad movies.

[hail_eris]

I agree. This has been a rather select group of films, rated by a collection of people who are predisposed to think highly of most of them. So if it seems like the averages tend to skew a bit high, I don't think that should reflect negatively on anyone. As far as Batman goes, though, I'm going to break with the trend. While I'm generally a big Prince fan (well, at least until Graffiti Bridge), his soudtrack was a major distraction throughout the film (Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Face to Face" in Batman Returns fits naturally in its scene, it's more in line with the Elfman score on the whole, and it captures the Gothic Christmas feel of the movie far better). The effects tended to be middling (one expects a certain low budget charm in Burton's movies, but there were a few special effects that sucked me right out of the story). And really, I didn't especially take to Nicholson as the Joker (mainly because you never saw the character - instead, you saw "Nicholson as the Joker"). Michelle Pfeiffer was a solid Catwoman and Danny DeVito was excellent as the Penguin. But the whole time I was watching Batman, I was very conscious of the actor who was playing the character, rather than the character itself. Even when held alongside the train wrecks that were the Schumacher sequels, the original Batman fares poorly in my eyes. While it did lead to Batman Returns (which is, in my opinion, a better movie in every respect), it traveled a rough road to get there. Points awarded for the resurrection of Batman as a film property, but a huge deduction for the special hell that is the Batdance. My rating is 6.0.

[DTM]

Ive got to say while its not my favorite all time comic book movie, it is (in my mind) responsible for many if not all of the comic book films after it being made. Its success was HUGE, and it showed movie companies that Big Bucks could be made by taking a comic character and making them serious and real, not as campy dopey cartoon characters as had been done so often in the past (especially with Batman).

Its impact was huge, and made us all believe that Batman could be dark, brooding and even downright scary, a far cry from Adam Wests or the Superfriends versions. This movie even spawned one of the best comic book animated series ever in my mind with Batman TAS (which actually gave birth to Superman TAS, Batman Beyond, and the JLA and JLU).

Tim Burton is the lord of all things dark and yet light at the same time. Brooding and yet hopeful and possibly even uplifting. All in all he took a character that most only knew from TV shows and cartoons, and made him something we could all understand and enjoy.

While I wouldnt have picked Keaton to play Batman in a million years, his Batman was certainly one of the best to ever hit the screen (possibly even better than Bales), though I didnt love his Bruce Wayne much at all. Nicholson WAS the Joker, so much so that there was talk of him getting an Oscar nom for this role. Insane yet entertaining, demented and sick yet funny and captivating. And the score, Danny Elfman did an unreal job and created in my mind a classic character score for one truly classic character. (Batman was one of the very first score soundtracks I had ever bought YEARS ago, on tape no less, along with Return Of The Jedi)

While this film certainly does have its share of holes, bad dialogue, and I definately enjoyed it more when I was younger and first saw it, Ive gotta say its still one very enjoyable piece of comic book moviemaking, and while its not my favorite comic book film, it does deserve a good score from me nonetheless.

BATMAN - 8.25 / 10

[DTM]

Current HCR Member Rating (Counting the -3 as a 1):

BATMAN - 7.31 / 10

[Aeturnus]

You're skewing the data in favor of a higher score, and, thus, substituting a 1 for a -3 is unethical.


I demand that my -3 is calculated into the mean or I will annihilate this thread with my Doombot army. That is all.

[DTM]

Sorry about that, but the rules of the thread are that votes are to be between 1 and 10, no 0s or negatives. Heck, youre lucky Im counting your vote at all, with it being simply "I hate Tim Burton, to Batman gets a -3". And I thought 1s and 0s were handed out to easily, now I have to worry about negative numbers. :confused: :ermm:

[Aeturnus]

I'm not spending my time posting a long-winded opinion that no one will ever read. Take hail's post for instance. That's a big friggin paragraph. Now, I like hail, but there isn't any way I'm reading the 32nd review of the same movie so I'll just find his score and be on my way.


I'm giving the movie a -3 to save you time. You should be thankful. You should bake me cookies. Chocolate cookies.

[DTM]

THIS CLOSE to putting Aeturnus on my Ignore List. :)

And Id much rather have a long detailed paragraph on why you feel like you do on a movie, over I Hate Character/Director X, this gets a -3. I mean come on, this film CLEARLY doesnt deserve a -3, NO film can be worse than a zero. Like I said, youre lucky I counted your vote at all, and to everyone else out there who likes to post on these threads, Long and Detailed reviews are A-OK, #1, with me, so keep em coming all. :)

[Aeturnus]

Full-fledged Doombot warfare will begin this weekend.

[Mjolnir]

This is a Tim Burton movie so we have to check off the Burton cliche's;
Dark? check!
Brooding? check!
Dark and brooding? check!
Brooding and dark? check!
Theme of alienation(nerdy geeky kid)? check and double check. Ya know, it's kind of funny but go through all of his movies he's ever made..... he always has a character that doesn't fit in. An "alternative" character. Heck, when it was announced he was making Mars Attacks I thought "hey, now that's funny! he's doing a movie about an Alien Nation rather than alienation......" Silly me he combined the two. it makes me wonder if he's projecting in his movies? I'm thinking, "dude! you're over 40! Your movies make millions! It's time to get over your sad childhood, therapy perhaps? Something. I want to see what you can do with an interesting story that doesn't dredge up your unhappy childhood.

So;
4 for a visually fantastic movie.
2 for Danny Elfmans score.
-1 for Jack Nicholson playing.... Jack, I mean the Joker. Cesar Romero was better imho.
1 For casting Michael Keaton to play Batman/Bruce Wayne against type for a grand total of;
7.
I should deduct points for the shoehorned Prince music but one scene with his music actually helps it feel festive.... but only that scene. Actually I will; -1 point to make it a total of;
6.

[Gargantua]

I'd rate this one an 8.

Tim Burton went a long way toward restoring respect for Batman among the general public. Sure in the comics, Batman had become a more serious character, but prior to this film, 95% of people probably still equated Batman with the Adam West series.

As a film, it isn't perfect. Nicholson's Joker was very good. (I might have said definitive, though Cesar Romero's performance really did have some merit too. Both were blown out of the water when Mark Hamill really did him up right in the animated series.) Burton's dark, brooding neo-Gothic Gotham was wonderful and Elfman's score a perfect fit. The costume was reasonable. The props were fun. Keaton himself wasn't awful, but he wasn't great either. The plot was pretty good. All in all, just a few steps short of a really great movie.

[lurker]

Hmm I think I remember this film in a favourable light more because it came out when I'd just finished school and was free at last. Remembering this film brings back happy memories... :rolleyes: I watched some of it to refresh my memory and I still like it, a lot. In hindsight surely Tim Burton must regret using Prince's songs, maybe he could re-imagine this movie one day and fix this mistake. Aside from that, it's still an enjoyable film and I think everyone does a great job in this. I'd rate this film an 8. Actually I will add .5 for the nostalgia factor. I could easily watch this movie again and would look forward to it, always a sign of a good film in my books. 8.5 out of 10.

[lensnart]

Tim Burton is very talented but he just missed the mark with this, and as blasphemic as it may be to say I thought that Nicholson was awful. The first time I watched it in the theatre I was impressed but I don't know how much of that was just that it was so much better than what came before. But as I have watched it several more times and have had time to judge it solely on its own merits I really have to say that it just isn't very good.

Sorry tim but I have to say 4.6 out of 10

[d_knight7]

7.5/10, mostly for Nicholson, looks pretty crappy when compared to Begins.

[Drunky]

I was going to give the movie something between 8 and 9 (because just like lobo1 it's the movie that got me into comics, and last time I saw it like 2/3 years ago I loved it), but seeing the posts on this thread I decided to watch it again last night to make sure I didn't forget anything about the movie.

Well I wasn't disappointed. I love Tim Burton, and this one is probably my favorite; to me, Keaton is the best Batman I ever saw (I haven't watched Batman Begins), and unlike BigSoph I didn't find Bruce Wayne that weak, but I definitely found him human, and that helped much to feel empathy with the character, in opposition to the darkness of the Batman. Nicholson as the Joker is huge, completely insane and cruel but yet very funny. The props are fantastic, and are a huge contribution to the darkness of the movie. The music score is brilliant too, Danny Elfman's theme perfectly fit the ambiance, and even Prince's songs were well placed, despite the fact I never really liked his music. "Tim Burton is the lord of all things dark and yet light at the same time.", just like DTM said, and this movie is a perfect example of this.

9.25/10.

[Prof. Aragorn]

Awesome movie - acting may seem typical, but Joker was good and psychotic. Bruce Wayne and Batman were well done by Keaton despite his height.

However, Batman doesn't kill. He doesn't use guns. Period.

8.9 out of ten.

[iameleveneight]

10/10 Tim Burton is a genius. He give pop culture a new batman to sink their teeth into and IMHO really made the character his own. Jack made a good Joker but it was more Jack than Joker IMHO. He just wasn't goofy psycho enough for me but I still love it and Micheal Keaton is still my favorite Batman.

[Pashmina]

7/10

Good, but I hate the fact Keaton was so stiff (literally) annoyed me.

[DTM]

If you mean Keaton as Batman, dont blame him, as that first Bat-suit was quite constricting, and didnt allow much in the way of movement at all (especially around his head and neck).

[the itsy bit]

I absolutely love this movie it's awesome.

10/10 classic I found the Prince soundtracks refreshing and fitting, holds up to repeated viewing !:classic:

[CarlosMucha]

This is MY Batman movie. The Impact of this movie was SO BIG, you could only remember that if you was there.

Abolute classic. 8.75.

[labria4]

I would rate this film higher if Batman Megins and The Dark Knight didn't exist.

7/10