Comic Vine Question of the Week VOTING: Why Do You Love 1989's Batman Movie?

Love this movie. Just watched it again last week. Probably my favorite Batman movie after Batman Begins. It just oozes atmosphere and fun, man. Gotta love that soundtrack too.

EDIT: Oh, and Jack Nicholson. Nuff said.

No Jack Nicolson as a variant, so I'l vote that I don't like the movie.

...."the cast"?

Gotta be honest and say that I'm all about the music in the movie hahaha xD

Jack Nicholson is the only thing I like about the movie. So..cast...I guess?

Actually, the only thing I really love after all these years is Jack as the Joker. Keaton is ok as Bruce, and Bats, but it was jack that stole the show!!! "THIS TOWN NEEDS AN ENEMA!!!" That and the music!!! Prince's soundtrack rocked! and Danny Elfman's score was and still is amazing and the basis of so many batman themes.

I'm interested in this from another angle: why DO you love Batman '89? It bastardizes the character. I understand times were different then, and standards were different then, but having been born in '86 and seeing it early in life yet not having the reverence for it that some people do, I just don't get the love.

Batman kills! Alfred lets a JOURNALIST into the batcave! Joker kills Bruce's parents! I believe Bruce's dad is not named Thomas, if I recall correctly?

Sorry, I don't love the movie 27%

THE MUSIC!!!!!!

Sorry, but as I didn't grow up watching these, I tend to rate them by modern stadards... where they suck.

The most important thing about the movie to me isn't a choice:

It's responsible for the creation of the DCAU.

The Danny Elfman soundtrack is GOAT for a superhero flick and for some cosmically strange reason the Prince songs go right along with it.

The two Tim Burton bats movies are my favorite incarnation of Bats ever

I liked that it was different. A deviation in tone and writing from most interpretations of Gotham. If every film series portrayed Gotham and Batman in the same way, then they'd all blend together. I appreciate how unique Batman and Batman Returns were.

Whose "modern standards" are you using?

I loved everything about the movie. Even though they took some serious liberties I don't really care.

I love tHis movie because it debut on tHe day of my birtH. 3 Hours after it's MidnigHt sHowing I was born. Top tHat ya batmites.

-ABstract4$$#073-

@butters911: Who's do you think?

I enjoy the movie alot but I don't love it.

Where does Batman '89 fail to meet your standards?

If I could pick art direction, I would. Tone it is.

I actually love everything about that movie. It was one of the first (if not THE first) comicbook movie I saw in the theater when I was a kid. Most people will say it's kind of silly in comparison to Nolans take on Batman, but i guess it's more of a nostalgia thing for me. Still my favorite Bat costume, Batmobile and Nicholsons' Joker was/is an iconic performance.

whose standards would those be? 'coz they ain't full of soulless CGI sh**?!

I actually just rewatched this last week. What I really love about the film is the set design and backgrounds. The statues outside city hall, the huge vents in the museum, flying buttresses on every other building. It's like a gothic art deco feast for the eyes. Gotham City is my favorite character in the movie.

It introduced the grapnel gun

Well said. The art deco aspect was really emphasized in BTAS, too.

@amazingwebhead said:

It introduced the grapnel gun

No way.

How does the movie suck though?

I personally think the '89 Batman is a classic with memorable scenes, lines and terrific casting and characters. The look and tone solidify it as a gem for me.

The casting was great, Jack joker was awesome and Keaton is a great Bruce Wayne and pretty good Batman. Music was awesome. Setting with the dark, elaborate, gothic Gotham was spot on. Tone, everything was great. If I had to narrow it down to just one, I'll go with cast. The best written film can turn into a sh*t show with the wrong castings, and a mediocre film can become great due to an actor's energy and dedication to a role.

@darthmummy: If Tim Burton's movie defined the look of Gotham, Bruce Timm refined and perfected it.

Definitely the score, I actually reviewed this movie with a mate on a podcast a few weeks ago...

That movie was a dream come true.not only did it bring batman Back to the big screen but prince is my favorite anything ever in life And to merge those 2 was mind blowing. and the way his songs were placed in the movie worked so well. but honestly Jack Nicholson as the Joker was freaking genius

Agreed.

picked tone

wanted to vote everything

Aesthetically, acting wise save for one notable exception, handling of the source material, make-up, scenery... back then it was probably as great as people today make it out to be, but look at it today without a pair of nostalgia goggles on and you get a rather different experience.

You don't appear to have watched any of the last three Batman movies.

It's a gem in the sense that it pushed Batman in the darker direction in movies along with what happened in comics at the time instead of continuing with the goofy tone of the Adam West show.

Now before anyone gets more worked up about this more than they are my point is, and has always been:

• Batman was probably a great watch in 1989
• But our calendar today reads 2014, 25 years have passed and things have changed

This film is everything that I want from a Batman movie. The cast, well, Michael Keaton is a perfect Bruce Wayne, he looks unassuming and normal and comes across as a troubled quiet man without being too brooding. Jack Nicholson is the ultimate Joker. He gives it the perfect amount of psychotic and clownishness in unison to make the Joker from the comics come to life, with all the lethal clown toys to boot. Gleeful with his killing and dancing around to prince songs, he is just so entertaining. Granted, we didn't get much of a Jim Gordon, but I don't miss him with the rest of the cast being so good. Michael Gough as Alfred is perfect and he was the quintessential English butler. I even loved Bob the goon.

Tim Burton nailed the feel of the Batman, and he was the herald of the Nolan films. Without Burton making Batman darker and in a Gothic setting, do you think the Pitch for Batman Begins would have been accepted? The costumes were exactly right for the tone of the movie, with the jokers bright orange shirt and purple tartan trousers clashing perfectly with the black batsuit (although it was a bit too ridged).

All of that combined with the most accurate Batman portrayal showcasing his detective skill along with his ability to fight legions of goons, and an awesome batmobile, both in looks and gadgets, and his own utility belt! Even the Joker gives a compliment about his wonderful toys. I love this movie and it will always hold a special place in my heart alongside Flash Gordon as epic 80's fare that will never be beaten.

Batmobile and batsuit from these movies are my favorite ever. F the tumbler.

Man I can't believe how kids deny the quality of the movie counting only in effects and action. Burton's style is perfect for Batman and what about the casting? At leats Keaton can look and sound scary without sounding like he's taking a sh?t.

@k4tzm4n: .... He ain't the only actor, right?

NO WAI.

The point remains. If Jack Nicholson is what you love about the movie, why not give your vote to "the cast"? Do you dislike the other roles so much that it takes away from his performance?

I was seven years old when this movie came out and it absolutely changed my life and made me the obsessed comic fanboy I am today. I'm pretty sure I saw it at least three times while it was in the theaters and countless times since (I just watched it the other day on BBC America with my kids). I can still quote the movie from beginning to end. You ask why I love this movie and expect us to choose from only one reason. Impossible. This movie changed it all. It changed the way super-hero movies were viewed by the general populace and in my opinion they are still trying to reproduce the success of this movie.

Everything in this movie was brilliant, from the larger roles like Keaton and Nicholson to the smaller ones like Whul and Billy Dee the acting was great. Gough set the standard for what Alfred should be and kept his job throughout the entire series. The story was awesome and was very well directed by a then lesser known Burton, it made him famous and secured his status in Hollywood for years to come. The dark tone of the movie was incredible, such a far departure from what West did in the 60's. If I'm not mistaken a lot of this was lifted from what Miller was doing at the time as well as The Killing Joke and you can tell, from the moment Batman finds Jack on the catwalk to their confrontation in Vale's apartment it full of climactic and awesome scenes. My only gripe being how Gordon was portrayed as a bumbling oaf, not the Jim Gordon I know of.

Overall this movie made going to the movies fun, it made me pick up comic books, it made me the collector I am today. If it wasn't for this film I have no idea who I would have been. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe bad, either way it is a classic that we will still be talking about in another 25 years.

I Hate this movie. I Hate Tim Burton. I Hate every Batman movie before Nolan. And I'm not sorry.

Nothing

I actually really somewhat despise this movie. It's a stronger opinion than is warranted, because it certainly isn't that bad of a movie. I'm too young to appreciate the influence this movie had on the industry and the changes that followed although I can respect it for that - but as a Batman fan...it gets no love from me.

Why? Well, it's because of this version of Batman. This Batman kills people*. This Bruce Wayne is a hermit weirdo. All of this is a valid take and arguably a tribute to the original incarnation of the character. But, it's not the Batman I came to love, and that's why I don't like the movie.

The Batman I love is a genius. Batman is Batman because of his mind. Batman has multiple degrees useful in concocting antidotes or whatever, is a master detective, master martial artist and still balances keeping up appearances as a playboy Bruce Wayne. he isn't crazy, although he is close to snapping constantly and has to hold himself back. And he does. He also never kills. He holds himself to a high moral code, and has a code. He follows this code, always. That's why it is not only entertaining, and inspiring to see him always find a solution that does not involve killing, even when it shouldn't be possible. It's always important to try, and you might just succeed, saving lives in the process.

That Batman has yet to be seen on live action in a blockbuster film. Burton's Batman was a reclusive weirdo who killed. The Schumacher iteration was just an exaggerated version of that. Bale's Batman is close in many ways, but lacks the intellect to solve crimes or invent things, relying on his support staff or technology. He also has no problem killing.

Compare The Batman of TAS or the other DCAU movies to this Batman, and it becomes clear all that is wrong. Not to mention this iteration of Joker is...just Jack Nicholson. Joker is one of the most fascinating characters in comics, and he has been reduced to nothing more than a clown. That's it. It's not entertaining to me to see a guy in white makeup in a purple suit dancing badly to Prince. That isn't scary, not in the least. Joker should be frightening.

In my mind, this film has no redeeming qualities, except maybe as a tribute to earlier iterations of Batman.

*The same people who dispute this Batman kills people also probably don't understand Batman killed Ra's in BB. With the warehouse explosion, the Batwing firing a machine gun killing people, and deliberalty murdering Joker with the gargoyle...yes, this Batman kills.

23% for "Sorry, I don't like this movie"? Makes me sad... :(

it was a big movie when i was a kid , you do not have bc its awesome as a choice but if you did that would be my vote

@joaoanjos: Funny cuz Nolans trilogy was the worst incarnation of Batman. It didn't capture anything that made Batman Batman and it made Batman out to be a normal guy not normal guy in the sense of no powers normal in the sense that literally you could be Batman Gordon could be Batman an 80 year old man could be Batman because he didn't do anything impressive in that movie from the crap fight scenes to the lack of any actual detective work. He was a cop in body armor.

this

For me, it's a combination of the script, cast, tone, & music (costume design was also good, but not my main reason for liking it).

The music for me. I'm not even that big on the movie, but when I hear Elfman's theme, it instantly brings back memories of the kid who fell in love with everything Batman.