Batman – Film Review

Having witnessed his parents’ brutal murder as a child, millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) fights crime in Gotham City disguised as Batman, a costumed hero who strikes fear into the hearts of villains. But when a deformed madman who calls himself “The Joker” (Jack Nicholson) seizes control of Gotham’s criminal underworld, Batman must face his most ruthless nemesis ever while protecting both his identity and his love interest, reporter Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger).

It may be hard to believe now, but there was once a time when superhero movies were laughed upon by absolutely everyone, mainly because they were always campy, no matter what. Now, we live in a day and age in which superhero movies are looked upon with regard. Millions of people around the world love them, and whether we like it or not, they usually dominate the box office these days.

But several decades ago, that wasn’t really the case. The first Christopher Reeve-led Superman movie started to change the way people saw superhero films, but what really made people realize that superhero movies could be truly fantastic was Tim Burton‘s Batman.

Watching the film today is a bit interesting, because there are better Batman movies out there in terms of story, but it really is a phenomenal film all these years later, and the atmosphere that Burton created with this film is eerie, dark, and grimy. The only film featuring the Caped Crusader to encapsulate the same atmosphere since is this year’s The Batman.

Batman was a movie that nobody was looking forward to before the trailer was released, solely because of two reasons. One: superhero movies, as already mentioned, were considered dumb and campy. Two: people were absolutely horrified by the casting of Michael Keaton as the titular hero.

Before being cast in this film, Keaton had ton a number of comedic projects, which just made people furious because they wanted a serious Batman, and obviously, given Keaton’s comedy background, he wouldn’t make the series dark. Well… as we all know now, they were dead wrong.

Keaton’s performance as Bruce Wayne / Batman is genuinely terrific. He understood perfectly how to showcase the two personas of Batman and Bruce Wayne, because they are two completely different characters. Wayne is a billionaire with a playboy personality. He can get any girl in the world that he wants from his charm.

Then, there’s Batman – a ruthless crime-fighting vigilante who will stop at nothing to inflict fear into the hearts of Gotham City’s most brutal criminals. This movie doesn’t go as deep into it as you may think, but we do get a good idea of just how scummy and criminal-infested Gotham is.

This is mainly showcased with the Joker’s character, portrayed excellently by Jack Nicholson. He’s incredibly over-the-top in this movie and that’s a good thing. This movie’s Joker needed to be goofy and eccentric to balance out the seriousness of Keaton’s Batman, and that’s exactly what we get here.

The Joker-Batman dynamic here isn’t as good as it is in the Arkham games for example, but it’s still a highly interesting dynamic and one that will honestly never get old. Every actor in this project came together to deliver their A-game in a film that paved the way for superhero movies going forward.

There are some instances in which this movie can be a little bit too much, and not in a good way. What’s up with the sequence where Joker and his goons start dancing and vandalizing a bunch of paintings? Why is the Joker just giving out money and why does almost every character in the film wear the exact same hat?

But this is a movie that, at the end of the day, is unbelievably game-changing in many ways and so inspiring. As some may remember, this movie was so special to me that, a couple of years ago, I wanted to make a fan film that would’ve bridged the gap between this movie and Batman Returns titled Batman Unveiled.

After working on it for a while, I ultimately cancelled it because I couldn’t get the script as perfect as I wanted it to be and also, I didn’t have the budget that would’ve allowed me to make the movie that I envisioned in my head. It never saw the light of day, but I am glad that Burton’s film inspired me so much and continues to inspire me to this day.