Tim burton's epic, but not his best - Batman Reviews

Batman is considered to be Tim Burton's best film. It's his highest grossing film at the U.S. box office making over $250 million dollars, also giving it the honor of having the highest gross total for a superhero movie.......up until 2002. However, it wasn't his biggest critcal success. Some critics called the film too dark, some said it was disturbing, and some found it to be too violent. I think what they failed to realize though is that it is supposed to be all of those things. That's what the comic book was all about. The comic book had a film-noir feel to it, even though it was a book, and that's what the film tries to capture. It does, and it does it in a very stylish way. Now even though the film is called Batman, the movie isn't really about either Batman or Bruce Wayne (Who are one in the same and played by Michael Keaton). His character is more developed in the later films. However, we do learn that his parents were killed on a street corner, but that's really all we know about his past. The first Batman movie though is really about the villian. The villian is called The Joker who is played by Jack Nicholson. The reason why he is called The Joker is because his face was altered into a grin after he landed in a pool of chemicals. He then begins his quest on ruling Gotham City, by trying to make people look like he does by using chemicals in different kinds of makeup, and by also brainwashing them into thinking that he is a good guy. Who is the person to stop him? Batman! Writing the premise for this film was a real hard thing to do. All of the characters are underdeveloped so it's really hard to explain what is going on. The only reason why we root for Batman in the end of the movie, is because he is in fact Batman. If he wasn't Batman, we wouldn't care if he saves the day or not, because we don't know the man behind the mask. That's what makes this movie different from Superman and Spider-Man. We know the characters and we care for them. Also, the film tries to develop a love story between Batman/Bruce Wayne, and Vicky Vale, played by Kim Bassinger. Vicky Vale is a news reporter hired to cover Batman. That's all we know about her. And since we know very little about Wayne, we care very little about them. However, did most people go to see Batman because of character development? No, they went to see the film in masses, because of the action and the actors. The acting in this movie at some points is a little to over the top, but what do you expect from a movie like this? We get the occasional cheesy one liners, but we excuse them. However, the best performance of the movie comes from Jack Nicholson. He makes the character of The Joker his own. And since his character is so horribly scarred, he gives the character a very dark sense of humor which is enjoyable to watch. As for the action sequences they are pretty fun to watch. The most creative sequence, and the best sequence of the film is when Batman is flying his airplane throughout Gotham City, and then crashing in front of a church. You can tell that some of the shots are models, but they are mostly convincing. Also, unlike most superhero movies, there are a lot of shootouts in this movie. Now here is the thing that is probably the most important quality that a superhero movie needs to have at least to me besides action. A superhero movie, must have a superhero theme in it and the movie must also have a good score. We all remember Superman, because of the infamous Superman theme by John Williams and his wonderful score for that movie. Danny Elfman's theme and score for Batman is very good, but nowhere near as good as Superman. However, it is much better than his Spider-Man theme/score, where to me, there isn't really a theme evident in that movie. Batman to this date remains Elfman's best score in movies. One can beg to differ though that his theme for The Simpsons is pretty great. So where does this film rank in the Batman series? Well, I don't happen to consider it my favorite Batman film. My favorite is actually Batman Forever (The 3rd film in the series) starring Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne/Batman. I find that to be a little odd though, because I thought Michael Keaton was the best Batman, and that Tim Burton was the best director of the series. (He would be replaced by Joel Schumacher for the final two films, though he would remain as producer for the third film and be completely absent for the fourth one.) I just think that the film was more exciting, stylish and funnier than the previous two films, and the later Batman and Robin. I think it's mostly because of Jim Carrey. His villian was not only the funniest, but probably the most developed one in the series. However, the first Batman film I would rank as my second favorite, with Batman and Robin finishing third and Batman Returns finishing fourth. Batman is a very exciting film, delievered with a lot of style and is worth owning on DVD.