Batman (1989)

The Batmobile and Alfred and the scene with the moon were all that was good about this. Guess there's a reason I'd entirely forgotten what happens: It's SO LAME. It's overlong and boring. It has no pacing. The damsel is annoying as fork with all her short, sharp screams, not to mention being utterly useless and helpless, without even a bit of backbone. And there's zero chemistry between the "lovers". It's unbelievable: Gothamites value money over their own lives? Then they're dying in the streets and Batman's just prancing around in the sky for AGES?? Get outta here. What a WASTE of £1.99 UGH. It's utter drivel. Save your money.

This movie is 30 years old this year and although not the best Batman movie it's a classic. When you consider the last Batman movie before this was the Adam West '66 Batman it's quite a step up. The dark grittiness of Gotham contrasts well with the colourful camp of Nicholson's psycopathic Joker and Keaton is a great Batman. Anyone who saw this back in the day will have that nostalgic feeling for it but in my opinion it's one of the best Batman movies.

Good, but could and should have been better. Read the first draft of the script by Sam Hamm, dated October 1986. Had they stuck faithfully to that then this film would have been TDK levels of amazing...possibly even better. That said, still a fun film with beautiful art and music. In my honest opinion, Michael Keaton is unparalleled as Batman though I'll concede that Christian Bale was a superior Bruce Wayne. While Nolan's films were better, Burton's vehicles are so much better. The '89 Batmobile and Batwing are far cooler than their DK trilogy counterparts. The opening scene still gives me shivers and the scene with the Batmobile driving through the woods with Danny Elfman's Descent Into Mystery playing still holds up beautifully to this day. So, while not perfect and also not the best entry in the 1989-1997 Burton-Schumacher canon (Returns edges it imo), it's still massively watchable over thirty years later.