Batman '89

Boxing.Fan

Gintonious wrote: »

Special mention to this fantastic poster as well.

Watched it last night. As far as comic book hero movies go, it has to be top 3.

Danny Elfmans soundtrack is the secret star of it as well. I am really on a memory lane trip right now.

Never seen that poster before its deadly. I had this one on my wall.

MOR316

Gintonious wrote: »

Special mention to this fantastic poster as well.

Watched it last night. As far as comic book hero movies go, it has to be top 3.

Danny Elfmans soundtrack is the secret star of it as well. I am really on a memory lane trip right now.

I think I squirted...

w/s/p/c/

Never seen that poster before... amazing!! Really want to leave work now and go home to watch it after reading this thread !:-)

steve_r

Some interesting comments here.

I loved that film growing up, and I still have a serious affection for it. I remember reading the retrospective review (below) and being so disappointed because I knew their criticisms were valid, and yet I loved the film so much.
https://comicsalliance.com/batman-1989-review-2/

The music and the setting of Gotham are really distinctive and have really made a lasting impression. Today's Marvel movies are bland in comparison and tend to fade into each other. I don't know how many of them (if any) will be discussed in 30 years time.

I loved Keaton as Bruce Wayne, I think he really captured this sense of a lost little boy who still doesn't really know how to handle his parents death. He is as much of an outcast and an oddball as the villians he fights, and he probably has more in common with them than the friends in real life. I felt Bale was a better Batman in the suit, but was a bit flat as Bruce Wayne.

Jack is utterly ott and runs amok in this, which is great as a spectacle but from the film's perspective if that could have been dialled back then it would have been a more inpactful performance. Jack could easily have done something more in line with what Ledger/Hammill did but it was clear they were looking for the 60s Joker take.

I did love the moment where Batman figures out how the toxin worked as a combination. It's probably the strongest "detective" moment I can think of in all of the Batman films.

To come back to an earlier point, I think the modern superhero takes are so homogenised, I know what a DC/Marvel movie will look like, I know what the pacing will be, I know what the jokes will be, I know what the casting will be like - it's all so safe, so bland, so forgettable.
People will rag on Forever and Batman and Robin, but honestly at least I can remember stuff from them - the amount of Marvel movies I've seen, or the likes of Amazing Spider-man 2, where I can't remember a single thing about them. For it's faults, this movie made a mark.

Tammy!

It's the first movie I remember seeing in the cinema. Must have been around six. Haven't watched it for years. I'd say it's fairly dated but I loved it at the time.

Sad Professor wrote: »

But the last time I watched it, which was probably the first post-TDK, the Prince dance sequences really bothered me.

The soundtrack wasn't great. Could come in handy in a zombie apocalypse though...

BrookieD

Watched most of if last night - utterly brilliant in every aspect! - Keaton should be given a run out again as an aging Bruce Wayne with a Zac Effron as Terry McG. Watched it in the cinema in Bray, It was the last film I watched with an added refreshments break half way in. Now to buy a 89 Bat Costume.... about 2k all in, I am sooo doing that

loyatemu

BrookieD wrote: »

It was the last film I watched with an added refreshments break half way in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6tGMeK7JTY

Frank Bullitt

Have had the soundtrack on in work the past few days. It's a masterpiece.

...ah whatever, I am watching it again tonight.

Frank Bullitt

Seriously, listen to this.

Gamb!t

A classic,Keaton nailed the batman role and the film had IMO the best bat mobile.

I was lucky enough to see this movie in the old capital cinema in Cork when it came out in the 80's and I think it had one of the longest queues I can remember for a movie I went to.

Kunkka

Wedwood wrote: »

1989 was one of my favourite summers at the cinema, get this for a lineup -

Batman, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Licence to Kill, Die Hard 2, Ghostbusters 2, Star Trek V The Final Frontier. (Ok ST V was a dud, but it had great hype that year)

Batman was the standout movie from those. Although it has dated a bit, at the time it was seen as a darker more adult Batman compared to the 60's TV show. It was also much darker than Christopher Reeve's Superman movies which were at that time the standard for superhero movies.( incidentally Superman IV the quest for peace also came out in 1989).

I think Batman should be considered the movie that commenced the 'darker' comic book movies. While some of the campiness is still there, it's noticeably less in your face and most of today's comic book movies have worked from the template established by Batman.

Also, both Burton's Batman movies were considered to be done in his trademark Gothic style, so you get the 'carnival' stuff as well as the darkness, whereas Nolan's movies are gritty rather than Gothic.

Sorry to quote such an old post.. but seriously....

The Late Late Show

Gamb!t wrote: »

A classic,Keaton nailed the batman role and the film had IMO the best bat mobile.

I was lucky enough to see this movie in the old capital cinema in Cork when it came out in the 80's and I think it had one of the longest queues I can remember for a movie I went to.

I remember it as if it were yesterday. The queues were massive. Me and my dad had gone in early after hearing this would be the case and the excitement waiting for it was massive. I enjoyed the film immensely and it lived up to its promise.

Keaton was perfect as Batman and Bruce. This film and the sequel Batman Returns of course had the best batmobile. Tim Burton's films had such a different look and feel to them than the 2 Joel Schumacker films of slightly later on. Thankfully, Christopher Nolan saved Batman in 2005 from Schumacker's legacy and we owe both Burton and Nolan a lot for believing in their cool visions of Batman and inspiration multiple generations. Let's hope the upcoming The Batman from Matt Reeves will continue that tradition.

Boxing.Fan

Goosebumps..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBVDmj-jl3c

The Late Late Show

steve_r wrote: »

Some interesting comments here.

I loved that film growing up, and I still have a serious affection for it. I remember reading the retrospective review (below) and being so disappointed because I knew their criticisms were valid, and yet I loved the film so much.
https://comicsalliance.com/batman-1989-review-2/

The music and the setting of Gotham are really distinctive and have really made a lasting impression. Today's Marvel movies are bland in comparison and tend to fade into each other. I don't know how many of them (if any) will be discussed in 30 years time.

I loved Keaton as Bruce Wayne, I think he really captured this sense of a lost little boy who still doesn't really know how to handle his parents death. He is as much of an outcast and an oddball as the villians he fights, and he probably has more in common with them than the friends in real life. I felt Bale was a better Batman in the suit, but was a bit flat as Bruce Wayne.

Jack is utterly ott and runs amok in this, which is great as a spectacle but from the film's perspective if that could have been dialled back then it would have been a more inpactful performance. Jack could easily have done something more in line with what Ledger/Hammill did but it was clear they were looking for the 60s Joker take.

I did love the moment where Batman figures out how the toxin worked as a combination. It's probably the strongest "detective" moment I can think of in all of the Batman films.

To come back to an earlier point, I think the modern superhero takes are so homogenised, I know what a DC/Marvel movie will look like, I know what the pacing will be, I know what the jokes will be, I know what the casting will be like - it's all so safe, so bland, so forgettable.
People will rag on Forever and Batman and Robin, but honestly at least I can remember stuff from them - the amount of Marvel movies I've seen, or the likes of Amazing Spider-man 2, where I can't remember a single thing about them. For it's faults, this movie made a mark.

Today's Marvel movies especially of The Avengers variety are forgettable mainly because there are too many of them each not distinguishable from each other. Back in 1989, Batman was unique and was a welcome relief to the then infestation of low budget Vietnam war films and buddy cop films. Batman drew from but also differentiated itself from established classic franchises like Indiana Jones and Bond too. As with previous classics such as 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark and Mad Max 2, and 1988's Die Hard, Batman was able to do something different and inspire.

Good decisions were made. Omitting Robin was good (that would make it too much like a buddy cop thing and god knows, we had enough of those by 1989) and making it more dystopian was also wise. Gotham was not your normal city and it clearly NEEDED Batman. Choosing the Joker as the villain of course was inevitable and a great decision. The Penguin was the next obvious choice and did the same for Returns.

The only regrets I have is what could Burton have done with Batman Forever? The fact that he is producer probably accounts for why there are some good bits in this. I cannot help but feel if Burton directed this, the Riddler would be a much more scary character with a more tragic backstory akin to Joker and Penguin in the 2 previous classics. Perhaps, if the decision to tone down the violence, horror and dystopia was not made by Schumacker and Burton stayed in place as director, we would not have ended the first set of films with the terrible Batman & Robin and perhaps could have had more than 4 films too.

The Late Late Show

The other great thing about Batman 1989 was it's so quotable. For example:

'I'm Batman. Tell them all about me'.
'I've got a live one here'.
'Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight'.
'And where and where is the Batman?'
'Let's go nuts'
'It's Japanese .. I bought it in Japan'

Other than The Handmaid's Tale ('blessed be the fruit may the lord open' et al), I cannot think of anything else as quotable.

nix

The Late Late Show wrote: »

The other great thing about Batman 1989 was it's so quotable. For example:

'I'm Batman. Tell them all about me'.
'I've got a live one here'.
'Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight'.
'And where and where is the Batman?'
'Let's go nuts'
'It's Japanese .. I bought it in Japan'

Other than The Handmaid's Tale ('blessed be the fruit may the lord open' et al), I cannot think of anything else as quotable.

Are you for real?

salmocab

The game on the Commodore 64 was delightfully bad. Shooting out the rope to make all the left turns. Only left turns as the computer couldn’t handle anything else.

The Late Late Show

salmocab wrote: »

The game on the Commodore 64 was delightfully bad. Shooting out the rope to make all the left turns. Only left turns as the computer couldn’t handle anything else.

It was a very frustrating game and was nothing like the film. All them computer games of the time were all copies of each other. The game of the Stallone Cobra film was the same.

smurf492

The Late Late Show wrote:

It was a very frustrating game and was nothing like the film. All them computer games of the time were all copies of each other. The game of the Stallone Cobra film was the same.

Commodore Amiga version of the game was great..

Dades

The Late Late Show wrote: »

Other than The Handmaid's Tale ('blessed be the fruit may the lord open' et al), I cannot think of anything else as quotable.

That's like, your opinion, dude.

Frank Bullitt

This was part of my youth.

Electric Nitwit

Dades wrote: »

That's like, your opinion, dude.

Clareman

The Late Late Show wrote: »

The only regrets I have is what could Burton have done with Batman Forever? The fact that he is producer probably accounts for why there are some good bits in this. I cannot help but feel if Burton directed this, the Riddler would be a much more scary character with a more tragic backstory akin to Joker and Penguin in the 2 previous classics. Perhaps, if the decision to tone down the violence, horror and dystopia was not made by Schumacker and Burton stayed in place as director, we would not have ended the first set of films with the terrible Batman & Robin and perhaps could have had more than 4 films too.

Batman Forever was produced by Burton who I believe decided against directing it because instructions were given by the studio to make it more merchandise friendly, I think it broke a record number of tie in products, over 200 or something.

Clareman

Clareman wrote: »

Batman Forever was produced by Burton who I believe decided against directing it because instructions were given by the studio to make it more merchandise friendly, I think it broke a record number of tie in products, over 200 or something.

The Late Late Show

Clareman wrote: »

Batman Forever was produced by Burton who I believe decided against directing it because instructions were given by the studio to make it more merchandise friendly, I think it broke a record number of tie in products, over 200 or something.

That was it exactly. I remember the hype and all the merchandise for this well but unlike Batman from 1989, it didn't live up to expectations longterm at least. Jonathon Ross called it 'one of the greatest films ever made'.

I remember thoroughly enjoying Forever back in 1995 but now it looks more formulaic to me. Problems like corny Robin humour and the OTT Riddler replaced the gothic dystopia horror of the first 2 films. Batman & Robin then just took the bad side of Forever and undiluted it and gave us a true stinker.

The Late Late Show

Another interesting Batman trivia is Batman & Robin was not the planned to be the final film in the first set of films. A film called Batman Unchained (or maybe Batman Triumphant) was being considered as the next film possibly around 1999. This was supposed to be made by the same team as the last 2 films Forever and B&R but was cancelled because of how badly B&R was perceived. The idea of the film was supposed to be more gritty, more in line with the first 2 films. The idea was to have the Scarecrow as the villain and many of the ideas eventually went into Batman Begins.

nix

The Late Late Show wrote: »

the ideas eventually went into Batman Begins.

That sounds like horse****, Nolan wouldnt have bothered his arse with it if he had to shoehorn other peoples ideas, where are you getting this stuff?

The Late Late Show

nix wrote: »

That sounds like horse****, Nolan wouldnt have bothered his arse with it if he had to shoehorn other peoples ideas, where are you getting this stuff?

https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Batman_Unchained

The Late Late Show

It should be noted that a LOT of, in fact MOST of, Batman stories come out of the comics so are NOT made up/written by directors like Burton, Nolan or Schumacker. But how the material gets adapted is what matters. Of course, Scarecrow was a good villain choice and if he was selected for the sequel to B&R, that idea was kept for Begins.

Now, Schumacker and Nolan treated the Two Face story differently even if it was the same basic idea. Nolan did it way better. But of course it came from the comics first!

IncognitoMan

How Batman and Robin got made after the absolute farce that was Batman Forever is still a mystery. But then to think they were ignorant enough to look at the dailies from B&R and not see any issue shows that there really is some amount of incompetent people working in Hollywood.

I've enjoyed most things related to the dark knight in the last 30 years (Film, Animated TV, Animated Movies, Nolan and Snyder) but those two are a real low point in Batman on film. Can't stand either of them. They are a level of cheese I hope we never see around a Batman Film again.