BATMAN (1989) ** "What kind of a world is it, when a grown man dressed up like a bat...?" Interesting question, but one they apparently didn't ponder long enough. The answer would be a world demanding more than a modicum of humour, but Tim Burton dresses this picture up like a Victorian novel-dark and full of teeming huddled masses yearning for anything else. I would have thought that Burton would have been a good choice too, the sets are very nice and the feel would have supported far more than got put into it. Burton's not even the main problem. Michael Keaton is not believable as a super tough guy, he is not believable as an economic aristocrat, he is not believable as the mastermind of anything, and he is least believable of all as someone who could seduce Kim Basinger without the use of rophynol. The all-star cast is all but wasted. Jack Nicholson has some slightly entertaining moments as The Joker, but for the most part he just looks like an idiot in bad makeup throwing off stupid jokes and trying to pretend that his little group is a gang and that his little parade is Mardi Gras. Billy Dee Williams is one of the great and handsome actors of his generation, but there's nothing in his part to allow him to assume any control. Jack Palance can have moments, but there are none here. They have maybe ten minutes of Jerry Hall, without a single rock star joke. Basinger is appealing when she's not screaming, squealing, or shrieking, but she's just not the magnitude of actress to carry an albatross like this by herself. All that being what it is things continue at a rapid enough pace, there is some unintentional humour in the romance scenes between Keaton and Basinger, Keaton's bat ears are kind of funny, Prince's soundtrack has some good bits, Burton does weave an interesting Metropolis feel that would have worked well for something else, the Batmobile is higher tech (but not of the aesthetic quality) than the original, and Nicholson has a big long gun. Batmobile lost a wheel, more than that actually it blew up, and The Joker (nearly) got away.
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