Batman (DVD 1998)

I hadn't seen the original Batman movie since it was released in 1989, and I have to say that it is not quite as good as I remember it being the first time. Sixteen years later, I'm still trying to figure out how Michael Keaton got the Batman gig. He was actually pretty good in the movie, but it just doesn't really feel like Batman when Keaton is behind the cowl (nor does Keaton really exude the proper Bruce Wayne aura). When you get right down to it, Jack Nicholson pretty much carries this film on his shoulders, as it doesn't have the greatest of plots, the whole modern remaking of the Batman mystique results in several drawn-out, somewhat boring scenes, and there really isn't all that much action. And who decided that Batman has to have romantic relationships all the time now? The real Batman certainly doesn't have a sleepover on a first date. The whole Vicky Vale storyline just didn't work for me in this film, largely because Keaton doesn't effectively sell the whole Batman vs Bruce Wayne conflict that lies within him.
This film basically introduces Batman to his fellow Gothamites. Gotham City is a veritable cesspool of crime and corruption, and I can't imagine how Commissioner Gordon kept his job with all of the organized crime operating throughout the city. It takes Batman a little while to find his niche as a crime-fighter. Once people actually start believing the wild stories about a dude in a bat suit, they question whether or not he is good or bad. The Joker helps resolve that little dilemma, as he doesn't really hide his definite bad-ness under a bushel. Of course, The Joker wasn't always the Joker, and this movie gives us one version of The Joker's origins. Jack Napier was just a high-ranking henchman before an encounter with Batman left him, uh, changed. Then it's green hair and Fantasy Island smiles all around. His first big caper consists of poisoning household products with the Smilex chemical that made the Joker the Joker - not exactly a money-winning venture. The Joker is basically all about killing people and upstaging Batman in the Gotham City headlines. He and Batman do come across one another a couple of times in the film, but they don't really square off until the end. The film does at least show some of the special relationship between good guy and bad guy - this is, after all, Batman's primary personal enemy. To some degree, The Joker created Batman and Batman created the Joker (and they also seem to share the same taste in women).

Jack Palance and Billy Dee Williams are sort of wasted in this film. This was good news for Jack Nicholson because Palance is one of the few actors who could have held his own and taken some of the spotlight away from him. The scene where Nicholson impersonates Palance is priceless, though. Nicholson really gets all of the good lines here (e.g., Wait'll they get a load of me), and he pretty much lets himself go wild playing this insane character. It's interesting that the guy playing Batman doesn't get top billing in a Batman movie, but Nicholson definitely deserved that honor for this film. Without Nicholson, Batman would be an insufferably flat, tedious film.

The Prince music is still kicking, Tim Burton's directorial vision retains its intriguingly dark quality, and the Joker is still lighting up the screen, but Batman just doesn't have the same punch it had when comics' most celebrated crime fighter came to the big screen in 1989.