RANDOM REVIEW OF THE DAY: Batman (1989)

If someone where to come up and ask me who is my favorite comic book superhero of all time, my answer immediately would be Batman. Why Batman? Because to me he seems the most relatable of all the comic book superheros out there. Almost all the popular stories involving the character alone are dark, gritty, and psychologically fascinating. Batman is a guy who is serious about his work because out of all the superheroes he has something worth fighting for and has the most legit reason why he should be fighting crime and dressing up like a bat. The man behind the mask, Bruce Wayne, as a child witnessed uttermost fear and tragedy that scarred him when he witnessed the cold blooded murder of his loving parents right in front of him. Now he has to strike that same fear and tragedy that scarred him onto the dark hearts of the criminal underworld in Gotham City, and bring them to justice as The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader, the one and only Batman. Another reason why I like this superhero because he has gallery of incredibly memorable as well as the most interesting set of villains he has as his adversaries, and the best part, almost all of them are insane. These guys are not put in a jail or prison when the hero saves the day, no, they go to an asylum! Arkham Asylum to be exact! Villains like the Penguin, Two-Face, The Riddler, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, many others and of course, The Clown Prince of Crime and in my opinion the best comic book villain ever made, The Joker, are all so memorable and could be spotted by anyone in the entire world by a mile away. Now if you were to ask me what is my favorite comic book superhero movie, of course it would probably be one related to my favorite superhero Batman, and the film that in my opinion does the character humongous justice and just feels like Batman is of course the movie Batman, released in 1989 with Tim Burton in the director's chair. When I watch this movie I get this feeling of just "wow". The "wow" feeling is the feeling of whenever you watch a movie, you don't see actors portraying characters, you see characters, you see THE characters right their in front of your face on the screen! I see Batman, I see Bruce Wayne, I see Alfred, I see Vicki Vale, I see the Joker! Same with the setting, I don't see a set (well sort of), and I do not see a recognizable metropolitan city trying to be Gotham City, I see Gotham City! In this Batman movie, Batman, played by Michael Keaton, does what he does best fighting crime, bringing justice to the criminal underworld, and striking fear in the hearts of evil. But you see the city is sort of new to him so they do not whether to trust him or not. That is until the arrival of a mobster named Jack Napier, played by the great Jack Nicholson, who, because of a conflict with Batman, falls into a vat of chemical acid which turns his skin bleached white, turns his hair green, and because of skin burns and plastic surgery, a permanent and devilish smile is marked on his face which turns him into the criminally insane Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker. As the Joker rises to infamy, he spreads chaos upon Gotham, takes over the entire criminal underworld, and poisons beauty and hygiene products causing innocent civilians to die with a Joker-like smile. Its up to Batman to show his worth to Gotham City as their protector by bringing the Joker to justice, while he slowly finds out that the Joker is a link to Batman's dark past, and while also as Bruce Wayne finds potential but complicated love with the beautiful  and bright Vicki Vale, played by Kim Basinger. Let's start by looking at Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne. In fact at the time of the film's production and it was announced that the role of Batman would be portrayed by Keaton, there was a huge cry of outrage and backlash from Batman fans as they were promised a darker and grittier Batman instead of the campy and family-friendly portrayal by Adam West. Seeing how Keaton was mostly known for comedies and actually started his career as a stand-up comedian, fans were afraid that the film was going to turn into a comedy and be an adaptation of the 1960s television show instead of the original comic books. There were actually sent in petitions to prevent Michael Keaton from wearing the cape and cowl. But how did Keaton hold up eventually. To everyone's surprise, really really well! Keaton is practically the perfect Batman/Bruce Wayne because one you would not suspect him to be Batman, and two he plays both Batman and Bruce Wayne very well. As Batman he is dark, mysterious, courageous, dynamic, intimidating, bold, and his always two steps ahead of everybody. And he has that perfect subtle voice and just the right tone in order for him to stay in shadows unlike SOME people who sound like Daffy Duck if he smoked 20 Marlboros, but we are focusing on this Batman. As Bruce Wayne he is suave, cool, witty, and keeps to himself a lot and just by the expressions on his face you can tell what he's thinking and you are totally with him. What I absolutely adore with all my heart about this Batman is that he does not question the decision and vow he has made to be Batman and to bring justice to Gotham. Where other portrayals and adaptations tried to do that, this Batman sticks to his guns and is already mature and wise enough to make these decisions and nothing can stop him to do what he feels is right, even potential love. Michael Keaton brings this character to life and every time I see this performance I see the character. I feel like I am going to repeat myself about the whole character coming to life thing because it is really what I see when watching this film so from now on every key character that I am going to be discussing about do indeed feel genuine because of the actors portraying them. Michael Gough as Alfred is truly Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler. As Alfred, Gough is insightful, helpful, supportive, wise, witty, and lovable just how Alfred should be. Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale is also very likeable. I do not know much about Vale in the comics, but from this performance alone Basinger actually does a pretty good job trying to portray this character. The character is also very good she is smart, beautiful, witty, brave when she needs to be (though she screams nonstop whenever she is in danger), but in the end she comes out as a believable and interesting enough supporting character. I always say that Bruce Wayne is just as insane as his adversaries, being Batman is just a way to keep his sanity stable and to make good use of his abnormality, but there were always love interests for him in the past that made him feel like a sane human being again and Vicki Vale is no exception because Basinger portrays that supporting and loving love interest greatly. Now we finally come to the show stealer, the man himself Jack Nicholson as the Joker. Oh my heavens, Nicholson is the Joker. Every line, every delivery, every action, every gesture, everything that Nicholson gives into this performance is the Joker! Now just to get it out of the way, because when talking about this performance there is a big elephant in the room pleading me to compare it to Heath Ledger's recent performance of the same character in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight released in 2008. Why I have to be honest I love that performance as much as the other guy and I am with everybody who praise it to death, I have to be honest and it is the truth that these are very different as well as very good performances. Nicholson's Joker is more of the Joker being brought to life, the type you can say that's the Joker, the Joker is real and I am looking right at him right now! Ledger's Joker is more of a fully realized Joker, he made the Joker a reality, he made us believe that someone like the Joker can exist in our reality his performance was so good. But if you had to pull and twist my arm in order for me to shout out my absolute favorite performance of the character it would have to be Nicholson's. Simply because again, he IS the Joker, no doubt, I see the Joker in his performance. I do not see Nicholson as the Joker, I SEE the Joker! People might say Nicholson was just a bit over the top with his delivery and scenes in where he is dancing to music by Prince, but I enjoy those scenes. Coming from the Batman fan in me, I feel like this is what I prefer to see the Joker doing. As much as I like Heath Ledger's realistic and gritty performance, I get excitement when I see the Joker from the comics coming to life and doing what he does best, being sadistic but yet totally enjoying the mischief that comes out of it. Another thing I feel is crucial to note is the wonderful score composed by Danny Elfman. The score by Elfman is by far one of the greatest scores I have ever heard for any film. The music screams Batman, every melody, every tone, every note of it. The opening and main theme of the film greatly represents Batman and who he is. Definitely for me it is up with the greatest film scores of all time. It just engulfs the audience, me especially into the wonderful atmosphere of this movie. There is also the tremendous job that Tim Burton held as the director of this masterpiece. As much as I like Burton whether you love or hate his films because of how does them, he always seems to go with the dark, gothic, yet somewhat quirky tone with his movies, which I love because it is for the most part original and entertaining but I do have to admit it gets old sometimes. I consider this movie to be my absolute favorite that Tim Burton had directed because it does not feel like Burton, and I know it's weird saying, but with a product that does not seem like a Burton product I have to say he did a terrific job of doing something different with this film. To be honest it looks like something someone like Ivan Reitman would do, but you totally would not believe this is a Tim Burton film which is why I greatly adore the subtlety. There is a great scene, which is probably one of my utmost favorite scenes, in the film that perfectly defines Batman. It is the scene right just after Batman rescues Vicki Vale from the Joker and he takes her to the Batcave in his Batmobile and he is just driving down a road surrounded by trees and probably only one line is said, the whole scene is done almost entirely without dialogue. The scene just defines the mystery of Batman and who he is with the scenery, the music, the atmosphere, the set up, and the fact that you can tell that Vicki Vale is trying desperately to find out who is the man behind the mask just through her expressions. It is truly a great scene. Again, this one of those great films that what makes it great is probably the telling of a simple story about good vs. evil. It is the basic good guy versus bad guy story but it is enjoyable because of the conflict between two great and equal egos Batman and the Joker. There have been complaints that the Joker in this movie takes too much of the running time and has a lot more scenes, but honestly I believe that both Batman and the Joker got an equal amount of scenes in order for them to be decently set up characters. True we know more about the Joker's past than we do of Batman's, but later on we see how their pasts connect and that gets the audience hot to see their epic conflict finally come to a thrilling end. These egos work off each other perfectly one has the attention grabbing, homicidal, sadistic, psycho maniac and one as the bold, dynamic, and mysterious hero in the shadows who wants to bring the maniac to justice and be Gotham's protector. Batman has always been about the seem to be never ending conflict between the hero and his enemies, and with the Joker is definitely not the exception. The Joker, as the arch-nemesis seems to be always at Batman's playing field and level of experience as it has been debated that the Joker can succeed, if not come close to killing Batman. He is truly the Professor Moriarty to Batman's Sherlock and this film perfectly represents that. A film about two great egos fighting for their victory, Batman is all-around dark, mysterious, action-packed, story driven, dramatic, sometimes funny, epic, and grand masterpiece and it continues to be one of my all time favorite films because it greatly does the best justice to a great and heroic icon. This film is just as dynamic as the Caped Crusader himself. Grade: E