Bat-Burton

At the time of its 1989 release I fell in love with Tim Burton’s re-imagining of Batman. Not that I disliked the 1960’s Adam West version…oh no…that still stands as a monumental camp, cult comedy classic, but it was time for a contemporary and more serious reworking of the iconic masked vigilante. I recognised it’s faults immediately, but it’s amazing visual power and action had me thinking it was the best superhero film of all time (even better than Superman The Movie). However, time (and a decade crammed with superhero franchises) has allowed me to have little more perspective of The Dark Knight’s 80’s adventure.

50% of the film is genius. The design work is the most striking being a noir-ish mish-mash of 1920’s and 30’s architecture, a gloomy gothic sensibility and a imposing feeling of industrial decay. There’s no doubt this is one of the best designed films ever and that extends to the prohibition era costume design, the intimidating bat mobile redesign and Bob Ringwood’s cool-as-fuck batman costume.

On top of that you’ve got Danny Elfman’s operatic score (one of the very best of any composer of the 1980’s), some incredibly inventive action sequences (gotta love the batwing…“where does he get those wonderful toys!”) and the glory that is Jack Nicholson’s Joker…a role he was born to play. And Keaton, moving from a previous career in comedy, makes a surprisingly intense and magnetic Bruce Wayne/Batman.

Unfortunately the script is far too meandering and undisciplined, the Kim Basinger romance feels forced and rushed, the Prince songs are shehorned into the story undermining the gothic majesty of Elfman’s score and Burton’s direction is static and flat much like the photography.

The positives far outweigh the negatives but it’s still not enough for that nagging feeling in the back of your brain telling you this could be polished to perfection with a little more effort. A flawed classic.