So today is the 30th anniversary of Tim Burton's BATMAN. Arguably, this film opened the door for the prevalence of superheroes to hit the big screen (yeah yeah, Christopher Reeve came first and makes a case for the proliferation but Superman itself got the reboot treatment). At 3 decades, thumbs up and hats off still to an impressive Michael Keaton for proving wrong all the naysayers & detractors (50,000 protest letters had been sent to Warner Bros. and Adam West, ridiculously, felt himself to be a better choice) who said the comic actor could never pull off a sullen, brooding Bruce Wayne, and a dark, tortured caped crusader. A job intensely well done, he did in shutting up his critics. And of course, what hasn't already been said about Jack Nicholson's brilliantly insane Joker? (Robin Williams had lobbied hard for the part). Zany and psychotically overboard, he pretty much stole the whole movie with his outrageous & hilarious performance. To call him the centerpiece of the movie is an understatement. There's something to be said when his bizarre potency as a villain was more gripping than the albeit underplayed but no-nonsense good guy. I just wish the script would have allowed more screen time for him to have shared scenes with Jack Palance. (Nicholson's impersonation of him was great). And how Nicholson didn't win an Oscar (let alone wasn't nominated for his role) to this day remains robbery. You had the sense almost immediately that there was no way Burton was going to trot out a musty, dusty interpretation: the razzle-dazzle striking visuals of the production design and Blade Runner-like sets and Danny Elfman's driving score complimented the at-times sinister, nihilistic, psychologically twisted and even mean-spirited mood (this was no kids pic). This version was an ambitious & successful re-invention which through its affiliation, further predictably kicked off a marketing/merchandising bonanza rife with fastfood tie-ins, product placement, clothing, books, and toy commercials. The first 2 films are the best in the bunch (before Joel Schumacher took over to captain the helm with much weaker, unremarkable, draggy & numbing sfx overkill films) as later on, Kilmer was ok, Clooney was dull as hell, monotone Robin was lame n' uselss, and Batgirl just seemed lost -- both sidekicks regardless of their introductions in the comic -- and the plethora of big name celeb villains (with the lone exception of Danny DeVito's nasty Penguin) bogged down in too much campiness. BATMAN was the first film to earn $100 million in its first 10 days of release and was the highest grossing movie based on a DC comic until 2008 with Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' starring Christian Bale.
Posts
