BATMAN '89 IN-DEPTH REVIEW

[@walter_the_wobot2349]

This movie changed my life. Superman was my favourite hero until i first saw this movie on Christmas day 1991 on BBC 1. I think the day before channel 4 showed the 1966 Adam West Batman movie. I enjoyed that, but this movie blew my mind. Batman has been my favourite movie and my favourite hero ever since.

[@stefanpoirier6810]

REALLY!?! Nice! Believe it or not, this is my favourite movie ever too! I have seen it since I was maybe 5 or 6, and I still love it to this very day!!

[@bujilou]

Great Podcast with the cuts of the movies audio in there, and analysis too from people who thoroughly watch and enjoy the material over the years, you notice things most others wouldn't

[@lturner7159]

The way he moves in the suit was superb specifically the angles Burton Shot 89 at making a short Keaton look incredibly menacing and tough. Specifically when he appears out of the shadows and smoke behind Jack Napier slowly walking up stairs behind him, with his cape flowing in the air🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@demisemedia]

I can relate with what he said @39:32 except i listen to the ENTIRE FREAKIN Batman Returns score!! One December night in particular I was driving around downtown and it was raining hard. We have a thing called Christmas in the Park🎄and it’s smack dab in the middle of downtown. There are hundreds of different lit up Christmas trees and ornaments and driving or walking around there while listening to the entire extended Batman Returns score puts me in such a great mood. I’m just quiet. Observing. “Touring the riot scene.” People had their umbrellas out while walking around, breathing into the cold air making little clouds in front of their rosy faces! Batman 89 is a great film. Returns is my favorite!

[@chriswilliams384]

Wow this was great. I was 13 in 1989. And i saw batman 6 times in the theatre that summer. One of the best cinema going experiences ive ever had. I loved this movie and its still my favourite. It was a treat listening to you guys talk about batman 89. You made me think about certain aspects of the movie id never thought of, even though i know this film inside out. Great job! 🦇

[@rabidhammer31]

Keaton will always be the best, Batman 1 and 2, the mythos and designs, sets, the matte paintings, growing up with the vhs too, I was 5 also when it was in theaters, and wore out many vhs copies and was in the theater first day for Returns. It's all more than just a couple batman movies, it's powerful how it's all attached to our childhood's.

[@jenkelley8097]

I was born in 84 also but my mom and dad took me to see it cause they were michael Keaton fans. I can still remember the atmosphere in the beginning when the camera goes through the bat symbol.

[@StevieStitches]

In Starburst #134 (1989) Tim Burton explained, "Incidentally, Kim isn't producer Jon Peters' girlfriend and she didn't get the part through favoritism. It was yet more of the salacious gossip we've had to put up with. We sued an English tabloid newspaper over that report." www.1989batman.com/2014/02/vintage-magazine-article-starburst_18.html Kevin Smith claimed, "Tim Burton wasn't really interest in Batman, only the villains." Tim Burton explained in the book Burton on Burton, "That's not true. But there is an inherent difference in the characters. The Joker is an extrovert and Batman an introvert. So you can't match the energy, the balance. You have this character [Batman] who always wants to remain in the shadows, to remain hidden. If these two were standing on the street, Batman would always be wanting to hide [in the shadows], whereas The Joker would be, 'Look at me. Look at me.' So that's part of what the energy of it was. I certainly wasn't less interested in Batman, it's just that he is who he is, and The Joker is who he is. Some people got it, some people understood it. Obviously, a lot of people thought The Joker was the thing, but a lot of people found Michael [Batman] to be more compelling because of that. He captured a certain subtle sadness in his character. And there was a pent-up, bottled-up [rage] feeling to him."

[@walter_the_wobot2349]

Kevin Smith is full of shit. A guy with limited talent who has failed upwards in Hollywood and who has made a career out of talking shit.

[@lturner7159]

Btw the batmobile turning with that wire pays homage to 1966 batmobile which did the same thing

[@sparkageddon3186]

born 85...5 years later 89 batman movie got me into his films n comics since then but after watchin adam west batman im like wtf why batman so bright n out of shape lol

[@BraxtonWages]

I was obsessed with this movie too when I was a kid. That damn intro with Daffy Duck and the Warner Bros. ball cap; good times, good times lol

[@rabidhammer31]

Keaton and burton, Batman and beetlejuice, just mean so damn much to me and to have Keaton as the amazing vulture in the mcu and now back ont he big screen, like, it all makes me so happy

[@FunkyGOB]

Im an 85 baby. I remember being in the mall when i was 4 and we were going by the single auditorium movie theater and i looked in through the window in the theater door and saw the last shot of the film. Bat signal in the sky and Batman standing on top of that building. It got me. Then of course the Bat Dance song and reruns of the 60s tv show, i was and still am a Bat fanatic all because of this film. Never rub another man's rhubarb!

[@RyGuy-fi4zx]

As much as you guy's love Batman '89 and as a whole, as we all do, I'm always shocked at how you and Geekvolution have never gotten together on any episodes man. Both of you guy's talk this movie and the character at nauseam and love Batman. And all you guy's just seem like genuine dudes. Maybe one day you dude's can get on an episode together. That'd be the stuff of LEGENDS

[@SuperHousePodcast]

We'd love that! We replied to this comment here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jH3VgIWMjN-Sea8

[@MrAnaheimification]

Could never tell if Batman purposely lets go of the Jack Napier or if his hand slips.

[@hraefn1821]

Pretty sure it's meant to be his hand slipping. You can see the exertion on his face as he's trying to pull him up and when napier falls he has this resigned look of guilt.

[@lturner7159]

@@hraefn1821 this is interesting as I often thought The Batman was verbally telling Jack Napier know with his eyes that Napier had messed up and that he was going to let him go. But the acting was spot on I felt like it was appropriate as Napier had just tried to kill him.

[@LAH-oq7vx]

You guys are awesome! lol Glad there are others who enjoy '89 as much as I do 👍

[@jamesbrickner5159]

Amazing. Ben, I had that tape as well, and I did the same exact thing. We had the same tape with the origin story. I too have the vhs to this day. Just for the taste of it, diet coke AH!. This is my favorite movie. Edit : Soundtrack was fire, Partyman made it into Michael Jordans The Last Dance documentary.

[@SuperHousePodcast]

Thanks, James! We replied to this in our latest episode, which is also Batman 89 related: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6mYh5Zvncl4qJI

[@raulzavala9061]

The Monarch Theatre which you can see maybe 3-4 times throughout the movie is shown in the beginning playing a movie called Footlight, this movie is also shown in the marquee to the flashback when the Wayne's are seen leaving before they're murdered. I mean that's a long time for a movie to be playing, right? 😀

[@lturner7159]

The music is built around Bruce Wayne’s spontaneity and how insane and real the world of Gotham around him is. You’d have to be insane to live there but then again this is how Chicago has been depicted by the media which is probably why it has been a replica, posing for Gotham city. Man dressed as a🦇 to fight crime makes since in an impractical way provided there is corruption in the police force 💯🙄 and the streets running rampage with crime.

[@rabidhammer31]

Totally agree with the negatives about the Bale/nolan movies,

[@shamrockballs1066]

Batman and Batman Returns are still the best Batman movies to me. I like Begins and The Dark Knight, but it only truly works best for me in a fantasy world. The 'real life' setting falls apart for me because its a ludicrous idea! Lol

[@walter_the_wobot2349]

I feel the same. You put Batman in the "Real" world and it falls apart for me. There is just no way Batman could operate in our world. The irony is that in his attempt to make Batman more realistic, Nolan made him more ludicrous imo.

[@shamrockballs1066]

@@walter_the_wobot2349 You're 100% right, and this showed, because as the movies went on they become more and more unrealistic and towards the fantasy world to the point the film maker seemed to be conflicted and handcuffed to his own ideals. The more I watch TDK and TDKR the more stupid they are. Are the Burton movies silly, yes? But I can buy into that because of the world he built around the sillyness. I can immerse myself in that world and get lost in it for two hours. Nolans just became pretentious and boring.

[@walter_the_wobot2349]

@@shamrockballs1066 Agreed. I find the Burton movies endlessly rewatchable because of the visuals and epic music. You can almost watch them as silent movies and understand the plot. If we had gotten the original Sam Hamm script (minus Robin) I think everyone would have universal praise for Tim Burton's Batman; it would be hailed as the definitive live-action portryal of the character. Batman Begins has an excellent story, but the visuals are bland to me uninspired.

[@shamrockballs1066]

@@walter_the_wobot2349 I don't know whether that would be the case for the Sam Hamm final version. It did seem a bit over crowded and contrived. The whole 3rd act in the final movie I can't fault at all. I love the parade, the Batwing and fight up in the cathedral. It's so gothic and dark and satisfying. I love the soundtrack to Batman. Probably my 2nd favourite soundtrack of all time. And the visuals and atmosphere of the film has never been better for a Batman movie. Yes, the plot is streamlined, but this is 1989. It was designed to be a Blockbuster and a comic book movie at that. The acting, visuals, costume and set designs and music all make up for what's lacking in plot. I'm never bored watching Batman. Begins would be my favourite out of the Nolan movies, however there's parts in it I role my eyes and some of the action just feels like generic 1990s/2000 Blockbuster set pieces with cheesey dialogue which I don't care for. But the tone and origin story is good. That what makes it stand out for me, not so much the 3rd act.

[@walter_the_wobot2349]

@@shamrockballs1066 I just think with a few minor changes to the script, Batman 89' would've been perfect. 1. Have Vicky discover Bruce's secret instead of having Alfred betray his master's trust. 2. I like the reclusive Bruce Wayne but not the distracted Bruce Wayne. 3. Have Joe Chill be the murderer of the Wayne's instead of Jack Napier. (Perhaps have Jack as the secondary goon that night) 4. Batman should have allowed the goons time to vacate Axis Chemicals before he blew it up and he could have used rubber bullets when firing at Joker's goons from the Batwing. 5. Have the Joker throw himself and Batman off the tower and have Batman save them both. Rather than the movie ending with the Joker's body on the pavement have him confined to Arkham Asylum. Most of this was in the Hamm script.

[@johnwells5414]

Honestly I think Stallone would have been a pretty interesting Batman in 89

[@SuperHousePodcast]

The main version that I could see him as is The Dark Knight Returns one. Frank Miller seems to agree: www.gamesradar.com/frank-miller-wants-stallone-for-batman/

[@SuperHousePodcast]

Also, thanks for your support here. We did a shoutout to you in our latest episode as a thank you: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXTGf3dvfbR_jdU

[@StevieStitches]

@@SuperHousePodcast I bet Frank Miller's ideal Batman in the 1980s would have been 1980s Arnold Schwarzenegger with Clint Eastwood dubbing the voice, and David Bowie as a gay Joker calling the homophobic big Bat Beefcake "Darling," and a Molly Ringwald Robin. Michael Keaton is much more believable than the Miller macho fantasy. The real 1980s vigilante in New York City was a Woody Allen looking guy named Bernhard Goetz, not a big Lou Ferrigno type with bulging biceps. The real serial killer clown Gacy was overweight, not a anorexic looking clown.

[@TDW2364]

Like is said a distracting number of times.