Original Batman Quadrillogy Discussion Thread

Planet-man said:
In all honestly, I'd rank Batman Returns as almost as much of a departure from Batman as Forever is from Returns.

It's not as easily noticable, but if you really get down to it the gaps between each film are staggering. The first is a grimy chunk of industrial steel but the second is just a crazy Burton comedy. Both happen to wear black, so they seem like they go together, but under the surface they bear almost no resemblance..
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Zactly.
 
Planet-man said:
Like you and Proj, Batman Forever was literally my all-time favourite film when it came out
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Mine too. I had a huge poster of it.

I might have been on crack at the time.
 
Joe Kalicki said:
Weren't you in college when it came out?

Instead of Belushi or Einstein on your wall you had Bat-nipples?
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1995...I was a sophomore in high school.

And a huge nerd.

Although I was dating a girl who I ended up marrying, so I wasn't a total loser.
 
Joe Kalicki said:
I was a sophomore in high school in 1995.
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I was in 7th grade with the same poster on my wall.

My rankings?

Batman: 8/10
Returns: 5/10
Forever: 6/10
Robin: 0.1/10

Batman and Robin gets a 0.1 because it was edited together as a movie. They get a small 10th of a point for keeping the scenes in a general order.
 
Planet-man said:
So how would you rank the first four live-action Batman movies(Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin) and why? My raitings go like this:

Batman - Alone amongst the four in that it's 100% a drama(the comedic aspects never go beyond the realm of the kind of comedy that occurs in real life, no matter how dark... the movie just plays, it doesn't play to anybody with jokes and pauses the way the sequels do).

Anyway, I should mention I've seen this film more times than any other. ANY other, not just Batman films. I did the math recently and I think I've seen it upwards of 40 times since I was about two years old. I LOVE this film.

The sets and art direction are still rarely matched. Batman is portrayed exactly as I like him - black-suited, silent, solitary and not quite human. The Joker as played by Nicholson has to be one of the greatest cinema villains of all time.

The atmosphere and spectacle of it all are so expertly paced and delivered, they just dance on the edge of over-the-top without ever diving over it and it works sensationally.

A true work of art, just as they intended it to be, and easily one of my all-time favourite films.

10/10.


Batman Returns - The problem here is that, unlike its predecessor, this film is very much a comedy. As black as they come - uncomfortably so, actually - but a comedy all the same. Also, unlike its predecessor, it's a pretty bad film in many ways. The plot is ridiculous and riddled with holes and it doesn't try to take itself very seriously.

However.... that doesn't mean it can't be extremely entertaining. Catwoman is as sexy as it gets, DeVito's Penguin is fun to hate, and Chris Walken is hilarious. The film also doesn't try to uphold any sense of morals and just lets loose with all-out asskickery. At the end of the day, where else can you get the satisfaction delivered from sights such as Batman driving up to an arsonist and ROASTING THE SONOVA***** WITH THE BATMOBILE'S JET ENGINE? BWHAHAHAHA!

7/10


Batman Forever - The black sheep of the "real" films(i.e. the first three films, as they actually tie together in a set of character arcs). "Forever" gets a far worse reputation than it should due to being associated with the abyssmal film that followed it. Beyond all the neon and over-the-top camp, there's a very good movie in here somewhere, in fact, everything with Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and Chase Meridian is almost on par with the first brilliant film. It's only the villain half of the movie which is ridiculous, and even those parts are still fun.

Val Kilmer was terrific as Bruce Wayne(even Bob Kane says he was the best to portray the character... although he didn't get to see Begins) and Nicole Kidman, at the height of her beauty, has the best chemistry with both Bruce and Bats of any Bat-girl to date. Like I said, their half, the serious half of the movie, is actually really, really good. Chris O'Donnell was very good in his role too and you can't blame Jim Carrey for giving the performance the world wanted to see him give at the time. I always try to watch this with a 1995 mindset and come out with a smile on my face. Definitely better than "Returns", IMO, and certainly deeper.

8/10


Batman & Robin - Annnnd here's where it all fell apart. They ditched all the good, serious stuff from the last film and just went for all-out blockbuster camp. There are a few redeeming aspects here and there, but overall, there's nothing that can save it's film from it's own stupidity.

The saddest raiting I can give a movie is a 1 or a 0 out of 10, but that doesn't mean I don't do negatives. I use negatives for movies that have so-bad-its-good value, to show just how much of a blast they are to mock. This one gets a solid -8/-10 from me.


In short:

Batman - A good movie that's very enjoyable. 10/10
Batman Returns - A bad movie that's still pretty enjoyable, and on purpose to boot. 7/10
Batman Forever - Two movies. One very good, serious, and compelling, the other a ridiculous spectacle. Both halfs are enjoyable, and still deliberately so. 8/10.
Batman & Robin - A bad movie that's accidentally enjoyable due to just how bad it is. -8/-10.

I also wrote a long essay recently about the surprisingly deep and consistent character arc that plays out over the first three films, but I'll post that later.
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Out of pure curiosity how would you rate all the movies against the Batman: The Movie, staring Adam West??
 
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Planet-man said:
Batman & Robin - A bad movie that's accidentally enjoyable due to just how bad it is. -8/-10.
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you are aware that those negative's cancel out right? so you actually gave the movie 8/10, meaning you actually liked that pile of tripe

maybe you made the reverse mistake with Spider-Man 3
 
Gemini said:
you are aware that those negative's cancel out right? so you actually gave the movie 8/10, meaning you actually liked that pile of tripe
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Feh. Think of it like a bizarro-world quality barometer. The -10 is the maximum(minimum?) possible limit of so-bad-it's-goodness for cinema. B&R makes it eight tenths of the way down that road. I'm more of a visual person than a mathematical one.
 
Planet-man said:
Feh. Think of it like a bizarro-world quality barometer. The -10 is the maximum(minimum?) possible limit of so-bad-it's-goodness for cinema. B&R makes it eight tenths of the way down that road. I'm more of a visual person than a mathematical one.
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-8/10 would probably have worked better with 0 being atrocious and negative numbers representing so bad its good.
 
Batman - I must have seen this when I was about five or six. I think Tim Burton really understood the Batman and the Joker characters. His filmmaking genius, coupled with an incredible cast (Keaton, Nicholson, Basinger I guess....), was a formula for success.
B+

Batman Returns - I saw this when I was like five or six. It was too dark and gothic and weird for me, especially at my age. Christopher Walken, Michelle Phifer as Catwoman, and Danny DeVito as the Penguin all scared me (it's funny, I saw BLADE when I was six years old, and it still didn't put me off as much as Batman Returns).
C+

Batman Forever / Batman & Robin - I don't even want to put forth any effort to start to review or criticize these two pieces of ****. Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bane, the guy who played Bane, Joel Schumaker, bat-nipples, and everything else that's wrong with these two movies, do not belong in a Batman film.
E

Batman: The Movie - The 60s one starring Adam West and Burt Ward. Fantastic. You've got to love the campiness, the Adam Westiness, the awesomeness of this movie (and the TV show). I'm not giving this a bad grade, because this was back when superheroes were campy and had Bat-shark-repellant.
B
 
Langsta said:
and had Bat-shark-repellant.
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Yes!

Shark Repellent Bat-Spray = So bad it's good. Not Batman and robin. Shark Repellent Bat-Spray is a moment I think NO batman fan can forget and no batman fan can truly hate
 
ourchair said:
Are you saying you would have been a loser had you married her?

If so, ouch.
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I do not follow your Filipino logic.

I was dating a girl and she liked me enough to marry me, so I wasn't a total loser.
 
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