Favorite Live-Action Batman Movie

[Chop Top]

The recent discussion in the Dark Knight thread inspired me to create a thread for talk of all things Bat-related - consider the title and poll a springboard for discussion, not neccessarily the sole factor in the thread. Discuss your favorite film(s), Bat-actors, Bat-mobiles, whatever.

As you can probably tell my favorite film is BATMAN (1989), and my favorite Batman is Michael Keaton. Adam West and Christian Bale were pretty great too. Kilmer had his moments. Clooney could have been good if he had actually played Batman, insted of simply playing a gay version of his goofy public persona.

Live-action Films:

1. BATMAN (1989)
2. TIE: BATMAN BEGINS and BATMAN RETURNS
3. BATMAN: THE MOVIE
4. BATMAN FOREVER
5. Being burned alive in a giant Wicker effigy as Christopher Lee observes the carnage and villagers wearing animal masks look on happily and sing
5. BATMAN & ROBIN

Actors:

1. Michael Keaton
2. Christian Bale (Could be the better if he toned down his Batman voice)
3. Adam West
4. Val Kilmer (I give him props because he gave Schumaker hell throughtout filming for turning the movie into a camp fest)
5. Since I already did the joker whre I list something totally ridiculous before anything related to B&R, George Clooney I guess

Discuss.

[MouthForWar]

Nice thread! As a die hard Batman comics fan, the movies have never really done anything for me until Batman Begins... in my opinion, that captured the essence of Batman best. Burton's 89 Batman comes in a close second. I think it could have been perfect. Jack's performance was great, but I never really bought him as the Joker and he overracted too much. The only scenes I felt I was watching the Joker were when he uses his buzzer and electrocutes that dude, and the part where he fights Batman on the roof... the rest of the time I just felt like I was watching Jack Nicholson act like Jack Nicholson.

But with that said, as far as my preferences go, I'd have Batman Begins followed by Batman: The Movie with Adam West.... the Adam West Batman is just too much fun to hate and whether people wanna admit it or not, it was reflective of the comics at the time.

Next up is the Batman Serials from the 40s... yeah, they were made with barley any budget, and they weren't especially well written or acted, but they still captured the spirit of the comics. Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery are still way better Batmans than Clooney, and Kilmer, IMO.

Batman Returns I just can't stomach. I love the cinematography and set design and I thought Catwoman was handled farley well (although the whole "9 Lives" and "cat powers" stuff bothered me). But I HATE Burton's Penguin. He was more like the Killer Croc... and what's with Penguins living in the sewers and having missile launchers? Walken, Pfeifer, Keaten, and Michael Gough are the only good parts. I just couldn't stand the stupid butchery of the Penguin (one of my favorite villains in the comics).

Batman Forever and Batman & Robin aren't even worth mentioning to me.

So for me:

1. Batman Begins (personally, my ideal Bat-film)
2. Batman: The Movie (a BRILLIANT satire of superheroes and comic books in general, while still being respectful to the source material at the time... this movie/show is ace all the way... screw the haters).
3. Batman (1989)- a good Tim Burton movie, but didn't cut it as a Batman film IMO. The Prince soundtrack dates it terribly and the Joker felt more like Jack Nicholson fell into a vat of chemicals and went crazy, rather than The Joker. Not to mention I HATE how the Gordon/Batman relationship is non-existent in these films. And Joker killing Batman's parents was dumb and uncalled for IMO... still, a very fun movie though!
4. Batman and Robin (1949)- This one is a lot of fun... not intentionally funny like Adam West and not serious like the Burton and Nolan films... just a fun kids movie.
5. Batman (1943)- The whole anti-Japanese thing is a bit much, but its forgivable for the time period, I suppose.
6. Batman Returns- has some redeemable qualities, but there is too much dumb stuff that I can't get past.
7. Batman Forever- Val Kilmer is actually a nice casting choice, but too bad the movie is lame lame lame. They took the first 2 movies, made them gay, and forgot how to write a coherant script... Two Face and the Riddler, two very smart and compelling villains in the comics are dwindled down into these gone bonkers Joker clones... ugh
8. Batman & Robin- Everything done wrong in Batman Forever is maximized by 100x... ugh. Arnold should have NEVER been cast as Mr. Freeze, Uma Thurman who I normally like is unbearable, and the Bane and Batgirl characters are completley destroyed... also... Wilfred? WILFRED?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Here's my Batman rankings:

1. Bale
2. Keaten
3. Lowery
4. Wilson
3. Kilmer
4. West
5. Clooney

[emeGoji]

1. Batman Begins
2. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
3. Batman: The Movie
4. Batman (1989)
5. Batman Returns

[MouthForWar]

[Chop Top]

Pleas excuse the messed up poll, I have no idea why the board deleted the BEGINS option and gave both of your votes to Returns insted.

Anyways, Mouth, I agree with you that Jack often seemed more like "crazy Jack" than The Joker, but I think it's more of a bias that we bring into the movie being so familiar with him as an actor rather than the script/acting. I actually own a copy of the script, and if you read the Joker's lines and imagine Hamill or whoever your preferred Joker voice is saying them, Sam Hamm actually NAILED the Joker's personality ('cept for that stuff about wanting to bang Basinger or whatever). You just need to look at it with an open mind. :color:

And while I agree that Burton's Penguin is pretty much a PINO, as a fellow life-long fan of the comics (was introduced to the comics and TV show by my uncle at age 7, saw the Burton movie at 10), I've always felt that the Penguin was a pretty boring character. He's okay once and a while, but there's really so much you can do with an obese cigarette smoking gangster. Burton never even wanted to use him, he was forced in by WB since he's one of the most well-known villians. The original plan was to use Catwoman and Lando's Two-Face, but WB kibosed it. I think he did the best he could at adapting the character to fit his "universe" while still maintaining some semblence of the original version. Yes the black goo oozing out of his mouth was over the top, but any big budget blockbuster film that clearly bases the look of one of it's characters and it's sets on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is okay by me.

Some of Burton's art:



EDIT: sonova "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" won't let me edit the damn poll

[MouthForWar]

Ha ha, that Burton art is pretty cool.

Hey Chop, how old are you? I'm 22. I was first introduced to Batman in 1988 about at only 3 years old (also, coincidentally the same time I got my first Imperial Godzilla and King Kong figures). They played the Adam West show on the Family Channel around here and I ate it up. I never saw the Burton film in theaters, I was probably too young at the time. But I remember the night it came out on video and my grandpa brought a copy of the VHS home from the video store and it was like magic. I loved every second of it (these days after being a seasoned Bat-fan its easy for me to go and pick what I did and didn't like, but as a 4 year old child who wasn't familiar with the comics or anything, it was the coolest damn thing in the world).

Then I saw Batman Returns for my 7th birthday party and I loved that as well. I don't think I liked it as much as the first one, and I even thought the missile shooting penguins were goofy back then, but I still liked it... these days I don't really enjoy that one like I used too. By this time I was also collecting as many Batman comics, toys, etc. as I could. This is also around the time of the animated series, which I loved, and STILL love to this day (I probably prefer that to any live action Batman movie, with Begins being a POSSIBLE exception)... in fact, thanks to DVD, I have all 4 volumes and its great being able to watch those episodes again!

And I never cared for Forever or Batman & Robin when they came out (although I had to see Batman & Robin twice in the theater... once for my friend's birthday party and another for mine... blah)

When I saw Batman Begins, it was after a long hiatus of being a Bat-fan. After I saw it again, I felt like that 4 year old first seeing the Burton and Adam West Batman stuff... it was like magic again. After all the crappy Batman stuff Hollywood has been giving us, I felt like they finally did it right. And thanks to that movie, I'm now a full fledged bat-freak again and I've gone and dug up all my old comics, and I've started collecting again... and I am absoloutley AMPED for the Dark Knight!

And that's my history as a Batman fanatic at the movies.

I've also edited my previous post with stuff from the 40s live action Batman... go dig that stuff up if you haven't yet, its a lot of fun!

[The Giant Pacific Octopus]

[Xenorama]

[kidnicky]

[MouthForWar]

[we77964]

[MouthForWar]

[Zack Metoyer]

[kidnicky]

[ryuuseipro]

[Foxtrot X-Ray]

Myself, I liked Begins best of the lot.. so Far.

Bale's just getting his bearings with the character and, to me at least, portrays the same thing IN the character.
(Bats is just getting started and hasn't quite settled into the tights.. Er, Armor)

Watched the Series avidly back in the early & mid '70's as well as Batman the Movie.
We didn't get the jokes, we were too young, so we took it as a Serious Bat-Drama.

Still enjoy watching these from time to time.
Got to meet Adam a few years ago.. Heckofa nice guy.

Keaton/Burton Batman..

I still remember my best friend going on & on about the First one when it was coming out. "Completely non-campy"

Well, Love her to death.. but she wasn't quite dead on with that assessment.
For the most part, both of these tip the scales with "Stuff I liked" vs "Stuff I didn't like" (Though Returns didn't tip as much as I would have hoped.

The rest of the series.. Well.... It had a few bits that were Fun.
For the most part, though. Kind of.. not Good.


Fave batmen.

Bale
Keaton/West (Tie)

Fave batmobile..

Edit

Batman Begins - The Tumbler
http://www.batmobilehistory.com/2005-batmobile.php

"The Monster Men" (Comic)
http://www.batmobilehistory.com/2006mm-batmobile.php

The Dark Knight Returns (Graphic Novel)
http://www.batmobilehistory.com/miller-batmobile.php

Plus the cars from Batman: the Animated Series and The Batman

This one from The Batman series is interesting as well
http://www.batmobilehistory.com/tb2027-batmobile.php

[Lord Hastur]

[quote="Xenorama"]while some bat-fans bash the 60s show and movie, it's actually still the most accurate to the comics. Batman was only "dark and gritty" for about 10 issues, and even then they took away his gun after about 3 issues. the 60s Batman has characters completely true to the comics, if slightly exaggerated (yeah, slightly! ) but all the origins (when mentioned) are true- none of the Joker shot Batman's parents, Bruce is afraid of bats, or ripping off his mask stuff.



Thank you Mr. Xeno -

Look, I really don't even get in to Batman at all, but I have to agree that the 60's show and movie are actually more faithful to him than any of the other GARBAGE that people have called Batman flicks since the first Tim Burton flick. So, that's all I'm gonna say because I'm a Burton hater and really not a Batman guy. Manbat has ALWAYS been cooler.

My vote goes to the 60's film anyway.

[Chop Top]

[Chop Top]

[MouthForWar]

[Chop Top]

Tom Savini was kind of a dick when I met him. I realize he probably gets mobbed by fanboys on a regular basis and what not, but he didn't even look at me when I gave him my MANIAC poster to sign. Then I jokingly asked him whether he preferred playing Disco Boy or Biker #2 and he just looked at me and said "What?" in annoyed voice. I muttered "uhhh nothing" and walked away humbled and humiliated

I still don't get why Burton is a "jerk". Yeah he made some crap like Apes and the Chocolate Factory remake, but he's done a ton of stuff for the genre and in the interviews I've seen he seems like a fairly nice guy, if maybe a little "off". But as long as he uses his clout in Hollywood to make stuff like movies based off of 60's trading cards, bios of Ed Wood, and Hammer tributes he's cool with me.

How is Sleepy Hollow crap, BTW? I thought it was a pretty entertaining homage to Hammer and Bava with lots of great cameos (Lee, Gough, etc) and gore. That Superman thing sounds retarded though

Here's some more of Burton's concept art, done in 87 before WB forced Nicholson into the project. Burton's original vision for the Joker was originally much darker than what we got in the final film, and not entirely different from what we're rumored to be getting in The Dark Knight.

[Xenorama]

[Chop Top]

[MouthForWar]

[Chop Top]