The DC Comics superhero, inadequately incarnated in Keaton. (Batbrat, maybe. Batpunk, perhaps. Batguy, at best.) Even so, the movie is indisputably an impressive thing to look at. The production (with its feel of futurism circa the 1940s: sort of what Brazil ought to have looked like) doesn't suffocate the action to the degree it did in Burton's previous project, Beetlejuice. Maybe that's because the action here has been commensurately inflated.

Great set pieces; Keaton is interesting as a super-hero; Nicholson and story pretty bland.

Nicholson in inspired interpretation of Joker.

3/5

What was all the hype about again?

Returning to the dark, brooding roots of the Kane comic-strip character, this megabuck movie eschews the campiness of the old TV show in favor of angst galore. Keaton is the deeply disturbed Bruce Wayne who dons the Bat costume in order to deal out vigilante vengeance against the criminal element he holds responsible for the death of his parents. Nicholson, meanwhile, steals it in a proto-Jack performance as the toxin-scarred, totally bonkers Joker while Basinger is vapid and annoying

Long ago I thought it was neat, but it is actually quite boring. Not much actually... happens. For 2 hours. A lot of recycled shots and canned dialog. Generally good performances by Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson but the screenplay really didn't give them a heck of a lot to work with. Nice soundtrack from Elfman. Visual style of Gotham is OK but not dramatic enough. A lot of poor lighting, trying to disguise the fact that sets were not as elaborate as they could have been.