Batman movies

[zinfamous]

Thank god someone remembered Mask of the Phantasm. I thought I would have to bring that up myself. Forget the fact that it's animated; as a Batman story it's top notch.

I think I watched that recently with the nephew. Those cartoons were always top notch. It makes the current Batman games so damn awesome that they use the same voice actor.

 

[bearxor]

I really don't understand how anyone can think any of the Schumacker claptrap was better than Batman Returns.

this makes no sense.

if, for nothing else: fucking Michelle Pfeiffer in a fucking leather cat suit having sex with the screen the entire flick.


I actually liked Val Kilmer as B Wayne--certainly better than Bale--but damn, that one sucked. ...still better than Batman and Robin, though.

I can't help it. I just can't stand that fucking movie and Danny DeVito.

I agree regarding Kilmer though. I don't know if he's better than Bale, it's really hard to judge those performance against each other, given the different tones of the movies, but I did like him. I never really dug Keaton. Just never seemed right for the role to me.

 

[Ichinisan]

I think I watched that recently with the nephew. Those cartoons were always top notch. It makes the current Batman games so damn awesome that they use the same voice actor.

I think his name is Kevin Conroy.


...and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) as Joker.

 

[zinfamous]

I can't help it. I just can't stand that fucking movie and Danny DeVito.

I agree regarding Kilmer though. I don't know if he's better than Bale, it's really hard to judge those performance against each other, given the different tones of the movies, but I did like him. I never really dug Keaton. Just never seemed right for the role to me.

I thought Keaton was perfect, in the sense that no one expects Keaton.


Plus, Michael Keaton is awesome.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker should be on that list too.

Batman Beyond was really good and tends to get forgotten.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

batman (1989) was awesome. the others i saw were terrible, and not in the adam west kind of terrible.

 

[Aikouka]

Worst part of the '89 Batman movie was how the blonde pretty much screamed for half of it... so grating. :|

 

[ViRGE]

I thought Keaton was perfect, in the sense that no one expects Keaton.


Plus, Michael Keaton is awesome.

That wasn't a movie though. That was a direct-to-TV feature. Not to knock it, the Blu-Ray is killer, but it never made it on the silver screen.

 

[bearxor]

I thought Keaton was perfect, in the sense that no one expects Keaton.


Plus, Michael Keaton is awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I like Michael Keaton, but no one looks back on the first Batman and says 'Man, Keaton was so awesome, he made that movie!' Let's be honest with him. Nicholson made that movie. The man brought it. Keaton couldn't carry Returns and it shows.

I always though that Kilmer made the best Batman and Clooney made the best Wayne. Keaton made a terrible Wayne (but not as bad as Kilmer) and an ok Batman (better than Clooney). I think Bale does the best job of balancing both.

But, opinions are like..., right?

 

[SP33Demon]

Don't get me wrong, I like Michael Keaton, but no one looks back on the first Batman and says 'Man, Keaton was so awesome, he made that movie!' Let's be honest with him. Nicholson made that movie. The man brought it. Keaton couldn't carry Returns and it shows.

I always though that Kilmer made the best Batman and Clooney made the best Wayne. Keaton made a terrible Wayne (but not as bad as Kilmer) and an ok Batman (better than Clooney). I think Bale does the best job of balancing both.

But, opinions are like..., right?

I thought Keaton made a very good Batman. Unpredictable and slightly neurotic, the only thing missing from Bruce Wayne's character was maybe the cool/calm factor. What would be interesting is if Keaton had played Joker, I always wonder how he would have done.

 

[bearxor]

I thought Keaton made a very good Batman. Unpredictable and slightly neurotic, the only thing missing from Bruce Wayne's character was maybe the cool/calm factor. What would be interesting is if Keaton had played Joker, I always wonder how he would have done.

Along those same lines, I've always be an advocate of giving Jim Carrey a second chance as The Riddler. I think he'd be able to pull it off in a darker, more realistic role.

 

[Fritzo]

Between Batman Begins and and The Dark Knight, I honestly think Begins is CLEARLY the better movie. I just don't understand why people gush about Dark Knight. It's way too long, there are serious story structure issues, and it crams what should have been two movies into one. Seriously, the second villain should have been saved for the next movie. S. Goyer was probably a huge influence on the first and I really think the second would have been better if he had worked on it. I really hope Nolan collaborates with Goyer in the next one to the same degree he did in Begins.

I actually thought this myself. The first movie has so much character development that you feel like you've lived with Bruce Wayne his entire life. The second one needed more editing. A good 40 minutes of it was not needed.

 

[Fritzo]

Don't get me wrong, I like Michael Keaton, but no one looks back on the first Batman and says 'Man, Keaton was so awesome, he made that movie!' Let's be honest with him. Nicholson made that movie. The man brought it. Keaton couldn't carry Returns and it shows.

I always though that Kilmer made the best Batman and Clooney made the best Wayne. Keaton made a terrible Wayne (but not as bad as Kilmer) and an ok Batman (better than Clooney). I think Bale does the best job of balancing both.

But, opinions are like..., right?

Kilmer might have worked if it weren't for the terrible script. Same with Jim Carrey as the Riddler.

George Clooney is just a good actor...he can play anything as long as it's a straight role. He's useless without his facial mannerisms, which were taken away with his Batman costume (ugh...I just thought about those Bat-nipples again).

Bale is the result of an awesome script and him being a great character actor. He doesn't quite have the look for me though. I always thought someone a bit more bulky and with a deeper voice would have been a better choice.

 

[MotionMan]

Pardon my ongoing ignorance...

What are all the movies in the "official" Batman family and their abbreviations?

MotionMan

 

[zinfamous]

Hrm, I guess:

Batman, the Movie! (60s-70s something) Adam West and Burt Ward. lolworthy.

Batman (89) Burton/Keaton
Batman Returns Burton/Keaton

Batman Forever Val Kilmer/Schumacker
Batman & Robin Clooney/Schumacker

Batman Begins Nolan/Bale
The Dark Knight Nolan/Bale
Forget the new one, coming out this summer, but end of the Nolan/Bale run


Do yourself a favor and disregard the Shumacker flicks. I keep thinking there is another one of those Shumacker flicks, but I don't think that is the case. The only thing that they share with the Burton flicks is that they have the same actor playing Alfred. They were, more or less, billed as sequels to that series begun by Burton, but they clearly are not.

 

[MotionMan]

Hrm, I guess:

Batman, the Movie! (60s-70s something) Adam West and Burt Ward. lolworthy.

Batman (89) Burton/Keaton
Batman Returns Burton/Keaton

Batman Forever Val Kilmer/Schumacker
Batman & Robin Clooney/Schumacker

Batman Begins Nolan/Bale
The Dark Knight Nolan/Bale
Forget the new one, coming out this summer, but end of the Nolan/Bale run


Do yourself a favor and disregard the Shumacker flicks.

Thanks.

1. I am not sure why, but I thought there were more.
2. I had completely forgotten that Clooney did one, too.

MotionMan

 

[zinfamous]

Kilmer might have worked if it weren't for the terrible script. Same with Jim Carrey as the Riddler.

George Clooney is just a good actor...he can play anything as long as it's a straight role. He's useless without his facial mannerisms, which were taken away with his Batman costume (ugh...I just thought about those Bat-nipples again).

all of this. I think Kilmer got a raw deal. He was one of the better Batmans, overall, and for whatever reason, I think this role marked the end of his ~A-list career. sad. Carrey would make an awesome Nolan-style Riddler. Hell, Harvey Lee Jones wasn't bad as Dent/Two Face. but, like Clooney, he's good in just about every role.

lol. the bat nipples. so, so sad.

Akiva Goldman wrote the screenplay for Batman & Robin. Goldman won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind. :hmm:

 

[zinfamous]

Thanks.

1. I am not sure why, but I thought there were more.
2. I had completely forgotten that Clooney did one, too.

MotionMan

It is often considered one of the worst movies ever made--at least, contemporary. No fault of Clooney's, though.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Harvey Lee Jones

lol

 

[zinfamous]

lol

lol. I knew something was wrong about that, and couldn't figure it out. lol brain fart.

Tommy Lee Jones.

lol. Harvey. wtf? :hmm:

 

[A Casual Fitz]

lol. Harvey. wtf? :hmm:

Well you were referencing the character he was playing, Harvey Dent.

 

[zinfamous]

Well you were referencing the character he was playing, Harvey Dent.

yeah, that's it. Imma go with that...


:sneaky:

 

[UberNeuman]

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker should be on that list too.

Batman Beyond was really good and tends to get forgotten.

I'd agree - but I was keeping it just to the films...

This final confrontation between Batman and Joker from ROTJ just floors me every time I view it...

 

[Ichinisan]

all of this. I think Kilmer got a raw deal. He was one of the better Batmans, overall, and for whatever reason, I think this role marked the end of his ~A-list career. sad. Carrey would make an awesome Nolan-style Riddler. Hell, [Tommy] Lee Jones wasn't bad as Dent/Two Face. but, like Clooney, he's good in just about every role.

lol. the bat nipples. so, so sad.

Akiva Goldman wrote the screenplay for Batman & Robin. Goldman won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind. :hmm:

I thought Tommy Lee Jones' Two-Face was awful. After Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan had one of the greatest villains of all time, every A-lister wanted to play a villain role. I bet that's why Nicholson took the Joker role in Burton's Batman (1989). It's probably why Dennis Hopper took the role of King Koopa in the Super Mario Bros. movie. TLJ probably thought he might be the next Khan / Joker when he took the role.

Jones' Two-Face came off as trying too hard to be like Nicholson's Joker. It was more of a cartoon / clown villain. My only other exposure to the Two-Face character was the cartoon series (inspired by the Frank Miller comics). He was menacing, frightening...and deadly serious. The coin thing reminded me a lot of the terrifying villain in No Country for Old Men. What a fucking WASTE that they

Spoiler

killed-off Two-Face as soon as he came to be in The Dark Knight. They should have used the Dark Knight story to endear us to Eckhart's Dent character, then have Two-Face emerge in the next movie. They could have even saved the tragic disfigurement for another movie

.

And Carrey's Riddler was also an over-the-top Joker knock-off. In the animated series, he was suave and sophisticated.

 

[JPS35]

There have been many threads about the different Star Trek shows and movies, but I do not recall seeing one about Batman movies:

I know I saw the Michael Keaton/Jack Nicholson/Kim Basinger Batman movie, and the Michael Keaton/Danny DeVito/Michelle Pfeiffer Batman Returns in the theatre and on TV.

I do not believe I have seen any of the other Batman movies (at least not from beginning to end).

I lost track of all of them and I know one is coming out soon, so I may want to try to "catch up".

How do you rank them and why?

MotionMan

That's because there are no Batman movies prior to Batman Begins or TDK.