Film
Batman
- Director
- Tim Burton
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 126 mins
The first of the modern Batman flicks, Tim Burton‘s 1989 film reinvents Gotham City as a nightmare hell of neon and garbage in which there are rumours that a blood-drinking bat creature is preying on the city’s underworld. Meanwhile, psychotic hoodlum Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) gets accidentally dumped into a vat of toxic chemicals, turning him into the green-haired, white-faced, eternally grinning Joker. Elsewhere, crusading reporter Kim Basinger thinks there’s something rather odd about offhand millionaire philanthropist Michael Keaton, who keeps all kinds of goodies stashed in the cave under his mansion. All the ingredients are familiar, but they’d never previously been stirred together quite like this. Nicholson spurts inventive one-liners, Keaton acquits himself remarkably well, and, despite the odd flaw (what are those rotten Prince songs doing on the soundtrack?), it’s full of imaginative violence, astonishing sets and good rethinkings of the origins of familiar characters.
It’s back on screen in 4K remastered form to mark the film’s 30th anniversary and the 80th anniversary of Batty’s first comicbook appearance. Burton’s Batman Returns and the two, er, somewhat less revered Joel Schumacher Batman flicks are also getting 4K makeovers.
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