BATMAN BEGINS -
A+
Who knows how the years will treat this movie, but for now, it
remains the first DC movie that hasn’t been treated like a
kiddie fare comic book movie. I respect it ultimately for that over
all of the trappings of the story, which have been seen
before, but are here executed with brilliance. I was afraid, in the
early stages, that the movie would not stand up to snuff.
The previews did the typical Warner Brothers chop job, and the
Batmobile and the suit in light looked horrible. Then I sat
down in the theater and BANG! A well paced, well done film. It stuck
to the two villain formula without being over the
top, paid attention to Batman instead of the villains, and didn’t
rely on the imagery over the story...though the imagery
didn’t hurt, either, in the slightest.
BATMAN RETURNS -
A -
As a kid, at 12, this was my favorite movie for almost two years. I
would get up early before school just to watch it again,
and because of this movie, I pretty much wanted to be Batman. That’s
all there is too it. Michelle was my first true love as
a kid, and the movie’s quirk was offset with a somewhat tragic play
on the Penguin and the introduction of Walken in a
role tailor made for his cynicism. The problem being, it did NOT
stand up to the test of time. Now, I’d give it a B at best.
But back then, which is where I’m setting these rankings, the above
applies. The only thing that stopped me dead in the
movie was after Penguin was revealed and it became a gadget war.
BATMAN - B+
The original Batman was a great movie not because of Batman, but
because of the Joker. I bought Keaton as Batman, no
problems there, but when you cast a villain who steals the show as
much as Keaton, when you provide no origin, you run
into some problems. Couple that with a lot of missing story that
remained on the cutting room floor, a shrewish performance by Kim
Basinger, and you have some issues. But the introduction, the
gadgets, even the darkness of this film
makes it worth watching once a year.
BATMAN FOREVER -
C
But a solid C. Given the script, given the drop straight into the
60's Batman from the Burton world, this movie fared pretty
average and well. Carrey steals the show as the Riddler, but his
dialogue is atrocious. Harvey Dent and Two Face are
massacred, and lose any semblance of seriousness. Robin is handled
well, but Chris O’Donnell makes you want to drop
him off a trapeze. Val plays the Batman well, but he also struggles
under a lackluster script. They tried to do what
Batman Begins did, a little bit, delving into the past, but the
problem was, they didn’t do it enough, and instead focused
on how arty they could make the fight scenes, which worked okay, but
couldn’t salvage a cheesy story and bad dialogue.
BATMAN AND ROBIN -
G
The movie that proved you CAN go beyond F, the movie that made a
joke out of Bane, Uma Thurman, Schwarzenegger,
and almost everything that Batman stands for. You say the campy
Batman stank? You should see this movie. Whether it’s
the cliché spouting Mr. Freeze, or the even further drop into the
cheesy art esthetic, or maybe the skydiving thousands of
feet and landing just fine, or the car chase across the rooftops,
or, heck, there isn’t anything else to remember about this
film, it’s a repressed memory. To put it plainly, the Nuclear Man in
Superman 4 has more depth than this entire film. Joel
Schumacher destroyed Batman. I can’t put it any more plainly. We’re
lucky they were able to salvage anything, much
less Batman Begins...
Discuss your own
Batman Report Card, at Cinema-Lunatics! Same Bat Time, Same Bat
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