Come anticipate "The Dark Knight Rises" with *BATSPOILERS*

Bale's made a bunch of shit but let's be fair here so has Keaton. They do different things, not sure who I'd really say is "better" as an overall actor but Bale is definitely a better/more convincing Batman. Never once believed Keaton was capable of psychotically beating up criminals, nor could he successfully pull off the vacant yuppie thing that's essential to Bruce Wayne

I thought you were supposed to believe in Bruce Wayne's "psychic wounds" or some such nonsense, and in this Keaton was excellent.

btw Batmanis the only post=Beetlejuice Tim Burton film I can watch.

I thought the Burton films were good at the time, but there's a lot of characters standing around mugging for the camera. Maybe it's because the age I saw them at, but they seem a lot more cartoony.

Hooray! So far only the first two X-Men movies have managed the serious tip.

i think bale works just fine, cos the implication is that there is just not much to the guy.

With Nolan directing there's not much to the comic either.

I really do think the first Burton Batman is just unbelievably ugly - day-glo color schemes, shoulder pads, consistently poor use of shadows and steam to evoke some kind of urban/nighttime environment that never feels believable, cheap shit architecture that looks terribly fake... the whole thing looks like its shot on a series of poorly designed soundstages and it shows. not once is the environment believable or immersive, it all feels false. when people tell me they like this movie I just assume they haven't actually seen it in 20 years.

and this is in addition to the shitty acting, a script riddled with plotholes, etc.

One thing I think Bale did much, much better than Keaton was portray a palpable sense of self-loathing within Bruce Wayne; I don't know how much of this was due to directorial tone and how much was due to Bale actually hating himself and that bleeding through into his performance (it seems like a very common thread through the characters he's portrayed).

Keaton did a much better job of portraying Bruce as someone who could conceivably fit the mold of someone who was the head of a wildly successful technological research company, though; Bale's take seems like a little too much of a fuckup without the proven core of competence shown by RDJ in his (100% spot-on) portrayal of Tony Stark.

Bale just looked vaguely petulant. Keaton genuinely looked as if it hurt him to pucker his mouth in that soul-weary manner.

the burton movies are unwatchable imo

I think the second one's great. the first one's an abortion.

nah

The first one has some pacing problems but is a very good visualization of a live-action cartoon; the second is more of the same with much better antagonists.

(and better pacing, oops)

The Schumacher movies are interesting mostly because they only really succeed when the antagonists don't do flat-out Joker impersonations (which is why Carey's Riddler works better than Tommy Lee Jones's Two-Face and Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy was the best villain out of all of them).

I think we can all agree that if they continue on with the Nolan version, they either better keep him as the director or do some serious quality control. The Burton-originated series got... well, we all know what happened there.

x-post, and apparently Dan is somehow defending any part of the Schumacher crap

basically i think the nolan batmans are the best just b/c i dig the scope and style and the villains are all pretty dope. the burton ones maybe looked kinda cool at the time but now i have no use for them. the schumacher ones...batman forever i remember as competent some of the time but i think that's only because it's not a total mess like b&r.

Val Kilmer was fine as Wayne/Batman. He didn't fit the role nearly as well as Keaton but he did a good-enough job of continuing the tone and he was removed enough to make the Robin situation seem a lot less like gross creepy pedophilia. Tommy Lee Jones did Two-Face completely wrong and no one involved in the film had any idea of what the character was actually supposed to be, so he ended up being a budget Joker. The Riddler was also verging on budget Joker, but since the original character is also kind of a budget Joker, it wasn't as off-putting.

"Batman and Robin" was ill-conceived on almost every level. A smarmy, self-satisfied Batman is never a good one, Chris O'Donnell was way too old to play Robin as so much of a whiny bitch, Alicia Silverstone was completely disengaged from the movie and Arnold played Mr. Freeze less like a scientist and more like The Terminator. Uma Thurman seemed to be the only one who read the script, looked at the costumes and sets and went, "hookay, in order for this to work at all, I need to out-camp the 60s series" and, as a result, her part was the only one that seemed like it matched the movie they were trying to make. Still wasn't enough to save the movie, though.

(sometime I should rewatch all of these movies to shore up my arguments, lol)

Still wasn't enough to save the movie, though.

need to put this in the understatement hall of fame

there was a weird period of time where chris o'donnell was actually a *star*, which i find kind of unbelievable.

mid 90s was a weird time

ha, is it really understatement to say "the one performance that seemed like it actually belonged in the film couldn't make up for the horribly misconceived portrayals of every other major character"?

I mean, the second best character in the movie is a tie between Alfred and BANE

Love the screenshots throughout:

http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Batman___Robin_1997.aspx

lol no no it was just kinda funny after thinking about the litany of things that are wrong with b&r (many of which you listed) that one could casually drop that thurman's performance (which i agree with you on) was not enough to save the movie.

Nicole Kidman's in there somewhere, no?

haha it says a lot for the impact/caliber of Nicole Kidman's character/performance that I completely forgot she was in this movie

i remember her because i was watching it with my dad and some older kids in the theatre kept yelling "fuck her! fuck her!" when she showed up in her nightgown and i was very embarrassed

oh my god, reading that recap is showing me that my mind was trying to protect me from how goddamned stupid this movie is

wait, she was in batman forever

xpost -- Kidman is in Forever. And yes, that recap brings back the pain.

Don't worry, they do that too:

http://www.agonybooth.com/recaps/Batman_Forever_1995.aspx

okay phew I am not as crazy as I thought I was

Which film was it that had the scene where Chris O'Donnell storms off in the Batmobile, is cruising for chicks, and then has to fight a bunch of thugs with a neon-light backdrop? That was some great material, there.

(My scorn for these films, so much scorn)

That was Forever.

http://www.agonyboothmedia.com/images/articles/Batman_Forever_1995/Batman_Forever_1995_037.jpg

She rubs up against Batman and tells him to "send Junior home" because she's got some "wild oats to sow!" [?] If this is supposed to be a plant-related pun, they are really, really reaching now. Then she slides over to Robin, saying that "On the other hand, youth does have its advantages!" She calls Batman "geriatric" and tells Robin that "My garden needs tending!" Ew. No thanks.

She grabs the diamond from Commissioner Gordon and puts it around her neck, then announces to the entire crowd that "some lucky boy's about to hit the honey pot!" Okay, that's the second plant-themed allusion she's made to her genitalia in about half a minute. This is a witty script, no? She then basically offers her body to the highest bidder, and the men all start yelling out dollar amounts at a feverish pace. If you're wondering why Ivy is attempting to become the highest-paid prostitute ever, keep watching.

holy hell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K2Y2cGDRhI

All of the promo posters and stills have Jim Carrey mugging with weird body language and facial expressions, just so you know this is a 90s Jim Carrey film with his totally awesome physical comedy and jokes.

I was a kid when I saw the Jim Carrey Riddler one and I really liked it for about a week or so. Batman & Robin is a movie so bad that it can't even be saved by the Rifftrax. Most of the movie they just sit in silence at how awful it is.

i was worried i'd hate the burton batman when i rewatched it recently, but it was really fun. i might take over dark knight as a whole - fewer ponderous speeches even if TDK has fresher "fuck YEAH" moments

Tom Hardy joins the cast.

Hahah this prediction maybe not too far off somehow:

Third Rock From The Sun kid to take over the Joker role. Maggie as Catwoman.

― I can't make my face turn into a heart (Scik Mouthy), Saturday, July 25, 2009 11:26 PM (1 year ago)

The Dark Knight Rises
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/10/27/christopher-nolan-reveals-title-of-third-batman-film-and-that-it-wont-be-the-riddler/

Time for a thread title update...

shitty title, but so was Batman Begins

"The Dark Knight Rises" would make a good porn title.

Sounds like some studio bod wanted to call it "The Dark Knight II" and this was the compromise.

Pretty sure the villain is going to be Catwoman.