AHOLDER-1 Sound: Excellent orchestral score, emphasizing the drama and action. Good use of sound effects and environmental music. 80/100 Technical: Some of the special effects needed some more work. Heavy use of matte paintings. Heavy blend of eras in clothing and set design. Lots of art deco used. Really blended several decades of the comics for a timeless feel. 75/100 Narrative: Good story arc, but very straight forward. 60/100 Acting/Character: Good use of classic tragedy ; Joker creates Batman, Batman creates the Joker. Weak acting from Kim Basinger though. 60/100 Did I enjoy it: Yes, a very fun film. I liked Nicholson's Joker at the time the film was released and still do; even though Ledger's is better. 80/100 Artistic merit: This film started the Batman film franchise and helped vitalize the comic book industry while the Superman franchise was in decline. Superheroes are our cultural mythology and should be treated like classical Greek mythology; there are many parallels between the two. 80/100 Total score 72.5/100

morganstephens512 This is actually probably the most well acted out of all of the Batman movies, even more so than Batman Begins. However, the way that the Joker was handled was not really all that stand out to me and while I do think Dark Knight is over rated, I will admit their Joker was better. I really also think that the action was pretty good in this movie, at least for the time. But I don't think it is the best today, and if for nothing else, I think that the chemistry between Batman and his girlfriend in this movie was actually probably the best between a Batman and their love interest in any of the adaptations to this day.

benjaminburt Tim Burton's Batman holds up surprisingly well after all this time. The action, sets, acting, score, and casting are all excellent. It was definitely a cultural phenomenon bringing an icon to life after the long-lived campy Adam West Batman series.If you're looking for modern action on par with things like the Bourne Ultimatum, the Dark Knight, or John Wick, you're not going to find it in Batman (1989), but you will find an enjoyable product of the time. Consider that Die Hard came out the year prior. Die Hard was awesome, but you have to admit that most fight choreography wasn't especially kinetic or intense. Batman is old, but, if you take it as it is, it's a really enjoyable super-hero romp that is both tense and dark and campy and fun.

deathadder-13878 Hyped beyond belief at the time of release (1989), highly budgeted, and nerve wracking to comic book fans who did not want the movie to resemble the 1960's Batman TV show (who need to get their priorities in life straight), Tim Burton's first Batman movie leaves a lot to be desired. On the positive side, it looks great with moody cinematography, Gothic/art decoy baroque inspired sets and matte paintings. It also has insistent but generally effective music by Danny Elfman, who impressively succeeds in spite of having no formal training in orchestration.The actors seem to be earnestly trying, though Keaton and especially Basinger perhaps just are not suited to the material. Keaton isn't terribly persuasive with the angst of his character, and Basinger....Well, she looks good but her delivery and interaction with the other cast members is lacking. Jack Nicholson is charismatic and fittingly for the Joker his mannerisms and line deliveries are quirky and manic, but thankfully they avoid falling into shrill camp. Heath Ledger would go for a more conventionally "dark" take on the character, which in my opinion may be more believable but isn't as entertaining.The movie's story takes a long time to take shape and the movie overall definitely runs long for a 1980's action movie; you can get up and take a break without pausing the movie at the beginning of a more talky scene and trust me, you won't miss a whole lot. Stretching some of the story and "character" scenes out mostly is a drawback, as it emphasizes the inadequacies of the movie.The movie presents as stylistically dark, but the situation and behavioral logic of many scenes is not at all sophisticated. Verily, one could argue that the delicious camp of the 60's show was actually more witty than this ostensibly serious but of often poor workmanship movie.As the movie gains steam (at a glacial pace....), the film-makers start piling up one coincidence or defiance of common sense after another. Why isn't the Joker arrested? This isn't Robocop where the police are protecting the crime lord villain. Why don't other Gothamites run shrieking away from the Joker, or try and take on the Joker who must be widely hated by the last third of the movie? Why does the Joker have a massive supply of goons conveniently dressed in the same uniform, who also have a large supply of Joker themed vehicles? It's clear that Burton likes the aesthetics of the enterprise, but whether he's capable of handling a large scale action movie is debatable. Some of the problems are script related, but the script isn't primarily responsible for pacing, acting, action choreography , and the like, which are all lacking in the movie; it's really odd that an a year with some spectacular action scenes (the 3rd Indiana Jones, Lethal Weapon 2, Back to the Future 2, The Abyss, Black Rain, License to Kill, Roadhouse, etc.) the public would somehow not notice that the film's fight scenes are dull and the vehicle action scenes are mediocre (with the bat plane stuff being more goofy than Roger Moore era bond). The action often is lacking in both internal logic and a reasonable connection to the surrounding scenes.This might seem shocking, but I've yet to see a Batman movie that fully sells me on the character. And I'm not hard to impress. I grew up loving Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Rambo, etc. I'm not a snob and I'm not that hard to please. Perhaps it's that, oddly enough, I still find Adam West to be the most appealing actor in the role. Keaton lacks a heroic presence, a good actor all the same but not right for the role. Christian Bale has a cold and smarmy presence that suited him for Patrick Bateman, but is totally wrong for an action hero. Film-makers seem to think Batman is a complex, "dark" character and as such shy away from casting alpha males in the role. Dumb. Stallone hit a grand slam with Rambo, who in the first movie is a scarred loose cannon. Highly masculine actors can do dark as well as anybody.