Captain Zero (Batman 1989)
Batman
1989, PG-13
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Sam Hamm
Screenplay by Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren
“I have a great idea,” said the Warner Bros exec one day, “Let’s revive the old Batman franchise! We can get Michael Keaton to be Batman! He’s hot right now.”
“You mean that old TV show with he sound effects spelled out? Bam, pow and all that?” “ Yeah, we’ll have comedic actor Keaton play Batman, and in a great twist, we can get serious actor Jack Nicholson to play the Joker!” No these producers were not locked in Arkham Asylum, and a new franchise was born…
Welcome back to 1989! The era of hair metal bands is high, and Prince is still at least a somewhat relevant pop singer. Enter the re-launch of an icon—Batman. To further confuse everyone involved, not only did they cast the above mentioned but they got Tim Burton to direct! You might know him from such oddball classics as Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Beetle Juice. With a full soundtrack of Prince songs and all that lovely casting, there seemed no way it could work, right?
The plot was simple and unlike Batman Begins, it skipped the origin and went right to it. Batman is in full swing and the Joker arrives on the scene to do battle. No real plot, just the classic battle with the “somewhat” love interest thrown in—Vicki Vale. She’s played by Kim Basinger. We even get Mr. Lando Calrissian himself, Billy Dee Williams as D.A. Harvey Dent. We’ll get back to the later. There’s plenty of celebratory Colt .45 to go around as this casting pulls off the impossible—getting a big 3.5 for acting. It’s limited only by a little hamming it up from Jack. As for the plot, I’ll give it a 2 cause there really isn’t much of one. It really is a long drawn out battle between the two.
Special effects and fight scenes both excel for the time. To quote the Joker, “Where does he get such wonderful toys?” Almost all the classic batgear is on display. Keaton is actually made to look like a badass, somehow, and Nicholson has just enough surprises to make a fight of it. I’ll give them a 4 in each category and an overall thumbs up for reviving the character. That brings our scorecard up to a solid 3.4.
I’m not sure why Burton only directed the first two installments of this era of the franchise (I’ll get into this in later reviews), but I’ll say right now—with a beginning like this it really could only go down. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Review by Captain Zero