Batman (1989)

By: Nils Toledo 1.04.2009

The Movie Itself:
In the midst of all the "Dark Knight" hype, Warner UK has decided to release Tim Burton's original take on the Caped Crusader on Blu-ray, here is my review disc.

Batman, directed by Tim Burton. stars Micheal Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Jack Nicholson as Batman's arch rival, the Joker, and Kim Basinger as Batman's love interest, Vicki Vale. Everybody is great in the movie, including the the supporting cast. The standout here is obvisiously Jack Nicholson, who totally became the Joker, while i prefer Chris Nolan and Heath Ledger's Joker, I can't discredit Jack in this iconic role. You can see watching some of the special features that Jack really enjoyed the role. Many people were outraged when Michael Keaton was cast as the title character, saying "how can Mr. Mom play Batman?" Well Keaton silenced everyone with his portrayal of the Caped Crusader, showing that he can play more serious roles, not just comedy roles.

What I love most about the movie, like many, is that it is a dark and gritty take on the character, closer to what Bob Kane originally wanted the character to be like, as opposed to the overly campy 1960's TV show. Batman is one of my favorite comic book movies, probably my second favorite behind the Chris Nolan franchise, and I would Recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the comic books or of Director Tim Burton.
Rating: 8/10

The Presentation:
Batman(1989) comes to blu-ray with a 1080p transfer framed at 1.85:1 using the VC-1 codec. When taking into the stylistic choices done when filming and the film's age, it looks fantastic, true to the source. It is a very dark film, but blacks held up well, and what colors there are, like the Joker's suit, pops off the screen. There is a respectable increase in detail from the previous Special Edition DVD, there were even some shots that I noticed visible wires used to hold Batman up as he glided down. There are no visible defects, like noise, especially considering how dark the film is, there is some film grain, but it never intrudes on the viewing experience. Overall it is true to the source, but no where near the peak of what Blu-ray has to offer.

I was a bit disappointed with the audio on this one. While it is a nice upgrade from the DVD, it is just sounded weird, i am not sure if it is the source to blame or what, but I think it could have sounded better. One positive Is Danny Elfman's score really shines on the TrueHD track, giving a really surrounding experience. Overall, the audio is an upgrade, but not a HUGE difference, but not horrible.
Rating: 7/10

The Extras:
This Blu-ray comes packed with tons of special features, carrying over all the features from the Batman Special edition DVD released back in 2005.

Extras include:

A commentary with director Tim Burton.

On the set with Bob Kane- This is a very short look with Bob Kane on the set of the movie, not really the most interesting thing, given it's extremely short runtime of under 3 minutes.

Legends of the Dark Knight- The History of Batman- This is a beefy feature that runs a little over 40 minutes, and looks at the history of the character, from the comic book to the TV series, a very good feature.

Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight parts 1-3- All 3 parts together run a little under 70 minutes. These 3 parts are my favorite features on the disc, they go into great detail on the difficulties of getting the movie made, from convincing studio heads to actually greenlight the movie, to finding the right director to film this dark movie, and also into finding the perfect cast, it is an excellent feature and one I would recommend to watch.

Next up are 6 featurettes that are under the "Beyond Batman" tab. They talk about nearly all aspects of the production of the film including:

Building the Batmobile The Props and Gadgets of Batman From Jack to the Joker The Music of Batman Designing the Batsuit and finally a look into the look of Gotham

All together these are great informative featurettes that deserve to be watched to see how much work really went into making the film.

Next we have have character profiles for the major heroes and villains in the movie, these only run a few minutes each, and arent really the most informative pieces, it is basically the actors and some different people, including comic book artists and crew from the movie, talking up the different characters.

The final significant feature runs a little over 4 minutes and is a storyboard sequence that shows a scene that features Robin, overall it is cool to have, but I am glad it never came to be,I am not a big fan of Robin.

The extras are rounded out with 3 prince music videos and a theatrical trailer for the movie.
Rating: 10/10

Overall:
Tim Burton's Batman is one of my favorite movies, it is well directed by one of my favorite director's, and includes Jack Nicholson's iconic performance as the Joker, and a strong cast. The disc features a strong video presentation, and a less then stellar audio presentation. It has hours of bonus features that are all nearly worth a look. This is one i Would recommend as a definite import, it is available in the uk, and is available for a little over $20 bucks shipped from amazon uk, this is not an import to miss.
Rating: 8/10