Batman: Critic Reviews

The wit is all pictorial. The film meanders mindlessly from one image to the next, as does a comic book. It doesn't help that the title character remains such a wimp even when played by Michael Keaton.

Dark, haunting and poetic

An exhilarating mix of cartoon lore (though not nearly enough for rabid Batpurists), screen presence (this is pretty much the Jack and Mike Show), psychological murkiness (though it could have used even more) and demented Gothic goofiness.

A triumph of design over story, style over substance - a great-looking movie with a plot you can't care much about.

The conceptual side of the movie--two rather sick two-sided antagonists having it out in a black and sordid context -- lingers.

Director Tim Burton effectively echoes the visual style of the original Bob Kane comics while conjuring up a nightmarish world of his own.

There are a lot of things wrong with Batman, but it still makes for decent entertainment in the fine tradition of the typical low-intelligence summer movie.

Stylish, violent, and often dull Batman adventure.

The element of surprise appears in every frame of this motion picture, creating a rich sense of joy and mystery that seems to befuddle Burton and his primitive instincts.

...Batman hasn't gone totally stale.

Visually arresting but dramatically undernourished, the film suffers from bland characterization (particularly by Basinger's Vicki and the other "good" crime fighters) and is ultimately saved by Jack Nicholson's bravura turn as the diabolical Joker.

A hollow void of underdeveloped style and half-hearted execution.

Supposedly a superhero movie for grown-ups, this is actually a pretentious farrago.

It was, however, easily the biggest box-office hit of 1989, and one of the highest grossing films in history, a testament more to its massive marketing campaign than to its quality.

Wow. I can't believe how little I enjoyed about this movie after all of these years of NOT having seen it.

Burton brings back film noir elements to the new Batman, elevating it to a dark, demented opera.

In the end, one's reaction to Burton's blockbuster is little more than that of the Joker to Batman: 'Where did he get those wonderful toys?'

The movie that gave birth to the summer blockbuster remains impressive.

The story is a mess… Scenes and lines of dialogue make no sense… Keaton makes hardly any impression in the role, in or out of the mask.

...the yardstick by which all subsequent Batman movies are measured.

a cynical cinematic masterpiece

That Nicholson could make this homicidal maniac so sympathetic is a testament to his performance.

As a movie spectacle, it delivered. As Batman, well...it got a lot of things wrong.