Batman (1989) (25th Anniversary Edition)

[Neomic]

Originally Posted by sarah_wentworth

i don't know anything about VC-1, MPEG 2, or AVC but is one of them the absolute best and why isn't the best one always used? if a movie is costing millions to make why not use the best one to make sure it looks as good as can be? just curious

AVC-MPEG4 is generally the only one used now days since it's far superior, but in the early days of Blu-ray, a lot of releases were just ports of their HD-DVD counterparts, which supported VC-1 and MPEG2, so a lot of movies from those days still use those same encodes ported from release to release.

Most movie studios don't bother re-encoding the master for AVC since most of those encodes fall under their (and sometimes our) "good enough" category.

As cool as it would be to get a new master for this film, I don't see it looking much better since it was made to look pretty drab in the first place. A new master might be a tad sharper, but unless you're watching on a large screen or have your television professionally calibrated, the difference probably wouldn't even be noticeable.

Then again, I could be wrong and a new transfer could be a night-and-day difference.

[SteamPunkCat]

I really like Tim Burton's world of Batman. I just think the characters and visuals deserved better storylines. (Even though there are many parallels to '89 Joker's plans to Heath Ledger's Joker's plan.) Otherwise, I would own both Batman & Batman Returns.

Just of curiosity, did they ever remove the purple paint from Jack Nicholson's neck for the Blu-ray?

[Region_unlocked]

Originally Posted by SteamPunkCat

Just of curiosity, did they ever remove the purple paint from Jack Nicholson's neck for the Blu-ray?

Nope, still there.

[Ned Schneebly]

Originally Posted by Region_unlocked

Nope, still there.

What's the story with the purple paint? A glitch or just an oversight during filming?

[Moviefan2k4]

Originally Posted by Ned Schneebly

What's the story with the purple paint? A glitch or just an oversight during filming?

Jack's white makeup got on the neck of his jacket for one take, so Burton had someone cover it with purple paint before the next one. They obviously didn't let it dry long enough, so it wound up on Jack's neck.

[Region_unlocked]

Originally Posted by Ned Schneebly

What's the story with the purple paint? A glitch or just an oversight during filming?

Very minor spoiler, so be warned if you haven't seen this 25 year old movie.

[Show spoiler]When Joker comes out of the shadows right before he shoots Jack Palance's character you can see a purple smudge on Jack Nicholson's neck.
This is because in the process of filming some of the Joker face paint rubbed off onto the coat he was wearing, to fix this the filmmakers just put some purple shoe polish over the makeup. Some time later Jack must have sat down or something and the polish rubbed onto his neck and ta da purple smudge.

[StingingVelvet]

Why should that be "fixed" anyway? I thought we were done with film revisionism crap.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Why should that be "fixed" anyway? I thought we were done with film revisionism crap.

[Stefan1]

Originally Posted by Region_unlocked

Very minor spoiler, so be warned if you haven't seen this 25 year old movie.

[Show spoiler]When Joker comes out of the shadows right before he shoots Jack Palance's character you can see a purple smudge on Jack Nicholson's neck.
This is because in the process of filming some of the Joker face paint rubbed off onto the coat he was wearing, to fix this the filmmakers just put some purple shoe polish over the makeup. Some time later Jack must have sat down or something and the polish rubbed onto his neck and ta da purple smudge.

Paint proof

[sarah_wentworth]

Originally Posted by Neomic

AVC-MPEG4 is generally the only one used now days since it's far superior, but in the early days of Blu-ray, a lot of releases were just ports of their HD-DVD counterparts, which supported VC-1 and MPEG2, so a lot of movies from those days still use those same encodes ported from release to release.

Most movie studios don't bother re-encoding the master for AVC since most of those encodes fall under their (and sometimes our) "good enough" category.

As cool as it would be to get a new master for this film, I don't see it looking much better since it was made to look pretty drab in the first place. A new master might be a tad sharper, but unless you're watching on a large screen or have your television professionally calibrated, the difference probably wouldn't even be noticeable.

Then again, I could be wrong and a new transfer could be a night-and-day difference.

Hey thanks! just for theck of it i'm going to pay attention to different encodes

[Neomic]

Originally Posted by sarah_wentworth

Hey thanks! just for theck of it i'm going to pay attention to different encodes

VC-1 is actually a decent codec and can have great results, but the one most people flip out about (and rightfully so) is MPEG2 since it's a very old codec (1996) and usually is accompanied by a ton of video anomalies that can easily be avoided by using one of the better codecs.

Sadly, some studios still do cheap out. The American Pie trilogy used old MPEG2 masters done for the DVDs, converted to MPEG4. Basically the equivalent of putting a turd in shrink-wrap. lol

[mrchallenge]

I have the book already, but I might have to re dip if the extra is any good.

Anybody know about "Diamond Luxe" packaging? Anything special? Or is it simply just a fancy name for a cardboard digipak?

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by mrchallenge

I have the book already, but I might have to re dip if the extra is any good.

Anybody know about "Diamond Luxe" packaging? Anything special? Or is it simply just a fancy name for a cardboard digipak?

See this post

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=174

[ravenus]

Originally Posted by Neomic

Then again, I could be wrong and a new transfer could be a night-and-day difference.

Not a good phrase to use in this case, Batman prefers the night

[GP Legend]

If it's just the same transfer and that new bonus feature isn't significant, I will just get the four-film favourites edition that has all four movies in a nice, single bluray case to save on shelf space. Much better deal, since it is under $30 for all four movies. However, I will hold off on getting it until we know exactly what will be in this release.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by GP Legend

If it's just the same transfer and that new bonus feature isn't significant, I will just get the four-film favourites edition that has all four movies in a nice, single bluray case to save on shelf space. Much better deal, since it is under $30 for all four movies. However, I will hold off on getting it until we know exactly what will be in this release.

The blu ray book for Batman is quite nice, I recommend that edition if you like packaging. You can get the rest cheaper.

[GP Legend]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

The blu ray book for Batman is quite nice, I recommend that edition if you like packaging. You can get the rest cheaper.

I don't care about packaging, that's why I mentioned the four-film favourites version. It's also cheaper than buying them separately. I've never seen the movies individually cheap enough to make it cheaper over the collection.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by GP Legend

I don't care about packaging, that's why I mentioned the four-film favourites version. It's also cheaper than buying them separately. I've never seen the movies individually cheap enough to make it cheaper over the collection.

Of course not, I was simply saying if you care about packaging at all.

[Batman2]

I have just seen that this is how they list the new extras on the UK Luxe set.

Disc 2 - Exclusive to this Anniversary Release

Batman Reunited-[HD]
The Making of a Hero-[SD]

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by BluRay84

I thought Batman looked fantastic on blu ray personally the best I've ever seen it and Batman: Returns transfers' amazing. I've come to realise though that some films just won't look particularly impressive in HD no matter how well it's worked on I mean Batman on blu ray looks really sharp but often quite dull too. Some films seem to have a really dull look to them (I guess it's the way it was filmed) and in my opinion wouldn't really benefit from being remastered. Like you say we could be wrong though and a 4k remaster could look miles better than the original blu ray release but somehow I doubt it.

Batman could look better with a new 4k scan I'm sure, but yeah, for the most part it looks good. The film is never going to amaze due to how it was shot.