Batman: The Movie (1966) (Special Edition)

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by Beast

Terrible!? The movie is awesome. It's campy, but good campy. Not Schumacher campy.

I generally HATE "campy!" While I admit that if choosing between "Batman: The Movie" and "Baman & Robin", I would be hard pressed to pick which one was the better/worse film, I actually like parts of "Batman Forever"... and the first person to ask me if it was nipples or codpieces gets punched!

That being said, "Batman: The Movie" is still TERRIBLE in my mind. I tend to groan whenever West and Ward are on the screen, but I really enjoy the villain's performances.

To me, Gorshin's "Riddler" was a lot less "campy" than Jim Carrey's... which was a shame as I think (given a better script), Carrey could have been a really great "Riddler"... but his character came off so "unhinged" it felt more like he was playing the "Joker".

I also preferred Meredith's "Penguin" as I prefer the more "dapper" "Penguin" to the "freak" Penguin seen in "Batman Returns" (though Devito did great with the role).

I even really enjoyed Romero's "Joker", and even somewhat prefer him over the way the character was written in "Batman". Jack Nicholson gave it his all, but the character didn't come off as insane as the Joker is often portrayed (in the comics). While Romero's "Joker" was certainly more camp, I felt he gave the character his all... whereas Nicholson's was more subdued (most likely due to the script as Nicholson can certainly play "insane" and "unhinged"). THANKFULLY, even though I disagree with some of the changes made to the character, it looks like Ledger got the chance to work with a better written "Joker" and really gave it his all too!

I also prefer Meriwether's "Catwoman" to Michelle Pfeiffer's (sorry Penton, sorry Bill!) or Halle Berry's. I prefer the cat burglar with a cat fetish to the nine-lived leather/latex wearing dominatrix portrayed by the latter two actresses... and I though Meriwether did a great job of it.

While not in "Batman: The Movie", the less said about "Mr. Freeze", "Poison Ivy" and "Two-Face" the better!

~Alan