Nowadays there's a new superhero movie out every summer. But back in the 80's superheroes were still considered to be entertainment mostly for children. Then the Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and The Killing Joke by Alan Moore came out and were a huge success. A movie was right around the corner.

The plot takes place in the familiar setting of Batman's home town, Gotham City. The city is all but controlled by mob boss Carl Grissom with police Commissioner Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent all but powerless to stop him. Enter the caped crusader who starts making a name for himself as Gotham's protector. He becomes the interest of journalist Vicki Vale who is determined to find out who is under the cowl.

On the opposite side of the spectrum a local thug working for Grissom, Jack Napier, encounters the Batman during a heist at a chemical plant falls into the acid. He emerges with a permanent smile and christens himself as The Joker. Joker starts to take out the other mob bosses and terrorizes the city with various deadly chemicals mixed with random every day appliances. He also gains an infatuation with Vicki Vale and constantly stalks her. Batman has to stop The Joker and save Gotham from the scum that turned him into the hero he is.

This movie captures the spirit of Batman almost perfectly. Gotham City is a huge Gothic metropolis that's unique style is something only Tim Burton could create. The casting is brilliant as well. Michael Keaton plays a perfect Batman as well as Bruce Wayne and is still one of my favorite Batmans today. Jack Nicholson was also a great choice as the Joker and manages to pull off a great blend of funny and creepy.

All though I thought a few things could've been improved, like the action scenes and the lack of character development for Gordon and Dent, this movie was a great way of bringing Batman back to the silver screen.

(94%) My favourite Batman movie, and indeed my favourite superhero movie ever made. The studios took a big chance and allowed a young Tim Burton to take on their biggest asset and he made a movie like no other directer could. Along with Christopher Reeve as Superman, Michael Keaton will always be my top choice for the role as he plays the haunted and lost Bruce Wayne so fantastically well that I doubt it will ever be bettered. Jack Nicholson was born to play the joker, the score is epic, the set design is wonderful. And although not everything runs smoothly, as far as I'm concerned this will always be the superhero movie to beat.

If you were around in summer 1989 then you'll remember that Batmania was EV-ER-Y-WHERE! You couldn't look anywhere without seeing the Bat Logo in some incarnation. The film was a mega-hit. People were queueing up around the block for hours (the literal meaning of a blockbuster). I remember being in a car, driving up Lothian Road in Edinburgh and seeing a long line of people queuing at the box office of the Cannon Cinema (as it was then) and being jealous that I wasn't old enough to see it. My lot of movies that summer was restricted to Ghostbusters II and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, both of which I saw in Florida. Batman had a 12-rating in the UK, and was upped to 15 for video. This "grown up" rating gave it an alluring mystique as was always the case with such movies to my hungry, impressionable mind.

The marketing team at Warner succeeded in immersing the public consciousness with the big-screen coming of the Dark Knight. Up until this point the Batman series from the 1960s is how the vast majority of the audience regarded the Batman character and universe. Tim Burton corrected all of that by giving us a dark, sinister and Gothic world with rich production design and a great score by Danny Elfman (who has made a career out of recycling the same old generic cues in nearly every movie he has scored). The original material is respected (to a degree), and the characters are deep instead of just campy. Burton also retained a lot of the noir elements that have been present in the old Batman serials and many of the comic books.

Michael Keaton is the best Bruce Wayne in my opinion. He's a rich, socio-phobic megalomaniac who has more money than sense and is often bumbling and clumsy, very different from Adam West's turtleneck playboy. As Batman he's silent and imposing, the polar opposite of Christian Bale's overplayed attempt, which I don't think anyone was really impressed by. Batman needs a counterbalance and I believe that Heath Ledger helped up Bale by accident

Jack Nicholson is a "good" Joker too, not quite as iconic as Ledger's take on the character, but still a role that has defined his career. I like that they acknowledge his intelligence and gave him a new edge by making him artistically gifted, but not much is done with it when it should have been a heavier driving force behind his insanity.

Anton Furst's Oscar-winning design of Gotham City is, to me, THE aesthetic that all other attempts failed to match. The smoke-blackened, cramped, and claustrophobic buildings look and create a very oppressive atmosphere, like a New York City that has not had planning permission for 200 years. The matte paintings are gorgeous and create pure escapism in a way that green screen digital mattes just cannot replicate.

It may not be as mature as Nolan's work but it has an edge that no other recent comic-book movie has. It's just a shame that the late-80s writer strike happened just a few days after Sam Hamm submitted his script to Warner. He was unable to make further drafts and rewrite scenes so Burton had some British writers make changes to the script (it was shot at Pinewood) which involved making Jack Napier/Joker the killer of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Sam Hamm was against this, as well as every single Batman fan on planet Earth. If there is one major, and valid, fault that audiences rightfully complain about then this major change to the established lore is it.

Rightfully a classic, and, aside from some weak writing, it's better than ALL of today's comic-book movies (please just make them stop!). If Batman had failed, then the sub-genre would be written-off forever. It's just a shame that Warner squandered this lightning in a bottle after two movies.