Batman Forever is a dazzling display of style over substance. The plot is so paint-by-numbers that it barely registers any measure of interest. The characters are pure caricature, with hardly any depth to them whatsoever. Add in singularly amateurish camera movements, chintzy close-ups, bad acting, and a stylized Gotham that is so cartoonish it might as well be a theme-park ride, and you’ve got a film with almost no value whatsoever beyond, perhaps, a tripped out viewing of neon colors and explosions.

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Overview

Batman Returns is a shallow, hollow and ultimately meaningless exercise is dark, brooding and stylized filmmaking. There’s no doubt that director Tim Burton had a specific vision for the film and went for it with as much bravado and craft as he could possibly muster. The problem is a story that is ultimately devoid of character, theme or originality beyond your typical Burton film. The characters are positively two-dimensional and the pacing is thoroughly glacial. Add in the fact that the film makes too many “sophomore mistakes” and the end result is a film that often looks like and feels the original Batman film but is, otherwise a poor substitute.

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Composers: James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer

The Dark Knight is a triumph of modern filmmaking, bringing a dark, complex, adult character story to the big screen in a way few have seen in a long time. The film symbolized the desperate struggle between order and chaos, light and dark, madness and sanity. Along with that film came a soundtrack that was equally tortured, dark, violent, and relentless. Film music purists may find this particular soundtrack to be a bit too offbeat for their tastes. And they certainly wouldn’t be in error. The truth is, The Dark Knight soundtrack represents a highly stylized approach to creating a film score. And the more stylized you become, the more you run the risk of alienating a potential audience.

And that certainly is the case here.

But for my part, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this soundtrack (several times over) since I acquired it following my screening of the film. Where the soundtrack receives its highest marks are, first and foremost, its ability to not only complement the on-screen action, but to also add to the experience. Part of what made the film so exceptional was this soundtrack.

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The Associated Press is reporting that the new Batman film, titled The Dark Knight, is set to break the opening-weekend box office record previously held by 2007’s Spider-Man 3. The Dark Knight has already broken records for midnight release, single-day and opening-day amounts.

Box office records to date:

• Opening Weekend: $158.4 (was $151.1M from Spider-Man 3)
• Single Day: $67.2 (was $59.8M from Spider-Man 3)
• Midnight release: $18.5M (was $16.9M from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith)
• IMAX debut: $6.2M (was $4.7M from Spider-Man 3)

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Starring: Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Christian Bale, Michael Caine
Directed by: Christopher Nolan

The Dark Knight is a fantastic film – but not for the reasons most people will go on about. Yes, the late Heath Ledger shines in his role as The Joker. Yes, this is a big budget action film with plenty of fight scenes and explosions. Yes, there is a great deal of suspense and mystery surrounding the movie’s central plot. But what really drives the film are its archetypes – its use of dark and light, of order and chaos, of honor and anarchy. And its characters. This is a film that will rival (though not surpass) Spider-Man 2 as one of the best comic book films ever made. But unlike the Spider-Man films, which have a great deal of fun and joy to them, The Dark Knight is … well, it’s dark — in every sense of the word. And for this film, that’s a good thing. There are a few minor flaws and legitimate criticisms, however, from start to finish The Dark Knight is one of the best movies I have seen in a long, long while.

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Overview

Batman (1989) is a comic book come to life, a tour de force of style, action and character, and is a by-the-numbers Hollywood classic. The colors of the film that director Tim Burton uses stay within the lines of these parameters, almost to a fault. The result is a film that is nearly flawless in accomplishing what it sets out to do. Whether or not you buy into the concept itself, however, is another matter. But either way, it is undeniable that Batman (1989) is a film by which all future installments of the franchise will be compared. And speaking of comparisons, with The Dark Knight set to be released, it only makes sense to take a close look at the character of The Joker, played by Jack Nicholson.

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There is a new trailer available for upcoming Batman film: The Dark Knight.

This is by far the best trailer we’ve seen. I know that many fans have been impressed with the marketing campaign for the film — and you certainly cannot argue the fever pitch it has created, at least within the internet community. But the trailers themselves, especially the second one, were underwhelming at best. This new one is another matter altogether. If there is one word to describe the look of the film, it’s: BIG. Big chases, big explosions (really big explosions), big vistas of Gotham’s sprawling skyline, and a BIG performance from The Joker (Heath Ledger). What remains to be seen is whether or not The Joker’s look and performance, effective enough in the trailer, will carry over onto the big screen for a full two hours.

We’ve only got a couple of months more to wait and see …

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Batman Begins is a contradiction. It is movie that has both promise and disappointment. It does some things better than the original 1989 installment, but it fails to be a better overall movie than the original.

It is important to state that Batman Begins comes on the heels of two absolutely dreadful installments: 1995’s glitzy-but-hollow Batman Forever and 1997’s utter travesty Batman & Robin. By comparison, the Begins is leaps and bounds better than its predecessors, and so it is very easy to overstate the quality of the film. Therefore, we will be judging Begins against 1989’s Batman, a movie that was very well-crafted and far more successful.

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