Batman (1989) ****

Let's face it. By 1989 Batman's image in the public consciousness was Adam West love handles powing and biffing guest stars every week. Batman was pure camp, not to be taken seriously. What Tim Burton's Batman does is turn that vision upside down.

Batman is an origin story, but not of the title character. It's more of a rise and fall of The Joker (played devlishly by Jack Nicholson) from a common mafia hitman to the most powerful criminal in the city. It could have easily been called The Joker. When the movie begins Batman (Michael Keaton)) is just there, it seems not for very long, but there's no real explanation other than the typical Batman mythos. After we see the initial metamorphisis of Nicholson's character the film becomes the standard Batman vs. Joker story complete with Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger) as the damsel in distress.

It's the visuals that give Batman its power. Gone are the gray and blue suits worn in the 1960's. Burton's Batman is in a suit of black, just like the entire movie. Gotham is a bleak city that's just black and blacker, with a tone that harkens back to thew days when Batman was just a brand new comic book on the news stands. You forget about biff and pow in the first five minutes. This is a new Batman. And an old one. Burton was obviously influenced by the work of Frank Miller's Batman in the comic genre in the film.

Where Superman started the entire superhero movie genre Batman injected it with a new life that has spawned into a huge enterprise that, ironically, has led to its peak in The Dark Knight. Tim Burton, like Richard Donner 10 years earlier, saw beyond the typical ideas in the public about superheroes. They are human beings. They are flawed and their worlds are flawed. It's this concept that has grown over the last thirty years. You can tell which movies get it and which movies don't. Superheroes are golden, but don't make them into gods.