Batman (1989) may no longer be the gold standard on film for its title character, but this absolutely paved the way for an entire genre

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 16, 2024

Jack Nicholson, who received top billing as Jack Napier/The Joker, steals most of the show here with his gleefully over-the-top sociopathic performance.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 17, 2024

Tim Burton's Batman is a Gothic superhero movie that embraced artifice and shunned grounded reality, and it was better for it.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Apr 30, 2024

Set to Danny Elfman’s triumphant score, Burton’s first Batman movie will live eternal in how it irreversibly changed movies and turned Keaton into a movie star overnight.

| Feb 28, 2024

The result is a film that may please adults more than youngsters, and isn't that refreshing?

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 25, 2023

The Gotham City created in Batman is one of the most distinctive and atmospheric places I’ve seen in the movies. It’s a shame something more memorable doesn’t happen there.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 25, 2023

It is both a technical and aesthetic triumph, a fact made all the more impressive since the movie was almost buried in its own hype before anyone had seen it.

| Jul 25, 2023

One of the most interesting comic-book movies ever made, a movie that vividly illustrates where most of the others have gone wrong.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 25, 2023

The movie is underwritten, but it has so many unpredictable spins that what's missing doesn't seem to matter much. It's mean and anarchic and blissful.

| Jul 25, 2023

Batman tries to span the uncharted area between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Blue Velvet, which is worthy of notice. That it fails may be because of Tim Burton's lack of narrative cohesion.

| Jul 25, 2023

Batman, despite the disconcerting mood changes, remains a forceful, visually hypnotic movie with enough pulse-pounding action and seething tension to nail most audiences to their seats even if they feel cheated in the end.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 25, 2023

There is real boldness and wild humor in Tim Burton's gloomy, sinister version of the ultimate in comic book noir. Burton is a former animator with so much genuine daftness and visual ingenuity that even a clunky corporate machine can't quell it.

| Jul 25, 2023

It's halfway between an opera and a comic book, but it chooses the worst parts of each. It hasn't the comic book's antic rhythms, but it hasn't an opera's depth of passion.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 25, 2023

Keaton must project a whole lot without saying very much, and convince you that no, he's not a mild-mannered wimp, he's just cautious. He does convince. But Nicholson has all the great lines; he's so good he puts a spin on the hammiest, hoariest jokes.

| Jul 25, 2023

Batman is perfect summertime fare. Its secret is levity hidden in a dark and troubled soul.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 25, 2023

All the incredible sets and effects can't mask a half-baked story. The atmosphere is dazzling; the narrative, which sometimes lurches along, is forgettable.

| Jul 25, 2023

Boasts the adventure of Indiana Jones, the humor of the original Ghostbusters, the terror of Friday the 13th and the ingenuity of a post-modern classic. Better yet, it contains a performance by Jack Nicholson that's so mesmerizing it won't be forgotten.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 25, 2023

Batman is a feast for the eyes and ears, with Anton Furst's massive, elegantly ugly sets of Gotham City, Danny Elfman's lovely, classically-oriented score, and dazzling special effects. It is also one long gas, thanks to Jack Nicholson.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 25, 2023

Watching the tale unfold, you sense that with each film Burton is going to get even better. There's a maniacal gloom to his work balanced by a wacky sense of humor.

| Jul 25, 2023

It is exhilarating in its sheer, protean excess of styles, appearances, allusions, gestures, and decor. But it also marks the supersedence of set decor and costume over more traditionally important cinematic values. such as narrative, character and theme.

| Jul 25, 2023