Batman - Special Edition (DVD)

Gotham City is being ravaged by criminal master minds, and the local police force is either corrupt or unable to control it. The DA is taking a hard line on the crime, but seems unable to do anything about it. Then along comes a masked crusader dressed as a giant bat to lend his efforts to the good side. Bruce Wayne, a millionaire who lives in a secluded mansion, is haunted by the murder of his parents in the Gotham back streets years ealier. Determined to avenge his parents, as well as protect the innocent civillians of the city, Bruce lurks in the shadows, half masked vigilante, half man. Vicky Vale is the reporter on the tail of the mysterious Batman, but ...  Read the complete review

In 1989, Tim Burton brought comic book's dark hero onto the big screen with a sinister feel and some great acting. The Plot Gotham City's underworld is ruled by Carl Grissom. Jack Napier, left for dead following a run in with the police, returns with a vengeance, disfigured and calling himself the Joker. Taking over the underworld, he terrorises Gotham. Only the Dark Knight, Batman, can stop this menace. In his true identity as Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight is a multi-millionaire and strikes up a relationship with Vicki Vale, a journalist who is trying to uncover the 'bat', and find out the secret behind Batman. The Dark Knight, however, is more ...  Read the complete review

Gotham City's new vigilante protector, The Batman, faces a tough test when he comes up against pale faced freak, The Joker. Given the current slew of superhero films either already released or due for release, I though it was time to revisit the father of them all. The film responsible for showing that, after the failure of the Superman franchise, there was still a thirst to see comic book heroes brought to the big screen. So, how does 1989's Batman fare against the young upstarts? For the most part, the answer to this is "pretty well". Indeed, in many ways, Batman is the blueprint for the later comic book adaptations like Spider-man and ...  Read the complete review

Thank God for the eighties. Out with old and in with new…goodbye camp, ridiculous Batman, HELLO new, improved, dark and scary Frank Miller-esque Batman. Along comes 1989, and Tim Burton takes up Miller’s crusade to darken the image of our mysterious hero. The result? There’ll be no jokes about Batman’s ‘little helper’ Robin any more, for Gotham City’s Dark Knight has turned Gothic…and it’s EXCELLENT. Setting the scene sees a vast diversion from the camped up sixties TV version of the same comic. Gotham City is a mass of tall, spindle-like towers, gargoyles, polluted skies and Gothicism galore. Forget your bomber jackets, these guys like to wear pin-stripe ...  Read the complete review

Darkness. Shadows. Tension. An intense, claustrophobic, clammy blackness. That's the feel of Tim Burton's epic realisation of the Batman legend. Tim Burton is famous for black humour, for darkness, for evil and his horrific animated creation, The Nightmare Before Christmas demonstrated clearly Burton's outlook on life. He liked the offbeat, the left of field, the evil and he was extremely good at it. His credentials were in every way perfect when the decision was taken to bring The Dark Avenger to life on the silver (or should that be black?) screen. Burton had made a number of small films in the early 80's including ...  Read the complete review