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Seeing as to how there are some wildly varying opinions on which Batman movie is the best, I thought I'd make a poll about it here.
I haven't seen the 1968 Adam West television spin-off, so I can't comment on it. Although, if it's anything like the TV series, I'm sure it at least has camp value.
I still stand by the 1989 Batman film as my overall favorite. I've always prefered Nicholson's Joker over Ledger's (yeah, I'm probably in the minority). And I find that it ultimately has the most memorable plot and performance.
Batman Returns was almost-but-not-quite as good. It was decidely more dramatic, emotional, and certainly more difficult than the original. The problem (if you want to call it that) is that the film was perhaps a little too dark and gloomy for its own good. Whereas The Joker was downright evil yet humorous enough to be a memorable antagonist, The Penguin was really more depressing/tragic than evil/sinister (especially once you discovered his whole family history). So he IMO didn't work as well as a main villain. The Catwoman subplot was just as depressing. While I still love the movie, I'd have to say that the original is ultimately better.
Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever, perhaps in response to complaints of the previous film being practically a combination Greek Tragedy/Freak Show, was definitely more kid-friendly than the two Burton-directed Batman movies. In fact, at times, it felt more like an episode of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers than a Batman movie. It was decidedly less violent (the main villain, The Riddler, doesn't even die at the end - he's just tossed into Arkham Assylum), had brighter colors, had kid-friendly stars like Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman, and was quite a bit more cartoon-like (even showing clips from classic Looney Tunes cartoons, namely The Stupid Cupid and Satan's Waitin', and sometimes using cartoon sound effects to punctuate The Riddler's actions). Even though it gets a generally bad rap from Batman fans, I actually like it. Sure, it's not as good as the first two Burton films, but I find it to be an enjoyable change of pace for the Batman series. And, to be honest, I do prefer The Riddler over The Penguin as a main villain, if I were to say it has one advantage over Batman Returns.
Batman And Robin, however, just plain sucked. It feels almost exactly like the 1960's TV series, which isn't good for a modern-day Batman movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance as Mr. Freeze is downright laughable, with Alicia Silverstone's career-killing performance as Barbara being almost as bad (how could she go from her great performance in Clueless to this?). The action scenes, except may be at the beginning, are boring. And the fact that its cliffhanger ending was never addressed (since the Batman series was temporarily discontinued afterwards until the series reboot in 2005) just makes the movie all the more unbearable. Quite frankly, I think I'd rather watch Bio-Dome than this. Since at least that has one or two funny moments.
Batman Begins I've only seen once (well, same with Batman And Robin, for that matter). I remember finding it kind of boring at the time, although that may just be because I was really tired when I watched it. I may rent it again from Netflix this summer and give it a second chance.
The Dark Knight, however, is amazing. While I do prefer the first Burton film (perhaps for nostalgic reasons?), The Dark Knight takes everything great about the Burton films and gives them a modern facelift, with an even more serious storyline and much better action scenes (which shouldn't be too surprising considering how far we've come in terms of special effects). Easilly among my favorite movies of the last decade.
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