I think it’s pretty safe to say that any film featuring the characters Batman and the Joker will feature: Batman putting on a costume, Bruce Wayne with some hottie, the Joker taunting said hottie, Batman driving some kind of vehicle, the Joker with some weapons, the Joker smiling in an evil sadistic way, some cheesy one liners meant to inject some ironic humor, some shots of a city… i don’t know, I guess since Batman operates in a CITY… shall i keep going?

The thing that will be majorly different about this new Batman film? It’ll be ten times more awesomer. It won’t make Batman fans cringe 19 years later.

“I don’t know how much of a point it makes”

Probably because this whole new franchise is supposed to be “bettering” the Burton’s. I mean, has Chris Nolan ever shown them any respect?

Comment by Andrew Wickliffe — April 29, 2008 @ 9:23 am

Does he have to? No, he’s not required to. He’s not doing a homage to the Tim Burton or Shumaker movies, He’s doing his own version of Batman. That’s what they hired him to do.

I actually thought the comparison was … very cool. A semi-homage to a great film for it’s time.

Brett, you took the words right out of my mouth. With similar elements/characters in place, of course the two trailers are going to have simliarities. The difference will be in the execution, and if Batman Begins is any indication then TDK will blow away the 1989 Batman.

I enjoyed the 1989 film quite a lot in its time, but even then I found it deeply flawed in plot. A few months ago I saw it again (for the first time in at least a decade) on AMC and, just as you said, I cringed. A lot.

It still has its moments, but most of it is far too goofy for my tastes. Jack is pretty much being Jack, not Joker, Keaton looks so out his element as Bruce Wayne, and both Kim Basinger and Robert Wuhl dragged the movie down.

It’s going to be a bit creepy watching Ledger’s performance after what happened to him, and not everyone will care for that version, but I think it’ll be THE definitive Joker on screen. I cannot wait for TDK!! At least there’s Iron Man and Indy IV as a lead-up to tide me over until mid-July.

I can’t prove this, but is it possible that someone’s just cut in scenes from the original Batman film that resembled anything from the Dark Knight trailer? That is to say, is is possible this Batman trailer doesn’t actually exist? I’m suspicious it’s just a montage of various shots from the film made after the fact. I mean, we don’t actually get to hear the Batman trailer.

I don’t have my Batman DVD handy. Has anyone checked to confirm that this is an authentic Batman trailer? Because I’ve gotten emailed this thing like 20 times now, and I’m close to calling “BS” on it.

More of the same. no thanks.
This realistic (ugh) take is a bit silly.

Burton’s Batman is the comics Batman.

Wombat, there we will have to disagree. I feel Nolan’s Batman is MUCH closer to the “real” (comics) Batman than Burton’s. At least the comics Batman of the past two decades or so. The Burton stuff seemed like a good idea the time, perhaps, but it hasn’t aged well. It comes off as really goofy now, and the plot of that first movie is just riddled with holes.

I’m not say Batman begins is completely flawless, but it’s pretty damned close. It’s certainly a lot better acted, written, has much more depth, and I prefer the more “realistic” (for a comic book) take on the character.

If you need further comparison, Batman Begins was loosely based on the excellent Year One comic. The 1989 Batman seemed more a star vehicle for jack Nicholson than anything else. “Batman” was barely a character in his own (1989) movie.

If Burton’s Batman is the comics Batman, does that make Burton’s grotesque half man/half animal Penguin the “comics Penguin” too? Just curious.

the more realistic you take the batman the faster the whole concept falls apart.

As such Batman Begins is actually the corny movie. It’s ludicrous. Nobody goes about that in real life, thinking, “wow, i gotta find me some kevlar and don some bat rubber suit and strike terror into the heart of the cowardly lot”

Its a comic. You treat it like anything else, its not gonna work.

Burton’s Batman grossed like 3 times what Nolan’s did.

Ta-da! Courtesy of Box Office Mojo, generally considered to be an authority on this kind of stuff:

Rank Title Studio Gross
1 Batman WB $251,188,924 (6/23/89)
2 Batman Begins WB $205,343,774(6/15/05)
3 Batman Forever WB $184,031,112 (6/16/95)
4 Batman Returns WB $162,831,698 (6/19/92)
5 Batman and Robin WB $107,325,195(6/20/97)

So, the 1989 film did about $45-46 million more, but BB beats all of the others rather handily. Inflation would need to be taken into account for a true comparison, of course, but even then BB makes a solid showing considering the Batmania of ‘89, how much competition BB had in ‘05, and how it was NOT a kid-friendly film (no fast food tie-ins, etc).

“but even then BB makes a solid showing considering the Batmania of ‘89″

Burton’s Batman CREATED Batman Mania, and is in many ways part of the comics boom! in the early nineties (supposedly).

I prefer Batman Returns over Batman Begins by faaaaaar…but am pretty sure the Dark Knight will blow that away. Batman Begins was solid…but, it didn’t really do much of anything besides tell a solid story.

Wombat… I’m getting back to this one late. But seriously. I don’t know how, sceintifically, to account for inflation on this stuff, but I doubt the total goes up that high. If you honestly know a formula for that, go ahead and explain it to me. Honestly, no joke. I’d like to know.

Anyhow, twice as many people? Doubtful. Look at the “T-meter” ratings on Rotten Tomatoes. BB gets the highest rating of any of the Bat-flicks, at 84%. By comparison, the 1989 movie rates at 72%. Even Batman Returns (a pretty awful film IMO) got a higher T-meter rating than the 1989 flick. A number of critics put BB in their Top 10 lists in 2005. How often does that happen for comic book films.

This is getting to be pretty silly argument, but the general consensus seems to be that BB is one of the better superhero/comic movies ever. It’s not scientific, no, but take a look at the comments for the first of the Iron Man reviews on the main page. See how many people took the reviewer to task for not mentioning BB.

BB’s a film that I think took a lot of people by surprise. I know a lot of people who didn’t see it until DVD, thinking it would be like those embarrassing Schumacher flicks. They saw it later on DVD, and now those people are all eagerly anticipating TDK this summer. BB did pretty damned well, but TDK will be the biggest film of the summer. Unlike the Burton/Schumacher series, this one’s only gonna get better.

Ejulp… Yes, Burton’s film was the big reason for the Batmania of 1989. No question. But, my point is that it was one of those rare events in film and pop culture. Sort of like Star Wars when it hit in 1977. Who expected that to hit like it did? Those things happen rarely, and not much anymore.

As I said earlier, there really wasn’t much out there to compete with Burton’s Batman. Indy Jones, but what else? Star Trek V? That flopped. “Batman” was a pretty unique film for its time. There weren’t a glut of comic book films then. Really, only the Superman movies. And those hadn’t been any good since the first one or two.

So anticipation was high for “Batman.” Comics were becoming a hot commodity (a prelude to the boom of the early 90’s), in large part due to Batman! The Dark Knight Returns brought many new readers to comics, and a lot of old readers (me, as a kid) back. Batman was a hot character, and the movie was the runaway hit of the year. Understandably so. That doesn’t mean the film’s aged well though.

Any film that has Alfred betraying Bruce’s secret does NOT understand the source material, and is most certainly not “the comics Batman. Case closed.

Oh, and that’s fine if you enjoyed Batman Returns. We have our tastes. But… Marching penguins? A half-man/half-animal Penguin? Selina Kyle as a wallflower who falls out a window and suddenly becomes Catwoman? Not for me, thanks. I normally love Walken, but he was completely pointless in that movie too.

Most of the comparisons aren’t even similar.