DieselsDen

I always believed - inaccurately, perhaps - that Alfred let Vicki in so that she could help Bruce deal with his psyche. Several scenes prior, Alfred goes on and on about how good she is for him.

I think that her reaction to Bruce being Batman takes place off-camera and before the confrontation. Alfred tells Vicki everything, shows her the Batcave (where she's already been) and then meets up with Wayne. I didn't think that moment was her first realization that Bruce was the Bat.

I also enjoyed BATMAN tremendously when it first came out. I thought RETURNS was, as other people point out, utterly ridiculous and boring. Of course, nothing could prepare me for the sheer wretchedness of FOREVER and ROBIN.

DieselsDen

I would love Miller direct the next sequel: "THE GODDAMN BATMAN RETURNS" !

DieselsDen

Well, according to several sources, Nicholson was a fan and wanted Prince's music ("1999" and "Baby I'm A Star") in those particular scenes.

Better that we get Prince's music in the movie than some pop star that has come and gone. (Remember M.C. Hammer's song in THE ADDAMS FAMILY, or Vanilla Ice doing TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES?) Back in 1989, we could have gotten acts like Tone Loc and Fine Young Cannibals or Rick Astley contributing to the soundtrack.

james2025a

I enjoyed the movie the first time (mainly for Jack) but ever since then it has just gotten worse on each repeated viewing. The story is lame, the characters are terrible except the Joker. Wuhls character along with Basingers are just plain annoying. The special effects are pretty rubbish and it just looks very very dated. Batman Returns i think has held up better than the original. It felt more like a Tim Burton movie. The original Batman simply felt like an attempt at a studio big summer blockbuster.....without any real success. I think its a tad unfair to compare the new comic book movies with older ones like this, but i will say that i think that Christopher Nolan is without a doubt the best director to ever take on one of these movies. For me he has hit it out of the ball park with every movie and there are very few other directors whom i anticipate their movies as much. Bring on the Prisoner.

UAIOE

I didn't see "Batman Begins" until it showed up on HBO and I really didn't have any expectations for the movie. When it was over I remember thinking "This is how Batman should be done".

Mondo Kane

You'd want to see an origin over and over again?

Doc MacGyver

reubs82

One thing that I remember from the movie is the "scratching" of the CD in the "Batdiscman" at some point in the film. Looking back, that's absolutely ridiculous to think about, and I wonder why no one thought it was ridiculous then (BTW, sorry if this has already been mentioned...).

JTH182

You mean we could all still be getting Rick Rolled by watching Batman 89?

Bring it on!!

gmanca

I'm a fan of the 89 Batman/Returns and Begins but just in general, what is it about older films that don't hold up? I'm in my 20's, not having seen Superman when it was released in 78, but I say that considering the age, it's still a great movie even with the effects.

I watch older films knowing that they didn't have access to CG and appreciate the way they tried to make things as realistic as possible. And if a new re-boot isn't better than the original, than the person making it isn't worth crap... Bryan Singer...

Cartload

Yeah, I watched Batman a few years back and it definitely wasn't as great as my 8 year old self thought it was.

Batman Returns is a movie that I really enjoyed though. Keaton and Pfeiffer had this undeniable chemistry that made for the best romantic subplot out of any movie based on a comic book. I loved the way they had them realize they were costumed enemies. The movie completely fails as a comic book adaptation. I think of it as a Tim Burton movie that just happens to have characters with the same names as those from a Batman comic.

kefrank

there are tons of CD players for "scratching" so the concept is not all that ridiculous, but the way it was portrayed in the movie was certainly a bit fantastical.

dhmac

I would like one thing explained about the movie:

What the hell was the Joker's grand plan? It all seemed like a bunch of random unrelated stuff, so what the hell was he trying to do in the movie?

Boba Fett

I thought it was quite clear: he was fucking crazy and wanted to kill everyone.

Dimension X

I rewatched Batman, Batman Returns, and Batman Forever over the past couple of nights.

Batman was never a perfect film (for many of the reasons already covered in this thread), but when I saw it first in '89 I felt the positives outweighed the negatives. After rewatching it, I still enjoyed it. So to me it holds up.

I didn't like Batman Returns much when I first saw it in '92, and I feel the same way now. I like the Batman scenes and the Catwoman scenes, but pretty much everything else is just not very entertaining. It didn't help that the Penguin running for Mayor subplot was lifted from the old TV show (and didn't even have a Paul Revere and the Raiders cameo).

Surprisingly, I think I enjoyed Batman Forever more this time than I did when I first saw it. But that's probably because whatever hatred I originally had for it has been transferred to Batman & Robin. It has it's moments, but I won't be rewatching it again any time soon.

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to subject myself to Batman & Robin again.

You may be thinking of the animated TV show. While the cast did wear forties style clothes in Batman, they used newer cars in the first two films, then used old cars in Batman Forever.
That was in Batman Returns. And people did think it was ridiculous in '92. We just didn't have the internet to tell lots of other people how we felt about every little detail in every movie we watched.
This is the way I try to look at all comic book movies. Sort of "Elseworlds" or "What If?" stories. It makes it a lot easier to enjoy the films as films when they inevitably stray from the source material.
This is the way I saw it too.