Dark Knight Rises is due to come out this Friday the 20th of July 2012, this will be the last Nolan Batman and is expected to be the one to top them all, this is a big promise being that the last movie with the Joker was just simply jaw-dropping. There has been a long history of Batman films, mostly they aren't that good, and when in comparison with the Nolan films they all fall short, none can really stand up to the last two movies, the Friday release looks amazing and hopefully will follow suit, blowing all our minds again. There has been a long history to the Batman movie franchise though, and its about time we recap them all starting with the Burton films, those were the ones that really attempted a serious movie in my opinion.
Batman
Michael Keaton as Batman, Jack Nicholson as the Joker, and was directed by Tim Burton, that's about all one needs to say about the movie for you to understand where the movie is headed and what kind of quality to expect from it. It's not a great film but it isn't a bad film either, out of all the 4 Batman movies preceding the Nolan films, this one was certainly the best. Jack Nicholson here did a fantastic Joker, he was out-shined later on by Heath Ledger's performance for sure, but this was a more cheesy comic approach to the villain, it was a job well done. This is a movie you should check out if you ever have the time, it's not one you should pay more than five dollars for though, if you find this at a Wallmart then do yourself a favor and add it to your movie collection.
Batman Returns
Michael Keaton again returns in his amazing performance as Batman but a very poor Bruce Wayne, can't fault the guy there, he just doesn't have enough swagger to play the role. This movie is defined by its villains though, Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, Danny Devito as The Penguin, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, simply a great cast and a solid choice in villains. Though Penguin could have been played better as more of the mobster we see him being in the comics, this was still a great flick, definitely a great Tim Burton film and one of the better Batman films preceding Nolan. It was after this film that everything went south, what was said about the previous movie applies to this one as well, if you find this movie at a Wallmart be sure to pick it up for it is a great addition to your movie collection.
Batman Forever
You should know by the title itself that this movie is going to be horrible, when paired with the fact that Val Kilmer is playing Bruce Wayne, well, the movie just doesn't even stand a chance at doing well, there just wasn't any hope at making this good from the beginning. Jim Carrey as "The Riddler", Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, and Nicole Kidman as a random love affair for Batman attempt to make this movie a little better but fail at every turn. One would imagine that this movie could not get worse but then it does by adding Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson, or the first Robin, it was just a mess from beginning to end. Even if you have nothing better to do on a lazy Sunday afternoon I wouldn't recommend you watch this movie, in fact only watch it if you haven't been able to appreciate any of the Nolan films, watch this one and understand how much better Nolan's work is.
Batman & Robin
Kilmer only lasted one movie though, apparently after the previous movie came out the producers finally understood how horrible of an idea the whole thing was, so they brought George Clooney to take his place, one would imagine this would be a great idea but no, this was horrible, Clooney is a very good Bruce Wayne but it a horrible Batman, he has one voice "The Clooney" so that was pretty stupid but the movie really fails due to poor writing, horrible directing, bad casting, and just plain absurdity everywhere. I have no idea what Joel Schumacher was thinking as he directed this movie, it's as if he wanted to make a bad movie, it's just that bad, bat nipples included (George's Batman suit's got nipples O.o). To make matters worse we have Arnold as Mr. Freeze, Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy and Alicia Silverstone playing Batgirl, one would imagine Alicia and Uma would save the film somewhat but no dice, the movie falls as the worst Batman flick ever made. Save this one for a "bad movie night" if you have them.
So as we anticipate Nolan's epic conclusion on Friday let us brace ourselves for what looks like to be the best Batman film trilogy ever produced coming to a close. The movie is sure to be amazing, and of course we will have a review here for you as soon as we can on Friday so stay tuned.
Love from your humble blogger,
