|
Rating: ***½
Genre: Action Animation/Drama MPAA: PG for violence and implied sexuality Review #: 1 Cast: Directed by ....Eric Radomski and Bruce W. Timm Writing credits...Alan Burnett and Paul Dini Bruce Wayne/Batman...Kevin Conroy Andrea Beaumont...Dana Delany D.A. Arthur Reeves...Hart Bochner Carl Beaumont/The Phantasm...Stacy Keach Salvatore Valestra...Abe Vigoda Chuckie Sol...Dick Miller (I) Buzz Bronski...John P. Ryan Alfred Pennyworth...Efrem Zimbalist Jr. The Joker...Mark Hamill Detective Harvey Bullock...Robert Costanzo Commissioner James Gordon...Bob Hastings |
|
|
Review:
Batman is one of the America's most enduring super heroes. He's had many incarnations over the years, starting with the comic book, continuing through the campy 60's TV series, and then to the dark movie of 1989. In my opinion, the hands-down, absolute best portayal of the Dark Knight is the Animated Series from 1992, which this movie is based on. It uses the same voices, animation style, and characters as the series, but the writers can get away with much more on the big screen, and they use it. When a mysterious new vigilante called the 'Phantasm' arrives on the scene and starts killing gansters, the authorities and the media jump to the conclusion that Batman has finally lost it. The police, despite much protesting by Commisioner Gordon, launch a full scale war on Batman, which leads to some action sequences that are much more exciting than anything I've seen on film recently. |
|
|
There is much more to the film than this, as Bruc Wayne's old flame,
Andrea Beaumont returns to Gotham City after a decade away. The movie goes
into a long series of flashbacks to when Bruce Wayne was just realizing
his goal to fight crime, and struggling to find a costume to strike fear
in the hearts of crimals. He is torn between keeping his promise to avenge
his parent's deaths and to find happiness with Andrea. She "doesn't fit
into 'The Plan'".
Eventually, Bruce decides on the costume that we all know and love, but he is still not sure of which path he should choose: The path of the Batman or the Family man. The decision is made for him, as Andrea's Father is forced to leave the country, and Andrea goes with him. The heartbroken young Bruce dons his mask, and enters the shadowy world of the Batman. In the modern day, Andrea returns, they find that they still have feelings for each other. Their love is doomed, however, and Batman has to figure out why the mobsters who are being systematically eliminated are Mr. Beaumont's old buisiness partners, and if it has something to do with that night when he and Andrea had to suddenly flee the country. And, how is Batman's old nemesis, the Joker, mixed up in all of this? |
| All of the elements of this complex plot come to an almost surreal conclusion, with a very exciting battle against the Joker and the Phantasm in an abandoned Amusement Park (where else would the Joker hide out?). Now a note about the ratings. When Batman was on TV, there were lots of things that the censors wouldn't let them get away with, but it's not on TV anymore! The biggest difference is in the behavior of the Joker. He shines in this movie, as a truely sinister figure who brutally attacks and kills his enemies. The sequence where the Police have Batman trapped in a construction site is made even more tense by the fact that Batman is wounded and actually bleeds. Roger Ebert is always complaining that the Batman movie don't show Batman as a real person, and seem to always focus on the bad guys for plot. Coincidently, Ebert did not review this movie. Do with that information what you will. |
|
| Back to the Movie section! |
