'batman'

I recently bought the original Tim Burton "Batman" movie with Michael Keaton, and was disappointed by some of the breaks from the established Batman character. Two things leapt out at me, though I'm sure there were others I could point out if I spent the time thinking of them.

One of the biggies, of course, is the degree of violence Batman used in the movie. He's been borderline even since Frank Miller reinvented him in "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Batman Year One," but to my knowledge, Batman has never willingly killed anyone. In the movie, he throws a few people to their deaths, offs the Joker and even fires machine guns from his plane at the Joker and his gang. What was it Superman once said? "When you strip away everything else, Batman doesn't want to see anyone else get killed."

And of course there's the whole Vicki Vale thing. The only time I thought that relationship worked right was in the Batcave when Alfred actually has let her in on the secret. Bruce Wayne's reaction here is classic Batman as he ignores her and focuses on stopping the Joker, essentially "I don't have time to deal with you right now."

Other than that, I thought THAT movie followed the comic fairly well. No wisecracking, some good fight scenes, good use of Batman's personal combat skills (though that could have been played up more), indications of Bruce Wayne's knowledge of chemistry, and of course some hints of the deeper and darker undertones of guilt that have led to Bruce Wayne's need to become the Dark Knight.

I never saw the Clooney or Kilmer Batman movies, since it was pretty obvious that the movies were on their way down. After all, Joel Schumacher said he wanted to get back into the spirit of the TV show, and we all know how awful THAT was. Adam West never played Batman. I have no idea what that was, but it wasn't Batman.