Tuesday 23 June 2009

Bone China Batman



Tim Burton's blockbusting Batman turns twenty today. I'm about to cue up a viewing. Reviewed elsewhere, so instead please find enclosed a pre-release trailer of uncommon pause. Hyperactive attention grabbing sits uneasy with Burton's nouveau stately staging doesn't it? The edit needed out on the first punchline, but stayed for the second. Of special note, when viewed out of context, are the first twenty or so seconds, in which it appears that Batman's Gothic justice stamp extends to wiping out frothing midnight parades. Bat-Mission: zipping around his rib like Castle in a toybox Bat-Fighter, unloading millions and millions of dollars worth of military explosives on a battered public whilst triumphant music blares. Now there's a movie! Did they really have to ruin the illusion by revealing Joker?

2 comments:

Gary said...

haha that's so true about leaving out the Joker, would've been funny as fuck.

Ah man I remember clear as day the first time I saw this trailer, I nearly died of excitement, hard to believe it's pretty shitty now.

Probably for nostalgia purposes alone but I still have way more of a soft spot for Burton's first two rather than Nolan. Ledger turning Joker into Scorpio though is the best thing done out of any of them.

Chris Ready said...

A twenty second teaser of Batman strafing crowds woulda been magic! I think the first time I ever saw this trailer was when it was attached to the Widescreen Batman VHS. It's a funny old thing isn't it? You'd expect it to be snappier.

My abiding memory of Batman first time round was everyone collecting the Topps movie cards, complete with shinys and scenes not in the film. There's room in the world for a million different Batman movies. I quite like the Adam West from the sixties. It's dry as a bone.