BATMAN: THE MOVIE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Although today's generation may believe that it was Tim Burton who popularized the Batman comic book series by making a live action version of it, its first appearance on the little and big screens was over twenty years earlier. Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin made a televison series called "Batman," which became a hit for its campy fun and its trademark "Pow" and "Ouch" screen overlays. (Twenty years earlier still was a movie theater serial, which I recently reviewed, but it was a low budget, obscure production that spawned no action figures and left little lasting memory. Although it's a favorite of mine, few people will ever take the time to find and rent such an obscure tape.)
In 1966, during the brief flash of the TV series's popularity, they made a full length theatrical release which they marketed as BATMAN: THE MOVIE, although the title on the film is simply BATMAN. The idea for the movie was to use the series's four most popular villains -- The Catwoman (Lee Meriwether), The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith), and The Riddler (Frank Gorshin) -- to form a megacalamity for the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder. The later movies abandoned the Boy Wonder title for Robin, perhaps because it wasn't macho enough, calling attention as it does to Robin's relative immaturity.
"Holy nightmare!" Robin says when Batman explains that the four miscreants have formed a United Underworld to take over the planet. The Riddler is "loose to plague us with his criminal conundrums," Batman goes on to explain.
All of Batman's gadgets are Batsomething or other. The Batcopter has a big non-functional batwing and a Batladder. The latter is created by appending a sign saying "Batladder" upon which the camera lingers lest we miss the joke. Unlike the multi-million dollar special effects of the later movies, this one uses cardboard extensively in its construction. (At least the Batmobile wasn't a standard convertible as in the 1949 series.) Perhaps the funniest vehicle is Penguin's submarine which is powered by two gigantic penguin flippers.
The gaudy sets, the silly dialog, and the ridiculous plots were the hallmarks of the "Batman" series. Partly because this style of humor has not aged well and partly because the movie is an overly lame adaptation of the series, the picture lacks much punch.
Adam West was never much of an actor, and his limitations are all too apparent in the movie. His flat enunciation of words have random pauses between them as if no sentence owned them. In fact the whole movie feels like a 30 minute episode in which director Leslie H. Martinson told the actors to speak slowly so that they could try to shoot enough film stock to make it into a feature length movie.
The film includes a long and languid romance between Batman's alter ego Bruce Wayne and Catwoman's Miss Kitka. Adam West looks awkward in these scenes, and this whole subplot looks out of place as if it were pasted in by mistake from some other movie.
As part of a group of college students who used to gather in the dorm to watch the television series, I was surprised at how the movie version was so slow paced and how it relegated the "Pow" and "Ouch" epigrams to a single scene at the end. Although terminally silly, the series was full of energy. Even though it plods along, the movie adaptation does have its fun little diversions. "It looks bad, Batman," worries Robin. "This brassy bird has us buffaloed." Any show that can get an actor to say that with a straight face has accomplished something.
BATMAN: THE MOVIE runs 1:44. It is rated PG for comic book fights. The show would be fine for all ages. My son Jeffrey, age 8, and his friend Maxim, age 9, both thought the film was "pretty good." Jeffrey did not like the camp and thought the show needed to be at least kind of serious. I can't recommend the film although it does have its moments. I give it * 1/2. If you want a good, nostalgic version of Batman, rent the 1949 serial instead.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: August 8, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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