tim burton | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Batman

Posted on November 28, 2009 by Darren

I have to admit, I have a soft spot for Tim Burton and Michael Keaton’s Batman. I mean, I hate what the series became with Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, but I think that Burton managed to craft a unique and yet suitable visual and design aesthetic for the character and his world, while Keaton managed to embody a tragic Batman who really seems quite distinct from most iterations either before or since. While I wouldn’t argue this take on Batman should be “definitive”, or that it fits as comfortably as Nolan’s Batman Begins or even Batman: The Animated Series, I do think it’s a valid and intriguing exploration of one of pop culture’s most enduring and evolving characters.

Full moon…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: batman, batman 1989, batman 89, Christopher Nolan, danny elfman, green goblin, jack nicholson, joker, michael keaton, Movie, non-review review, review, tim burton | 3 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Batman Returns

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Darren

I adore Batman Returns. It tends to be a rather polarising film, and certainly a polarising Batman adaptation. It was famously too dark and too weird for mainstream audiences, with too much creepy and freaky stuff serving to distress the parents of children who gobbled up Batman-themed Happy Meals. I think it holds up the best of the four Burton and Schumacher Batman films, because it finds a way to balance Burton’s unique approach and style with that of the Caped Crusader. While Burton’s Batman occasionally struggled to balance the director’s vision with a relatively conventional plot (to the point where Vicki Vale stuck out like a sore thumb, and the movie wasn’t the most coherently plotted of films), here there’s a much greater sense of balance at play, and a feeling that Burton isn’t compromising, and yet is working with the characters.

Shine a light…

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: batman, batman returns, Bruce, bruce wayne, burton, catwoman, christmas, christopher walken, danny devito, michael keaton, michelle pfeiffer, non-review review, Penguin, review, the penguin, tim burton | 3 Comments »

It’s a funny world – Comic Con ’09 in retrospect…

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Darren

It seems to have been a fairly average year at Comic Con – no big surprises (pleasant or otherwise), just solid confirmation of what us movie watchers had suspected all along. Contrary to what some suggested, apparently the Twilight fangirls didn’t ruin the experience for everyone. In fact, there were a whole host of fascinating insights on a whole slate of geek-interest projects. I don’t think anyone seems to have left particularly disappointed.

Fun with glow sticks...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 2012, 3d, alice in wonderland, avatar, comic con, comiic con 09, disney, doctor who, fangirls, hot tub time machine, iron man 2, james cameron, johnny depp, sdcc, the hobbit, tim burton, titanic, tr0n, tr0n: legacy, tron, tron: legacy, twilight, twilight: new moon, twitter, zombieland | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Sweeney Todd

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Darren

Ah, the musical. The genre of choice for middleaged women everywhere. One of those glamourous shallow callbacks to the golden era of Hollywood. I was intrigued when Tim Burton announced his next project was a musical – an adaptation of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. I was familiar with the myth of the man, but not the musical. I ended up being served a treat almost as fiendishly decadent as Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies: a little flaky and suspicious in places, and a lot more filling than it should be. Magical, macabre, magnificent. It’s isn’t classic Burton, but it’s certainly vintage.

Get ready for a close shave...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: films, helena honham carter, johnny depp, Movies, musical, musicals, non-review review, reviews, sacha baron cohen, stephen sondheim, sweeney todd, tim burton, victorian london | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Batman Begins

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Darren

Batman Begins has been somewhat overshadowed by the success of The Dark Knight, but Christopher Nolan’s original reimagining of the Batman mythos is a compelling and clever examination of one of pop culture’s most enduring icons. I think there’s a case to be made that Batman Begins represents the best superhero origin story ever told in film – and quite possibly the definitive introduction to Batman and his world. The key isn’t collecting bits of trivia to explain the finer details, although the script from the Nolan brothers and David Goyer certainly does that. Instead, Nolan dares to examine the psychology of Batman. Richard Donner’s Superman famously boasted that you’d believe a man could fly. Nolan makes you believe that a man would dress up as a giant bat to fight crime.