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"...as much as I enjoyed the Joker stuff , there was too much time between Batman appearances."

Burton wanted the Batman to be mysterious. I'd rather have that than to be spoon-fed on what Batman is doing. An example would be from the scene in BATMAN when he crashes through the glass in the museum. He just came out of nowhere w/ that. That's what makes it phenomenal.

Mysterious I have no problem with, but in a movie called 'Batman' I expected to see more of Batman.  The museum sequence is great, all the way to the end when he does whatever he does under that cape to Vicki, we had a good dose of Batman there. In fact, the run to the Batcave is one of my fav scenes out of any movie, my fav Batmobile scene, and I love the Tumbler stuff in Nolans.
It's just that we get so much Joker and so much Bruce/Vicki there's a derth of Batman between Axis chemicals and the museum scene, after all BM's 1st scene was only a minute or two long. Hey, I'd been waiting all my life for a serious Batman movie, I didn't want to wait any longer seeing him in action during the movie.
I realise Burton would have been holding him back for full effect, but one more scene with him during that gap would've been more to my liking.

Nowadays the Penguin kind of grates on me, bit too disgusting and evil, thereby making him a little one note, like was said earlier by raleagh.

I don't think of the character as one note. I feel that Burton and co were making a sympathic character but they did forsake a little of that - due to Tim's sense of humour and to make him seem more evil.

Oh ok, sorry, I was just referring to you saying he was 'pure evil, and not a lot of people are like that'(or words to that effect).
They did start off making him sympathetic but any and all sympathy was lost on me as you got to see more of the character.

I'm positive old Bob said Kilmer was his fav.
Yeah I know there are plenty of people who like Keaton the best, and I do think some of his scenes are of the best Batman, his 1st scene as Batman is still one of my favs of all time, from any movie, and I watch it all the time, never get tired of it. But, Kilmer has his moments too, mostly with Dick/Robin, the sequence in the Bat-cave after Robin saves him especially.
Bale is my fav ultimately though, he has all the requirements i need from an actor portraying Bruce/Batman, scary, funny, mysterious and has a build not disimilar to BM in the comics. I think Keaton's "I'm Batman" was better than his though.

You liked Kilmer more than Keaton (sorry, I just don't hear or read that too often)? Would you like to elaborate on that? I'm willing to listen. BTW, we never do see what Batman do to Freeze under that cape. Reminds me of the part where Batman lifts his cape over Vicki Vale, leading to her waking up from her slumber in the next scene.

That's cool. I was already a Kilmer fan after seeing him in Doors movie, maybe that played a part in it. I liked his voice and demeanor and thought he played the mentor role very well. I think Keaton had a great Batman voice, better than Kilmers, but to an extent I thought his Batman could be a little too weird sometimes, I thought the character of BM as portrayed by Kilmer was more like the character from the comics, more straight up heroic.
I know Burton and Keaton were going for the 'is he psychotic?' angle on Batman, but that didn't always sit right with me. They had him doing weird little smiles that I liked (to Napier in Axis Chemicals), but I don't know, maybe having him outright killing people combined with this aspect put me off that portrayal a little.
Also, I thought Kilmer looked more like Batman/Bruce Wayne, although Keaton had the voice, he was a little small for my tastes, sorry to say. But it didn't bother me that much. I think I prefer Kilmer as an actor generally though.
Bob Kane said he preffered Kilmer btw.

I have to say right off that I prefer BF to BR, maybe even to Batman89, some of Batman drags for me sorry to say, and I prefer Kilmer to Keaton.
I was on cloud 9 when i exited the theatre after seeing Batman Returns, finally seeing Batman up on the rooftops fighting another supervillan, I thought Catwoamn was done perfect, still do.
Nowadays the Penguin kind of grates on me, bit too disgusting and evil, thereby making him a little one note, like was said earlier by raleagh. I do appreciate DeVito's performance though, I always forget it's him under there.
I do still like a lot of it though and always watch it when it's on tv. There is a major gap of non-Batman appearance though, apart from the little drive by the libarary there's about 50mins between his 1st appearance and his 2nd. That's another problem I had with Batman89, as much as I enjoyed the Joker stuff , there was too much time between Batman appearances. I think that's why I got a bigger kick out of BF, lots of BM and Robin's origin was well done.
Chris Walken was good in BR but part of me wishes he'd been used as a top tier classic Bat-villan at some point in the series. He would've made a good Ras al ghul, Scarecrow, Mad hatter, MrFreeze, any number of villans.

Batman Forever:

I liked Kilmer as Bruce and Batman, prefered him over Keaton tbh.
Love the opening sequence, like a James bond movie, dropped right into the action stemming from a previous adventure.
Robin's origin onscreen.
Dick Grayson fighting the thugs and Batman scaring them all away by his mere presence.
Robin rescuing Batman from the rubble which was very like Tim Drakes 1st meeting with Batman. Batman coming out of teh flames just before that too.
Carrey's Riddler was pretty entertaining I thought espcially the scene where he first meets Two-Face.
The diving Save of chase and Robin at the end, very well done, good sfx.

Batman and Robin:

I like seeing the Batmobile and Redbird blasting out of the batcave and going along the tunnel, could've been a little longer though.
The skydive is very enjoyable to me, i like seeing Robin crawling up the side of rocket and the moment when Batman swoops down on Freeze.
The car chase over the man-arm bridge, probably my fav scene from this movie by far, love BM and Robin's mid chase argument, sfx are good too. Crap way of ending though with Batman smashing into the window then standing over Freeze(looks like stand ins too.)

[Melvin]

The only possible influence I can think of for TDK is a name.  In the movie, Bruce and Alfred track the fingerprint on the bullet to a man named Melvin White.
Two of the thugs names in The Joker's Five-Way Revenge are Bigger Melvin and Packy White.

Have to say, very impressed with this observation.

Hi, first post, big bat-fan, had to check out this site after it was linked to at superherohype.

My fav era of teh comics would have to be the 70's and early 80's, basically the ones I grew up reading, Denny O Neil, Steve Engelheart/Rodgers, Irv Norvick , Gerry conway, Gene Colan, Dough Moench, Jim Aparo, Bob Haney, Mike W Barr(for Batman and the outsiders).

I sort of drifted off comics for a couple of years after about 86 but came back in with the advent of the Burton movie and Robin's death. The comics were very good in the period after Robin's death, Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, as has been mentioned, were top class, brilliant stuff that should really be collected in book form. The Aparo stuff with Jim starlin, John Byrne, Marv wolfman etc in Batman was great for me as I knew these guys from my early years reading.
I drifted off comics again in '94 after they did Knightfall, got back in when Batman Begins came out. I think the first BM comic i bought was 'All star' which I enjoy a great deal , good to see some other folk do too. I strated buying Batman again when Grant Morrison came on board and have been hooked all over again, don't think I'll be drifting off to spend my money on computer games(in the 80s) or records(90's) again.

Ok, just off to have a nosey around the forum, cheers.