Fat Man on Batman

[johnnygobbs]

For anyone who's interested, Kevin Smith has done a scene-by-scene commentary on the 1989 Batman film (well half a commentary - the second half is out next week):

http://smodcast.com/episodes/batfleck-begins-and-burtons-batman/

There's a lengthy prelude by Smith regarding his buddy Ben Affleck being cast as Batman and then he gets into discussing his relationship with the 1989 Batman movie.  In view of his mixed relationship with Burton with respect to the aborted late-90s Superman project and previous pronouncements like 'It shows [that Burton doesn't read comic-books]' Smith is surprisingly pretty positive about the film, at least in terms of the impact its had, not least on his own passion for comic-book movies and even his own directorial career (apparently his signature character 'Silent Bob' was even partly named after The Joker's sidekick which is kind of cool). 

Clearly his passion for the film has dampened over the years (like many fans he was pretty crazy about the film on its initial release) but by and large he still has many positive things to say about the film and he doesn't appear to be one of those fans who thinks Nolan's version was 100% perfect either.

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

I found it slightly cheeky Smith appeared on the Batman dvd extras commenting about the films but didn't exactly rip them apart as he seems to do more in fan circles given his dodgy history with Tim Burton. He seemed to have tied his hands behind his back when being interviewed for them.

I like Kevin Smith but then again who made him the ultimate authority on all things Batman exactly? I think he has a tendency to talk too much. I'm fully supporting Ben Affleck's casting but it didn't surprise me one iota when Smith blabbed about him from the rooftops. Any other guy he would have slated as much as the Affleck haters. Course he did the exact same thing ten years ago on his casting as Daredevil. I find that incredibly false.

I don't think it's fair to say Burton was a terrible choice because he didn't read comics either. Neither did Chris Nolan. I'm sure Joel Schumacher didn't either. Then what about Richard Donner? Bryan Singer? Even Ang Lee? They all admired the characters they made but I'm a strong believer you don't always need to be a fan to make these things. To me that very much limits the creative palette. If you have a director who perhaps didn't read the books but has a strong visual flair and a passion to do the character justice on screen, why the heck not use him?

[johnnygobbs]

I entirely agree Cobblepot4Mayor, but if you listen to the podcast you'll find that Smith is nowhere near the hater of the Burton films some of his other public criticisms might have led one to believe.  Clearly he's no fan of Jon Peters which makes sense in view of their contentious relationship during the pre-production on the late-90s 'Superman' reboot (I wonder if Burton would have gone along with the polar bear fight, the giant spider and the ultra-camp Braniac Peters was trying to get Smith to shoehorn into the screenplay) but he does generally say good things about Burton and it's clear that whatever his misgivings about the film he does praise the film as the moment comic-book movies and indeed comic-book fandom became 'legitimate' which is more than many detractors are willing to do.  Many of the Burton-haters conveniently forget that there was a nine year gap between 'Superman II' (the last genuinely decent comic-book movie) and 'Batman', and that by 1988/89 the genre, if it could yet be called that, was pretty discredited after a run of mid-80s flops and failures including the last two 'Superman' sequels, 'Supergirl' and 'Howard the Duck'.

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

Your quite right. Smith said some great nice things. Hopefully it's encouraged some naysayers to go back and re-evaluate the past.

I still didn't like his attitude toward Burton however. I'm well aware of his disagreements with him. For instance Smith seemed less than enthused about The Joker's goons dressing as mime clowns. I think he said something like you can sense the prescence of Burton in this scene's imagery. Almost like he commited a crime against Batman in doing so. That's utter nonsense to me. Chris Nolan brought his own style to Batman so why shouldn't Burton? And frankly that's why we love Burton's movies anyway because that style worked so well in Batman's world.

Had Nolan directed this scene the goons would no doubt still be as clowns, albeit just with masks. Armed with guns and just storm in shooting. But Burton's goons spookily gliding toward City Hall is great imagery before all the carnage breaks out anyway. It's so much more interesting and entertaining. What's to complain about?