Batman: Every Screen Batmobile Ranked From Best To Worst

3. The Burtonmobile - Batman & Batman Returns

The reason the Schumacher Batman films get so much stick is...well, because they're mostly awful and they deserve it. But it's also because they were supposed to be the continuation of the Batman films Tim Burton made in the late eighties/early nineties, the first superhero movies of the modern era which pretty much set the template for every comic-to-film adaptation that's followed since. That's despite them being some pretty odd flicks in places: Michael Keaton isn't your traditionally dapper, suave Bruce Wayne (and he's so SHORT), the "no killing" rule goes out of the window at the end of the first film, and there are penguins wielding rocket launchers. Oh and Prince wrote a whole soundtrack for Batman that barely even got used in the film. Because Danny Elfman deserves that steady pay cheque, dang it. Much like many of Burton's later career, the focus on the Batman films isn't on the script or anything boring like that, but what everything looks like. As such, Gotham City takes on the sort of classically gothic look he's now shoehorning into everything from Dark Shadows to Alice In Wonderland, albeit with a noir twist. Which is presumably the approach taken to designing the Keaton-era Batmobile, unfortunately. It just doesn't work. It doesn't even look like a car. It looks like a hairdryer with some wheels bolted to the side of it. We know a lot of people love the Tim Burton Batmobile, but they are wrong. They are blinded by nostalgia. Take off those rose tinted specs and see this monstrosity for bootleg Hot Wheels toy with a dummy stuck the front it really is!
In this post: 
Batman
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/