3. Batman - A Light-Hearted Romp With The 60's Camp Fight Scenes
Tim Burton's 1989 take on Batman is largely well regarded (though looked upon less favourably following the advent of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy) and helped wipe the memory of the Adam West campy take on the Caped Crusader. You could argue that without Burton's gothic take on the subject matter, Nolan's dark reboot would have never happened. It's easy to forget that at the time, the announcement that Tim Burton would direct and Michael Keaton would star was greeted with anger by bat-fans. At the time Burton was best known for Pee-Wee's Big Adventure while Keaton was known as a comedic actor from Night Shift and Mr. Mom. Fans might have been even more angry had the script not been altered from the first draft, written by Tom Mankiewicz several years previously. Mankiewicz's vision was in many ways not too dissimilar from the Sam Hamm and Warren Skaaren script that would eventually see daylight at the end of the decade. It still featured scenes depicting the death of Bruce Wayne's parents and Joker as the main villain, but also had Batman making public appearances and being on first name terms with Gotham's glitterati, which doesn't seem quite right with a brooding vigilante. It veered in tone quite a bit, struggling to shed the camp fight scenes of the 1960's TV show (including a fight with some jetpack wearing goons) and was over-stuffed with bad guys, with Joe Chill, corrupt politician Rupert Thorne and The Penguin all making appearances alongside Joker. The eventual script was much more streamlined and focused on the dark elements of Batman's story, resulting in the best big screen Batman movie. Well, until Nolan came along, anyway.
David is an office drone and freelance writer for WhatCulture and Moviepilot, among others. He's also foolishly writing a serialised novel on Jukepop and has his own irregularly updated website. He's available for freelance work. Reach out on Twitter to @davefox990
