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Census Rate Batman films 1-8

Discussion in 'Community' started by Jarren_Lee-Saber, Sep 11, 2013.

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What is your favorite Batman film?

  1. Batman (1989)

    7 vote(s)
    7.6%
  2. Batman Returns (1992)

    6 vote(s)
    6.5%
  3. Batman Forever (1995)

    1 vote(s)
    1.1%
  4. Batman & Robin (1997)

    1 vote(s)
    1.1%
  5. Batman Begins (2005)

    11 vote(s)
    12.0%
  6. The Dark Knight (2008)

    50 vote(s)
    54.3%
  7. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

    8 vote(s)
    8.7%
  8. Batman (1966)

    8 vote(s)
    8.7%
  1. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    I love Batman Returns. I think it's better than the original Burton film. DeVito is a force of nature as the Penguin and Elfman's score is even better. And Christopher Walken, you guys! Christopher Walken!
     
  2. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2009
    Easily the best part of Batman '89. I didn't mind Keaton as Bats, or the rest of the cast (Lando playing 'Harvey Dent' was a weird choice, no idea what was up with that), but it was Jack's movie. He had almost everything perfect, he was menacing, scary and funny at the same time. It's nitpicking, but he didn't have that jittery edge the Joker should have. He could blow someone's head off at a whim, but I couldn't see Nicholson's Joker repeatedly stabbing someone to death in the eye with a pencil, cackling away while blood spurts into his face. Or beating Jason Todd to death with a crowbar with a wide grin throughout, for that matter. That's the Joker.

    Still wish we could get to see someone cast as the Joker who fits the role 100% - nervy, skinny, genuinely crazy. Crispin Glover could have been perfect at one time, but he's a bit too old now (much as Clint Eastwood - Frank Miller's inspiration - is well past the age he could play the Batman in a live action version of TDKR). Adrien Brody?
     
  3. drg4

    drg4 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2005
    Perhaps my aversion to Batman stories as brutal as your description accounts for the love I have for Nicholson's Joker. This is a comic book character we're talking about; as such, I'm mystified by modern writers keen to churn out second-rate Clive Barker stories. Burton's first film, and the '92 animated series, hits my tonal preference square on the head.

    Besides, I remember being seven years old and scared out of my wits seeing Nicholson fry the mob boss with the joybuzzer, or the innocent victims of the Smilex. It was the sort of fear that's ultimately benevolent, stemming from witnessing grotesquerie rather than slasher-brutality.
     
  4. Darth_Invidious

    Darth_Invidious Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 21, 1999
    So you're saying you want a kinder, gentler Joker? :p

    Seriously though, I get what you're saying. As of late the Joker has degenerated into a monstrous slasher/torture-porn freak that has gone so far as to rip his own goddamned face off. Nicholson's, Ledger's and even the Timmverse Jokers seem tame compared to the version currently in print. It's...a little too disturbing to say the least, though you could argue such degeneration might be typical of chronic mental cases like the Joker.
     
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  5. Darth_Nub

    Darth_Nub Manager Emeritus star 5 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Apr 26, 2009
    ^^^
    I did like the Joker's dismissive attitude towards his sidekick in Last Laugh as being "a ranting, racist moron", which would suggest that the Joker has some principles (I read somewhere that there's another comic in which he takes the same attitude towards the Ku Klux Klan). He'll kill anyone - but he's not prejudiced about who he kills.

    And yeah, you wouldn't want Mister J being 'modernised' to the "it puts the lotion on its skin" level of psycho. He's the Joker - not a Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer or even an Ariel Castro. A mass murderer, not a serial killer.
     
  6. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    Following A Death in the Family the Joker got diplomatic immunity by becoming an ambassador for the Ayatollah Khomeini. Just think about that one.

    And the difference between mass murderer and serial killer...what difference is there? Are you implying he's not some kind of psycho? He totally is!
     
  7. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    Yeah, when he cut his own face off, I thought, "Okay, they are trying way too hard. This is going to be awful, I think, and not in a good way."
     
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  8. A Chorus of Disapproval

    A Chorus of Disapproval Head Admin & TV Screaming Service star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Aug 19, 2003
    But, the best part of that recent arc is that it was nothing but a mind game. He did nothing. And it drove Bats' mad. Aside from the police officers who were shot, the major character that the Joker injured the most was himself simply to prank on Batman.
     
  9. drg4

    drg4 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2005
    Wouldn't the Joker welcome the presence of the Ku Klux Klan? Or would he take umbrage with the idea that other masked men are splintering society and fomenting chaos?

    Anyway, it's only due to the excessive morbidity of the modern comics that the Nicholson Joker is considered campy. Objectively speaking, he was a nasty number.

    --Murdered Wayne's parents with relish and taunted the boy
    --Slaughtered the mob bosses via electrocution and quilt to the throat
    --Gassed dozens of citizens with Smilex, including one guy who's tied to a chair
    --Scarred Alicia with acid and treated her suicide as a punchline
    --Nearly scarred Vicky Vale
    --Murdered his own henchmen
    --Nearly killed half the city

    Sure, he never bludgeoned a boy to death with a crowbar, but this sure ain't Caesar Romero.
     
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  10. Adam of Nuchtern

    Adam of Nuchtern Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Sep 2, 2012
    Also:


    [​IMG]
     
    Souderwan and Rogue1-and-a-half like this.
  11. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    It has been suggested before that he puts on being insane so as to avoid the Death Penalty and stay in an asylum. He is often far too cunning and organised to fit the description of having lost his mind, he is well aware of what he is doing and can seemingly stop at any time but chooses not to. Murderous people classified as insane often have no control over their actions, they are compelled to kill by voices or other such things.

    Joker though does fit the traits of both a psychopath & a sociopath, so he's pretty unique in terms of being officially classified in RL terms.
     
  12. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    It was fun to watch reactions to that arc as it progressed. At the beginning the complaints were generally "This is 3edgy5me, not muh Joker, needs more jokes and less Saw." Then at the end the complaints were all "What? It was just a joke? Insufficiently edgy, needs more Saw!"


    Only outside of the comics world. In-universe he's so insane that not even the Spectre was permitted to render judgement upon him, and when he
    did briefly reach full awareness of the scope of what he had done, he went catatonic.
     
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  13. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Wait, the Joker ripped off his face?
     
  14. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    No, he had the Dollmaker cut his face off for him, which is of course completely different. :p

    Edit: Also, there's a scene near the end of Death of the Family which strongly insinuates it's just a ruse.
     
    Ender Sai likes this.
  15. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
  16. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    What....the....frack?
     
  17. SithLordDarthRichie

    SithLordDarthRichie CR Emeritus: London star 9

    Registered:
    Oct 3, 2003
    I think it's an improvement, it makes him look pretty scary as well as bat-**** crazy
     
  18. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    [​IMG]
     
  19. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Guess it's better than Superman walking around the whole entire issue.
     
  20. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Superman once walked around for six consecutive issues.
     
  21. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Really? Who would read that? I mean seriously, who the hell would read that?
     
  22. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005

    I fixed it for you.
     
  23. Volderon

    Volderon Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 23, 2007
    I think the problem with DOTF was nothing major happened (being that it was heralded as a MAJOR EVENT) and then we head over to Batman Incorporated the next week or so and BAM in just normal, regular sized non event issue we get a major death. So people felt kind of cheated.

    That and the premise for the family leaving Bruce was flimsy.
     
  24. Penguinator

    Penguinator Former Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    May 23, 2005
    I'd blame that on editorial not thinking ahead, to be honest.
     
  25. drg4

    drg4 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jul 30, 2005

    Remember the days when you didn't have to screen a superhero comic before a kid read it?

    Coming next month...Superman #897. The rape of Lois Lane! The Man of Steel swears vengeance!!