Quick DVD review – ‘Batman: The Movie’

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

Today, it’s time for my quick review of ‘Batman: The Movie’!

(Moment of silence)

No, it’s not! It’s time for you to suffer the image of the movie you hate – ‘Batman & Robin’!

Bye!

(cheeky laugh) Ha, ha, ha, ha! April Fool in July! 😀

But yeah, here’s a little review on what I made of the ‘Batman’ movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin from the 1960s TV show. I really enjoyed the ‘Batman’ movie and it is astonishing to think this was made at the same time Adam West and Burt Ward made that TV show.

I purchased the special edition DVD of ‘Batman: The Movie’ whilst shopping in Cardiff. I was already enjoying watching the ‘Batman’ TV series at the time I purchased this movie in June. I was looking forward to seeing the ‘Batman’ movie with Adam West and Burt Ward after watching the TV series.

‘Batman: The Movie’ is very entertaining, although it did feel like a feature-length episode of the TV show. This is because they made the movie after doing Season 1 of the TV show. Yes, this movie was released after Season 1 of the TV show was shown in America and before Season 2 was transmitted.

But there is a good reason why ‘Batman: The Movie’ was made. According to Adam West in the behind-the-scenes featurette on the DVD, the movie was made so that they can sell the TV show abroad. This makes sense, as UK audiences would see the movie first before watching the TV series.

The movie has the same atmosphere as the TV show. It’s funny; daft and campy, but still keeps the action-packed spirit and charm that the TV show had. I was pleased to see Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin in another live-action adventure after I finished seeing the TV series on DVD.

So who are the villains of the movie? Well there are four of them! There’s Lee Meriwether as Catwoman; Cesar Romero as the Joker; Burgess Meredith as the Penguin and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler. It was superb to see these four villains work together for Batman and Robin to fight against!

With the exception of Lee Meriwether, all the Batman villains in the movie were in the TV show. Lee Meriwether plays Catwoman only for this movie. Julie Newmar wasn’t available to play Catwoman at the time. Lee Meriwether also guest starred in the ‘Star Trek’ episode called ‘That Which Survives’.

It was fun to see the seeming romance between Bruce Wayne and Catwoman during the movie when she was in disguise. Although why Bruce didn’t realise it was Catwoman through her ‘purrs’ is a mystery to me. His realisation that ‘Kitka’ was Catwoman all the time was funny and ridiculous here.

The movie also features Alan Napier as Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s butler and Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon who also appeared in the TV show. There’s also Stafford Repp as Chief O’Hara and Madge Blake as Aunt Harriet. Unfortunately, these four guest stars don’t have a major role to do.

My favourite moment in the ‘Batman’ movie was when Batman was lugging a bomb with him and he was trying to get it rid of it at a pier. But there were so many people in the way and Batman runs off with the bomb to get everyone out of harm’s life. Batman’s line, “Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb”, had me in hysterics. In fact, I was laughing out loud so much during that hilarious sequence.

As well as the Batmobile, the Batcopter; the Batcycle and the Batboat were used a lot during the movie compared to the TV show. This was because Penguin had his own submarine shaped like a penguin (figures!) and Batman and Robin were trying to locate their four enemies when out on sea.

The movie’s end was rather disappointing for me. After saving the day, Batman and Robin climb down a building with their ropes; the end credits roll up with the cast list and that’s it. I was expecting the ‘Batman’ TV theme music to play at the end. It’s only played on the DVD’s main menu.

So ‘Batman: The Movie’ has been an enjoyable film to watch on DVD. It’s funny, daft, campiness, but it’s charming funny, daft, campiness. I’m saddened by this point as I’ve now seen all the live-action appearances of Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin and wish I could see and enjoy more.

I’m now looking forward to watching the animated movie ‘Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders’. This features the voice talents of Adam West, Burt Ward and Julie Newmar and was made before Adam West passed away this year in June 2017. Stay tuned for a quick DVD review on this movie!

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim. 🙂