Rants

Ok, so I just purchased the Anthology of Batman (1989-1997), I was a big fan of Batman as a kid growing up, I never really did like Forever or Batman and Robin, as I think they got away from the darkness that was Batman and Batman Returns were. I still to this day can watch Jack Nicholson pull off Joker, it’s just a great character for him, as was Heath Ledger for the Dark Knight version. I will give you a little background though, Tim Burton did the first two movies, Batman and Batman Returns, so I think this is why I liked the first two so well. It was then handed off to Joel Schumacher for the last two of the series, in which the rest were totally ruined. Plus Michael Keaton playing the first two were a LOT better than Val Kilmer (Forever) and George Clooney (B&R). By the time Clooney showed up, it was a horrible, horrible mess. Directors, stick with the same actors, it helps not to confuse the audience. (You listen here Spiderman 4, and Transformers 3, Iron Man 2 oh and Hulk 2??)

Anyways….. enough about the history, let me give you what I was thinking the entire time I started watching Batman again.

So I began to think that I had seen some of these scenes before. You know, like for instance, the Batman and Joker standoff. And I started putting the pieces together, I think that Christopher Nolan (Begins, Dark Knight) was either paying homage to, or just straight ripping off from the original Batman movies from 89′ and 92′. So I began a mental inventory of the scenes I was watching. (I’m not talking about the story line, obviously, they have to stick true to the comics, but the scenes seemed oddly familiar)

#1- Fat Bad Detective

See??? The bad detective from Begins seems to look a lot like the one from Batman

#2 Bad guy gets a speech from Batman while hanging out over the edge of a building

Wow, now this time the characters are completely different, but the scene is pretty much the same. (Batman, Batman Begins)

#3 Harvey Dent is giving a speech about crime

the weird difference here, is in Batman, he is black, in Begins, he is white. What was he in the comics??? (Besides Two Face)

#4 The Joker crashes a party (well Art Museum in Batman)

So in Dark Night, he is holding a shotgun, in Batman his just dancing around with a cane, but in both instances, Joker ends up trying to take Batman’s girl. Rachel for Dark Night and Vicki for Batman.

#5 Batman Crashes the Party

Now this one I’ll let slide, because I’m sure that there is a crashing the party scene in EVERYONE of the movies. Some scene where he comes crashing through the roof with his cape spread out. As a matter of fact, I remember in B&R, there was a scene when they met Ice for the first time at the museum. But as for the pictured above, the first is when Batman comes in after Joker raided the art museum. The 2nd is from Begins, towards the end when he jumped down the middle of the staircase. The last one is in Dark Knight where he lands on top of the van and almost crushes it.

#6 The joker shows his face without makeup (or with makeup, however you want to see it)

You’ll see here from Batman, he was wearing a hat to help hide his identity, as for the same in Dark Knight. Also, both in a tie.

#7 Batman drives the girl back to safety

Now in Batman, Vicki wasn’t sick, but she was in danger, in Begins, Rachel was sick and in danger. And both times each scene ends with Batman driving into what seems to be a wall (either the stone from batman or the waterfall from Begins) and scares the girl in the passenger seat. Also, they both get lights shined into their eyes. HA! This is the first time for both girls to see the Batcave.

#8 Batman has to think about what he is doing

I don’t know if the reference is the same, but both times Bruce is or has said something to the fact that he doesn’t think he should be doing the job, but someone has to do it. (Dark Knight and Batman)

#9 Batman grabs the joker close-up to his face

Now I’m sure I have seen that somewhere in a comic, but it seems for both Batman and Dark Knight, he has to pull Joker in close to get his attention.

#10 The Batman stance

Now these are from different parts of the movies, the Batman scene is at the end, and the Dark Night scene is near the end when he is listening for Joker phone calls and such. Both are still him standing up against a night sky though.

#11 The Batman and Joker Standoff

This one was way too easy and almost EXACTLY the same. Both scenes from Dark Knight and Batman have Joker standing in the middle of the street with a gun, shooting at Batman, while Batman charges at him in a vehicle of sorts. Obviously for Batman it was the Batwing and for Dark Knight it was the Batpod. Either way, Batman blows up something behind Joker and then “crashes”. All this as the Joker is tauting him with a line like HIT ME, COME ON HIT ME or COME ON, COME ON YOU GRUESOME S.O.B.

#12 The Joker Kills a guy while talking to the mob.

This one I couldn’t find a screen shot, so I’ll just explain it. It Batman, Joker is basically trying to take over the mob as their new boss, because he had killed his boss, because his boss tried to have him picked off by the police (over a woman). So when he comes back the first time as the Joker, he is telling the mob that he has taken over, and one guy doesn’t believe him, so he electrocutes him to death with a hand buzzer and leaves him smoking.

In Dark Knight, Joker is trying to tell the mob that their money isn’t safe and they need to trust him, but one guy doesn’t believe him, so he stabs a pencil on the table and makes it “disappear” by shoving the guys head right on top of it really quick (assuming that it killed him).

#13 Freak Accident to create the bad guy

Again, no screenshot. Batman, Jack Napier has to fall into the toxic waste to become the Joker.

Dark Knight: Harvey dent survives an explosion to become Two Face.

#14 Joker Falls off a tall building

No screenshot. In Batman, the Joker fell off of a ladder from the helicopter all the way to his death. In Dark Knight, they didn’t let joker die, Batman caught him and tied him so he hung over the ledge.

#15 The Batmobile transforms into something else

In Batman Returns, the Batmobile turns into this torpedo looking thing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SqwMMj2wvA)

In Dark Knight, the Batmobile broke down and became a Batpod (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPaTv98wUsE)

#16 Gotham City gets gassed!

You will remember that in Batman, the Joker is gassing the city with his toxic fumes to kill everyone, and in Begins, the Scarecrow is gassing the city with his toxic fumes to scare everyone to death!

Final and last one #17

This one was pretty OBVIOUS, but I didn’t make this split screen comparison, but it is pretty convincing; a trailer comparison of the Dark Knight and Batman:

With that off in your mind, let me know what you think… Have we just watched the same movie? Did Christopher Nolan steal the new Batman series all form Tim Burton? Was this just his interpretation??? Or is it Chris Nolan’s homage to the two better originals. We will never know. Leave your thoughts below.