Still the Best Batman

I remember when I received Tim Burton's "Batman" VHS tape during Christmas '89 then watched and rewatched it during the final few days of the '80s to welcome in the '90s.
Well, twenty-five years later (Jesus H Christ...) my history is repeating itself-- with a few upgrades.


^ This year Toys R' Us came through for us with this amazing combo pack.

Some of you people might remember the original '89 Batman figures, which were rushed into production and originally structured for a totally unrelated project until they were literally just painted over to meet a deadline:



I love that Toys R' Us gave props to the original package's décor. It's an outstanding improvement. The figure actually resembles Michael Keaton this time, who is the best Batman ever.
The ironic part is that when this movie was released everyone raved about Jack Nicholson as Joker


to the extent that everyone overlooked Keaton.
Now we know that no one will ever top Heath Ledger as Joker, and I wonder if anyone will top Keaton's understated insanity-lurking-underneath-a-thin-veneer demeanor as Bruce Wayne.
The 1989 version is still the best. More and more people are agreeing with me that when Heath Ledger isn't on the screen in "The Dark Knight" it's Borefest '08.
Christian Bale and Gary Oldman are good actors, but the responsibility for holding the supervillain torch was clearly passed to Aaron Eckhart (Two-Face) at the precise moment when Joker does this



then walks off the screen.
If you disagree with me, tell me which Eckhart projects have earned major acclaim since The Dark Knight was released. His last movie, "I, Frankenstein," was so god awful that The Wrap put it on its annual top ten worst films of the year list.
Eckhart did very little before Dark Knight was released and has done nothing since.
But I can't blame him entirely. I thought that the effects that they did for his character were lacking. Also, he was trying to follow a Wayne Gretzky caliber performance in Ledger. Unfortunately for him, it just highlighted his deficiencies.

So here's to you, Tim Burton, Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. I will discuss another great Keaton performance FROM THIS YEAR in a few days.