The criminal underworld has terrorized the residents of Gotham City for a long time, but now the crooks are scared s***tless because of a new unknown crime fighter that everyone has heard of but few have actually seen. Known simply as 'The Bat' by those goons unfortunate-enough to have crossed his path, the existence of this mysterious being is just the kind of hyped and hot lead that newspaper reporter Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl, from HBO's "Arli$$") and acclaimed photographer Vicki Vale (Kim Bassinger) need to form an alliance to track down this crime fighter. When Knox and Vale trick their way into the a glitzy party at the home of Gotham City philathroper Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) they don't realize that the kooky-looking billionaire they're talking to is really 'The Bat'. With the help of his trusty butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough), Wayne overhears a conversation with the city's Police Commissioner (Pat Hingle) indicating that a certain Jack Napier (Jack Nicholson) is heading to Gotham's Axis Chemical Factory to do some dirty work for his crime boss Grissom (Jack Palance). Wayne slips into his crime fighting costume and heads to Axis Chemical along with the cops, unaware that Grissom has set up a trap to kill Napier because of the latter's indiscretion with the former's main squeeze.

Batman arrives at the factory in time to get into a couple of scuffles with Napier's men and to be seen for the first time by Commissioner Gordon and his men. Napier himself falls into a tank full of chemicals that, combined with some shoddy back alley surgery, disfigure the mentally unstable criminal to the point of insanity. Thus The Joker is born, a psychopathic maniac without remorse that takes bloody revenge against Grissom and quickly rises to the top of Gotham's criminal food chain. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne and Vicki Vale begin hitting it of romantically, much to the chagrin of reporter Knox and every other man that is mesmerized by Vale's beauty. This also includes The Joker, who becomes infatuated with the photographer and takes a time-out from spreading killer chemicals in household appliances to set-up an elaborate trap to capture her at Gotham's Fluegelheim Museum. Of course Batman shows in the nick of time to save Vale from The Joker's goons, but will he be able to keep his identity secret when the photographer is already figuring out on her own that Bruce Wayne isn't the person he appears to be? And will he able to defeat The Joker in a final, mano-a-mano showdown?

It's hard to believe it's been 13 years since Tim Burton's vision of what a Batman movie should look and be like took over the cinematic world by storm. With "Beetlejuice" collaborators (Michael Keaton, screenwriters Sam Hamm & Warren Skaaren, composer Danny Elfman, etc.) working alongside many veterans of the "Superman" movies (like Visual Effects guru Derek Meddings) and other creative minds of the era (Production Designer Anton Furst, Director of Photography Roger Pratt, etc.), Burton's vision is so close to its source material that it almost creates its own genre: comic book noir. Not as violent or graphic as a "Tales From The Crypt" installment or "Creepshow" movie, but way more depressing and morally ambiguous than your kid-friendly "Superman" movie or "Incredible Hulk" TV episode, "Batman" seems to dare parents NOT to let their little kids watch it alone. People get shot, electrocuted, thrown off buildings, beaten, poisoned or stabbed in the neck with a pen (mightier than the sword, indeed).

These deaths and fights aren't bloody, but take place within the gothic atmosphere and violent content of a pretty bleak story. The action scenes lack the thrill and exhilaration of an Indiana Jones or Superman adventure, and seem to be poorly-choreographed even when no special effects are involved (the knife-wielding black karateka dude comes to mind). The main character (Bruce Wayne/Batman) is a troubled man dealing with criminals (The Joker and his goons) while trying to rediscover a humanity that only the love of a woman (Vicki Vale) and the fatherly advice of his closest confidant (Alfred Pennyworth) can bring out of his self-made shelf. On the wrong hands material like this could have ended up being just plain silly, but director Burton and his actors are game-enough to give these Bob Kane characters a degree of personality that's sorely missing from the live-action "Batman" installments that followed. Jack Nicholson stole the movie (along with most of the box office receipts) with a manic rendition of The Joker that is both spooky and disturbingly-amusing; the same could be said about Jim Carrey's performance in "Batman Forever", but Nicholson wisely held back the histrionics and injected enough menace into his performance to actually project an illusion of calculated menace.

It's a shame that none of the other actors playing bad guys alongside Nicholson (Jack Palance's Grissom, Tracey Walter's Bob The Goon, etc.) can match wits on an even playing field with The Joker, since back-and-forth dialogue between cool bad guys is always more fun to watch than monologues WHEN IT'S DONE RIGHT. Michael Keaton, while looking a bit out of it in blue jeans and glasses sitting in front of the Bat Computer (where the monitors showing Nicholson's mug clearly out-act him), brings human vulnerability to Bruce Wayne while looking OK wearing the Bat suit. "Batman Returns" solidified Keaton as the best actor that has donned the Batman mask, while Kim Bassinger's Vicki Vale is an attractive and pleasant-enough love interest to make her absence in the sequel worthy of Bruce Wayne's longing look and sad attitude. Michael Gough's Alfred and Pat Hingle's Commissioner Gordon (the only two characters that have been played by the same actors in all four "Batman" live-action movies) are outstanding, but Robert Wuhl's reporter character wasn't funny and annoyed the heck out of me. Very poor decision on the part of Burton and his writers to use this reporter as a conduit through which to arrange the whole 'who is The Bat?' premise that eventually leads to Vale and Wayne becoming an item.

The first of the modern-era "Batman" movie also benefits from the nostalgia with which today's generation of movie-goers watch special effects-laden blockbusters from decades in which they were growing up. The movie can stand on its own story-telling and acting merits, which prevents the obvious matte paintings, wires above Batman moving him around, miniature buildings and vehicles (like the Bat Plane) and embarrassing low-rent locations (like that dingy Bat Cave) from dating this 13 year-old film too badly. I'd also take Danny Elfman's "Batman" score over the overblown Elliot Goldenthal score for the Schumacher movies on any day. It's not as good or exciting a story as "Superman The Movie" or "X-Men" (nowhere near!), but "Batman" drenches its viewers with a morally-corrupt villain and a lead character that inhabits a self-inflicted bleak world that is the direct result of the bad guy's actions. It's not a formula custom-made for exciting stunts or clever one-liners, and Burton & Co. should be commended for not succumbing to the temptation of giving the masses the brain-dead and easily-churned bullshit they were probably expecting back in '89. It's a shame that, after this and 1992's "Batman Returns", the powers-at-be over at Warner Brothers chose to follow the formula of its own "Superman" movies and plunged the franchise head-first right down the toilet.