What’s Aged the Worst?
Dated effects; darkness; Vicki Vale framing; Keaton-Basinger romance; casting uproar; Prince soundtrack; Gotham Globe newspaper; Keaton’s hair; wasted Billy Dee Williams; Pat Hingle; Robert Wuhl as Knox
In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:06Read transcript
- The framing of Vicki Vale is flagged as weird and reserved for this category.
- Some special effects, like the bat plane flight, feel very 1989.
- The film is too dark and literally hard to see in places; The Batman is said to be darker still.
- The Keaton-Basinger scenes feel rough; a defense says they convey chemistry and that the Joker is crude and after her.
- Keaton’s Bruce is an odd, untraumatized weirdo, so the romance raises the question of why she likes him beyond his money; he is compared to a tech billionaire with a Steve Jobs look, though he had great chemistry with Michelle Pfeiffer in the sequel.
- The uproar over casting Keaton, with a reported 50,000 protest letters, is hard to explain today and is contrasted with modern tweet-based hate.
- The Prince soundtrack is named, while Trust and Party Man are defended as good songs.
- The importance of the Gotham Globe newspaper has dated; the setting feels like both 1989 and 1948, and Gotham is a composite of many cities.
- Keaton’s hair sometimes looks like a wig.
- Billy Dee Williams is wasted as Harvey Dent and was later replaced by Tommy Lee Jones; Morgan Freeman is floated but his fit as Two-Face is debated.
- Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon would be recast; William Hootkins as the lieutenant is defended.
- Robert Wuhl as Knox is the worst part: he is in too many scenes after Bull Durham, which is called the most unfortunate part of the movie.