The Batman Legacy (1989)

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    There is no new material here, and the quite basic transfers are identical to those previously released (save for the fact that the discs themselves now have picture labels on them instead of plain text labels like their original individual disc releases), so this compilation will be primarily of interest to those who have none of the movies. With a suggested retail price of $89.95, it is substantially cheaper to buy this box set than it is to buy all four movies separately at $29.95 each, making it an excellent gift idea for newly DVD capable Batman fanatics, negative thoughts towards the fourth instalment notwithstanding (hey, I personally liked Batman & Robin!).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Batman (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Biographies-Cast & Crew Production Notes
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	121:10 (Case: 133)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Tim Burton
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jack Nicholson Michael Keaton Kim Basinger Robert Wuhl Pat Hingle Billy Dee Williams Michael Gough Jack Palance
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Danny Elfman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Michael Keaton is Bruce Wayne/Batman, initially a choice which was a surprise to some but one which paid off big time. Whilst at the time Michael was proven as a comedic actor, his dramatic talents were less clear. Anyone that has seen his extremely threatening performance in Pacific Heights cannot doubt his dramatic ability.

    Jack Nicholson is Jack Napier/The Joker, Batman's fearsome foe in this movie - another excellent casting choice.

    The movie moves along at a cracking pace, with lots of action and lots of exquisite cinematography. The use of unusual camera angles is done very well in this movie, with the angles helping to tell the story rather than distracting from it.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was acceptably clear and sharp. Shadow detail was acceptable, and no particular low level noise was apparent.

    The colours tended towards undersaturation, though whether or not this was a filmic choice is debatable.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen.

    Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some severe image wobble which occurred frequently and was very distracting. This occurred particularly during the first 30 minutes of the film. Virtually no scene in the film until this point was free of this most disturbing artefact.

    Film artefacts, particularly during the opening credits and the early part of the film were excessive and quite distracting.

Audio

    Dialogue was usually clearly audible at all times, with only a very few words hard to make out.

    Audio sync was a severe problem with this disc, with the majority of the first 30 minutes of the film slightly out of sync. In addition to this, the remainder of the movie appears to have had some very slipshod ADR work applied to it at times.

    The musical score is by Danny Elfman and is appropriately dark and dramatic.

    The surround channels were used moderately, albeit somewhat unspectacularly.

    The .1 channel anchored the special effects nicely.

    I note that this disc has a prominent D1 label on the disc. According to a recent post on a UK DVD site, this D1 moniker signifies that we have received the UK censored version of this movie.

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Cast & Crew Biographies

Production Notes

    The Region 4 version misses out on;

• FullScreen version

    Otherwise, the two versions are identically specified, so there is no compelling reason to favour one over the other.

    The video quality is poor, even considering the age of the movie.

    The audio quality is acceptable except for the audio sync problem.

    The extras present are limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Batman Returns (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	121:19 (Case: 126)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tim Burton
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Michael Keaton Rebecca De Mornay Danny DeVito Michelle Pfeiffer Christopher Walken Michael Gough Pat Hingle Michael Murphy
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Danny Elfman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The fact that this film was rated M when the original was rated PG might lead you to believe that the action is more intense in this film, but it is really about the same. The only real difference between the two films is the choice of villain, or villains in this case. Batman Returns begins with a sequence shot in a mansion where the lady of the house has just given birth. Sadly, she has given birth to a monstrosity of such severity that the decision is made to cast the baby into the streams running out of the sewers of Gotham City. The baby floats in a small carriage through the sewers until it is happened upon by a clan of penguins, although what a clan of penguins would be doing in a sewer is really quite hard to imagine.

    Anyway, from there, we fast forward thirty-three years to the Gotham City of the present, where Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) is hatching a plan to build one more power plant than Gotham City actually needs. As it turns out, his secretary, Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer), discovers that the power plant is really designed to drain power away from the city for Shreck's evil purposes. In a rather unwise move, Selina takes her suspicions to Max, who responds by throwing her out of a window and leaving her to die several stories down on the cold ground of the city. Naturally, while she is there, she is tended to by a mob of stray cats, who inspire her to adopt the persona of the Catwoman.

    Meanwhile, the Penguin (Danny DeVito) is determined to discover his roots and bring Gotham City under his control at the same time. In order to do so, he enlists the reluctant aid of Shreck, who acts as his political aide. With Batman (Michael Keaton) being an ever-increasing thorn in each of the three criminals' sides, they attempt to frame him for the murder of a popular celebrity. This is where the story hits its weak point, as this is an unnecessary detail which could have been excised in favour of stronger development of the romantic tensions between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle.

    However, we all know that Batman will surely defeat his enemies and wander off into a solitary existence with his butler, Alfred (Michael Gough). It is how he gets there, and maintains a healthy alliance with Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle), that makes the meat in this sandwich. However, a Batman film without Jack Nicholson is somewhat crippled because of the audience's expectations. Christopher Walken, Danny DeVito, and Michelle Pfeiffer put in a valiant effort to make up for the lack of a great villain, but none of them are able to convincingly portray their characters with the sort of psychotic edge which made Nicholson's Joker so compelling to watch. Christopher Walken's portrayal of a crooked tycoon is convincing enough, but it lacks the extreme edge which was the order of the day in the first film.

    Danny DeVito's role as The Penguin is not convincing due to a slight lack of character development that makes his motives and actions unconvincing a lot of the time. Michelle Pfeiffer is hard to take seriously as The Catwoman simply because she goes from a nerdy secretary to a psychotic criminal in one very improbable leap. In this film, the emphasis is on action rather than character or story development, and it shows. Still, as soon as Tim Burton stepped off the director's chair and some moron in Warner Brothers decided to resurrect Robin in spite of the fact that he was given the chop by popular vote among the comic book readers, it was all downhill.

Video

    Sharpness is not particularly good at any point in this transfer, although I believe that this has a lot to do with the director's methods in the shooting of the film. Shadow detail is good enough to make out the important details in most sequences, and this is again a reflection on the photographic techniques used in the film. The first sequence of the film contains some moments of rather poor shadow detail, but this also appears to have been a deliberate artistic choice as it is the only instance where the detail plummets to this depth. There was no low-level noise.

    The colour saturation was deliberately muted and dull during most of the film, although it was also larger than life during the night-time combat sequences. The DVD is an accurate reflection of the director's intentions with the film's theatrical presentation.

    MPEG artefacts were absent from the presentation, but one suspects they would have been rampant had the film been compressed just a little harder. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some minor aliasing on car grilles and windows, and I think I noticed one instance on Michelle Pfeiffer's costume. Film artefacts consisted of some occasional scratches and flecks on the negative, but there were a lot less of these than expected.

    English For The Hearing Impaired subtitles are present on this DVD, and they are quite faithful to the spoken dialogue.

Audio

    The sound is presented in a choice of three languages, all of them encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1: English, French, and Italian. I've listened to both the English and Italian versions of the dialogue, and I found them both to be little different in terms of the quality of the sound mix and placement.

    The dialogue was consistently easy to understand at all times, in spite of the way in which Danny DeVito growls his lines and Michelle Pfeiffer speaks very softly throughout the film. Audio sync was never a problem.

    The score music was composed and conducted by Danny Elfman, a man who has worked quite frequently with director Tim Burton. One of the most major advantages this film has over its predecessor is that this time the score music is not hampered by cheesy pop numbers from a has-been pop icon. The music in this film was mainly used to support the on-screen action, and it does an excellent job of this at all times. The Batman theme in particular is a driving, moving piece of work that drives the film along in a highly supportive manner.

    If there is one place where this Dolby Digital 5.1 mix shines, it is in the surround presence. Ambient sounds of all descriptions can be heard making their way into the surround channels, and the sound of penguins marching around in the rear channels is truly an awesome sound to hear. The music and sounds of such things as metallic doors squeaking are also very well supported by the surround channels, with even the sound of babies crying a pleasant thing to behold in this mix.

    The subwoofer was called on to support a plethora of effects such as lightning strikes, engine roars, and the usual sounds of combat between Batman and his usual plethora of opponents. The difference between the Dolby Digital Batman Returns, and Batman (which was originally recorded in Dolby Stereo) is a truly dramatic one to behold.

Menu

Cast & Crew Biographies

• Pan and Scan version
• Dual-Sided Formatting (presumably with the Pan and Scan monstrosity on Side B)
• Production Notes
• Animated Menus

• Single-sided formatting

    The video quality is good, but nothing to get excited about. Aside from a moment where little can be made out during the opening credits that may have been a deliberate choice by the director, this is the best video transfer of the Batman franchise.

    The audio quality is superb, and easily the best of the Batman franchise. As a matter of fact, this is easily the best audio transfer that Warner Brothers have provided me with so far due to the excellent placement of sounds within the soundfield.

    The extras are non-existent, which is good if you want quality in spite of the limitations of a single-layer disc, or bad if you want things like theatrical trailers at the expense of video quality. Still, a director's commentary in mono wouldn't have been too much to ask for.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Batman Forever (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	116:39 (Case: 122)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joel Schumacher
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Val Kilmer Tommy Lee Jones Jim Carrey Nicole Kidman Chris O'Donnell Michael Gough Pat Hingle
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Elliot Goldenthal

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In the green corner, representing the bad guys we have: The Riddler/Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey), and Harvey Two Face/Harvey Dent (Tommy Lee Jones).

    Aaaannnnd in the black corner, representing the good guys we have: Batman/Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) and Robin/Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell).

    Also featuring: Nicole Kidman as the seriously hot Chase Meridian, who definitely catches the eye of Batman and Drew Barrymore, as the beautiful Sugar.

    Let the battle begin.

Video

    Overall the picture is a little soft, but it is clear and sharp for foreground objects. The picture usually lacks background detail, which makes it appear blurry on many occasions. Surprisingly, this does not overly detract from the movie. No low-level noise was noted, and the shadow detail was very good. Only one scene seemed to be just a bit on the dark side, which is probably a director's choice and not a transfer problem.

    There is some trivial edge enhancement at 30:37 and 57:51, which I doubt that you will notice if you are actually watching the movie.

    The colours are well saturated and natural looking, with perfect skin tones. There are many scenes that contain vibrant colours that stand out amongst the dark scenery - the back-street alley night fight is a perfect example of this. However, colour is still not as lush or vibrant as some of the more recent films that I have seen, such as Bicentennial Man.

    The background suffers from an almost constant grain, which is not overly distracting, but there are a couple of occasions where it spills over into the foreground, such as at 87:16 and 110:33. For TV owners, this grain should hardly be noticeable.

    Film artefacts are very rare and are always small and unobtrusive. This transfer is alias-free except for one trivial occurrence at 47:34.  Moiré effects are limited to two deliberate cinematic occurrences at 35:44 and 78:23 - 78:27, but there really is nothing to complain about here.

    This movie is on a single layer disc, which is surprising considering the movies’ running time.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue was extremely clear and easy to understand throughout the entire movie.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on.  There are a couple of occurrences of looping or dialogue replacement. These are noticeable, but inconsequential.

    Elliot Goldenthal's musical score suits the movie well.

    The surround channels are very aggressively used for ambience, music and lots of special effects.  Directional effects and sound placement within the sound field are very good, which puts you in amongst the action.

    The subwoofer is continually being used to add bass to most scenes and is highly active during the dramatic sequences, which there are plenty of.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

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Cast & Crew

• Additional Pan & Scan version
• Production Notes

    The picture quality is very good, with only some grain and softness slightly spoiling the image.

    This is an excellent audio transfer, and is of reference quality (just).

    The extras are limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Batman & Robin (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Biographies-Cast & Crew Production Notes Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	120
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Joel Schumacher
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger George Clooney Chris O'Donnell Uma Thurman Alicia Silverstone Michael Gough Pat Hingle Elle Macpherson
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$29.95	Music	Elliot Goldenthal

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic Polish Greek Czech Turkish Hungarian Icelandic Croatian English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    George Clooney is Batman in this instalment of the franchise. The maniacal enemies all set to destroy Gotham City are Mr Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) and Bane (Jeep Swensen). Mr Freeze wants to freeze the world, and Poison Ivy wants to destroy all the animal species on the planet including all the humans.

    There are a great deal of excellent stunt pieces and way-over-the-top action, and all-in-all, I found that it was quite an entertaining experience. It tended to drag a little in the middle after an excellent opening, but this was a minor quibble.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. Subtitles defaulted to ON.

    The transfer was razor sharp and crystal clear. However, black level was set too high, so there were no deep blacks, only dark greys. In addition to this, there was a significant amount of low level noise and grain apparent in the blacks and the low level blues. This marred the shadow detail somewhat, and made the transfer significantly worse than it otherwise would have been. Whilst everything on screen was brightly lit, this black level problem didn't matter as much, but when things got dark, then the picture got a little ugly. This problem could be corrected by turning the brightness down whilst watching this movie.

    The colours were vibrant throughout, with large splashes of primary and secondary colours lending a comic-book look to this film. There was some chroma noise, particularly affecting deep blues.

    No MPEG artefacts were noted. Aliasing was only very rarely present, but it was significant when it was present, such as on the door to the Bruce mansion, which shimmered severely. Film artefacts were very rare and essentially non-existent.

Audio

    Dialogue was almost always completely clear and audible. Some dialogue, especially at the start of the movie, was a little hard to hear.

    There were no audio sync problems with this disc.

    The virtually omnipresent but still unremarkable musical score is by Elliot Goldenthal. It certainly had the appropriate Batman feel to it.

     The surround channels were heavily used for this movie, from the aggressively surrounding opening titles, through to the end. Sound effects and music were aggressively placed throughout the soundfield, making this an extremely enveloping soundtrack, and an excellent experience. Split surround effects were often used with great effect.

    The .1 channel was very aggressively used, receiving signal virtually thoughout the movie.

Menu

Production Notes

Cast & Crew Biographies

    The Region 4 version misses out on;

• FullScreen version

    Other than this, the two versions are identically featured.

    The video quality is generally excellent with the significant exception of having the black level set too high and consequently suffering with significant low level image noise. This is a shame as the other aspects of the video transfer are impeccable.

    The audio quality is excellent, with a very aggressive surround presence being created by the soundtrack.

    The extras are very limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall