Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
66
(17 sources)
66
(17 sources)
-
100
Washington Post
The movie fixes you in its gravitational pull. It's an enveloping, walk-in vision... As rich and satisfying a movie as you're likely to see all year. Read Full Review » -
100
San Francisco Chronicle
It's a rare, beautifully made movie that offers you another world. [23 June 1989, Daily Datebook, p.E1] Read Full Review » -
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
In short, Batman is terrific - funny, smart and sensitive too, the perfect cinematic date. Read Full Review » -
80
Variety
Nicholson embellishes fascinatingly baroque designs with his twisted features, lavish verbal pirouettes and inspired excursions into the outer limits of psychosis. It's a masterpiece of sinister comic acting. Read Full Review » -
80
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80
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75
USA Today
There's a cold intelligence at work here. Though its pleasures are plentiful enough to reward a second viewing, only Nicholson has saved Warners from a wing-clip. [23 June 1989, Life, p.1D] Read Full Review » -
75
Chicago Tribune
Burton's Gotham City-constructed on a massive sound stage in London- is a striking blend of spindly gothic, decaying art deco and broodingly bland institutional architecture that seems to lie just a couple of subway stops down from Ridley Scott's ''Blade Runner'' and Terry Gilliam's ''Brazil.'' It's great to look at, but we seem to have been here before. [23 June 1989, Friday, p.A] Read Full Review » -
70
The New Republic
It's relatively easy to convey the claustral in interior scenes, but [designer] Furst and the director Tim Burton do it even when the setting is a great flight of steps before the municipal building or the huge square where Batman and the joker confront each other. [31 July 1989, p.24] Read Full Review » -
70
The New Yorker
It has so many unpredictable spins that what's missing doesn't seem to matter much. The images sing. [10 July 1989] Read Full Review » -
63
ReelViews
Batman is largely content to skim the surface and bask in the light of its visual style. Read Full Review » -
63
Christian Science Monitor
It would be a lot better if it didn't lean exclusively on bone-crunching action for its climactic thrills, and the story continues long after its ideas have started to sag. [29 June 1989, Arts, p.10] Read Full Review » -
60
Chicago Reader
The main problem is that Burton operates best on a modest scale; saddled with a blockbuster, he doesn't know how to animate all the dead space. Read Full Review » -
60
TV Guide
Despite its interesting, grim tone and undeniably striking visuals from director Burton and production designer Furst, the film fails to synthesize its strengths into a compelling whole. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie's problem is that no one seemed to have any fun making it, and it's hard to have much fun watching it. It's a depressing experience. Read Full Review » -
40
The New York Times
It's neither funny nor solemn. It has the personality not of a particular movie but of a product, of something arrived at by corporate decision. Read Full Review » -
30
Los Angeles Times
The Joker has been demoted into a broad-scale sociopath, without a tempter's power or a mythic villain's complexity. And that's the movie's real undoing. [23 June 1989, Calendar, p.6-1] Read Full Review »
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