As a kid, I always liked Batman because he wasn't a Superhero. No super-powers. And he had a reason to do what he did. Seeing his parents murdered right in front of him made him a little nuts, so he ran around preying on the kind of punks that killed his folks.

I hated the Sixties TV show. They were poking fun at one of my childhood heroes. So I approached the Tim Burton movie pretty cautiously. At first I thought that Michael Keaton was lousy casting. Then I saw the movie.

For me, Keaton's portrayal was spot-on, taking what could easily have been a camped-up cardboard character and making him more or less believable. He played Bruce Wayne as a troubled young man e.g., the scene where Vicky Vail follows Bruce Wayne and sees him stop at a particular spot, look down sadly for a while, then leave a couple of flowers on the sidewalk -- he was still mourning his parents), and his alter-ego, Batman, as a sort of Avenging Angel.

Lets not even talk about the sequels.

Don Firth