'BATMAN'. The most disrespected blockbuster on home video? (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

If not, it's certaintly one of the contenders.
Some freinds and I got to discussing super heros tonight, the pro's and con's of 'Daredevil', 'Superman', 'Spider-man', and 'Batman'. We also got to talking about how badly Tim Burton's masterpiece has been treated on home video over the years.
It has, to my knowledge, never recieved a really decent SE! Even on our old freind Laserdisc! And the current dvd leaves a lot to be disired to say the least.
So what's the deal Warner? Why no big SE of ths one yet after 13 years? Has it just fallen through the cracks of time? Pushed out of the way by bigger, newer films?
It's about time Batman's had it's day in the sun on dvd as a SE, it's long overdue IMO.

 

[Ryan Satriani]

http://www.dvdangle.com/articles/se_list.html
Dvd angle says special editions are coming. Mid 2002 is past though, you can never trust those dvd angle folks.

 

[TheBat]

batman was one of the first titles released on dvd back in 1997. other titles released about that time have gotten a new Se edition.. probably has do with tim burton working on a movie..
I remember dvdfile had an interview with tim when sleepy hollow was released on dvd.. back in 2000.

JACOB

 

[Patrick McCart]

Give WB some slack.

Do you really expect their very first DVD to be of modern quality? It's not like they deliberately made the DVD bad just irritate us.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Patrick,
huh!?
They've had plenty of time since that release to do a better one. I don't understand your post.

 

[David Coleman]

What do you all think if they went back and redid the BATMAN soundtrack and modernized it ala SUPERMAN?

 

[Jaxon's Dad]

To answer the question, no. The most disrespected blockbuster on home video would be Star Wars. Only available on VHS and only the Special Edition. If George Lucas is to be believed (A dubious endeavor, at best.), we will never see the original on DVD again. Glad I picked up the original triolgy on Laserdisc.

 

[Declan]

I was at a showing of Batman a few months ago.
It was'nt a 35mm print but they used the DVD (r2 version) and a video projector, which was excellently set up.
In a completely darkend theatre it looked great.
The 5.1 mix on the disc could do with a................well, remix. Although the opening credits would sound great in mono anyway
well, maybe not.........

 

[Colin Jacobson]

To answer the question, no. The most disrespected blockbuster on home video would be Star Wars. Only available on VHS and only the Special Edition. If George Lucas is to be believed (A dubious endeavor, at best.), we will never see the original on DVD again. Glad I picked up the original triolgy on Laserdisc.

But at least Star Wars received positive treatment on LD over the years. As the original post noted, Batman never got any form of SE anywhere.

However, as poor as the DVD and prior LDs and whatnot have been, I'd pick Home Alone as the biggest hit with the worst treatment. No SE, and the DVD isn't even anamorphic! Of course, one could claim the same for the biggest blockbuster of them all, Titanic, but at least that flick's non-anamorphic transfer looks good - Home Alone's looks like crap. I don't care about the film, honestly - I never liked it - but it sure hasn't gotten very good treatment on DVD or other formats...

 

[Jaxon's Dad]

But at least Star Wars received positive treatment on LD over the years. As the original post noted, Batman never got any form of SE anywhere.

This is true, however Batman is on the best format available, as are the other titles you mention. Star Wars, in it's original blockbuster form, very well may never appear on DVD, short of me ripping it from the THX laserdisc.

 

[Derek Baker]

I'm dying for BATMAN to get the SE treatment on DVD. It looks very dark and murky transfer wise while the DD soundtrack could do with a remix.

That being said though, at least it is on DVD...unlike that other annoying trilogy mentioned above!

 

[Ruslan]

Not that it's in any way a classic, but I wish Warners would also release the long-promised SE of Batman Forever - with about 40 mins of deleted footage. I remember this being noted as one of the first DVD titles and reading Schumacher's comment about putting it out as one of Warner's first titles back when DVD was starting out. Then... nothing! From what I hear, the footage was darker and made sense of the flashback sequences in the film (they end up in the released version mentioning a red book/diary but never showing what's in it!)
Warners used to be the best DVD company but at the moment they're waaaay behind the others.

 

[Dave H]

Yes, I thought we would have seen a Batman SE this year. Warners mentioned something to the effect that it was coming in one of their last HTF chats. This movie badly needs it. A two disc set would be great.

 

[Blu]

Who wouldn't want a DTS track on Batman?
I have the other version of Batman and just to hear Sid Ceasar's Joker laugh in glorious DTS would be the most amazing thing or Lee Meriweather's purr as the Catwoman GRRrrrr!!!!

 

[LukeB]

However, as poor as the DVD and prior LDs and whatnot have been, I'd pick Home Alone as the biggest hit with the worst treatment. No SE, and the DVD isn't even anamorphic! Of course, one could claim the same for the biggest blockbuster of them all, Titanic, but at least that flick's non-anamorphic transfer looks good - Home Alone's looks like crap. I don't care about the film, honestly - I never liked it - but it sure hasn't gotten very good treatment on DVD or other formats...

I agree! For what was long the 10th highest-grossing film of all-time, it's really got a crappy bare DVD out there.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Ah yes, and Imogene Coca as Poison Ivy was divine!!!
I think you meant Caesar Romero.

 

[David Lambert]

I too have not bought a single one of the Batman live-action films from WB (I have the Adam West live film; it looks tons better than the first Michael Keaton one!).
Yeah, I've seen that sucker, and it looked quite bad even when my home theater TV was a 19" RCA. No way I'll watch that on my HDTV unit! I am, quite simply, waiting for the SE versions that we all know must come sooner or later.
If I'm WB, even if I had all the supplement material I need from Burton and everyone else, I'm still hanging on to it to promote when the new Superman vs. Batman film hits theaters. THAT would be my target window.
I'll wait. I got plenty of good DVDs to view in the meantime.

 

[Blu]

I think you meant Caesar Romero

Yep! Him too!