Batman: The SilentPete Edit

This was a great, streamlined version of Batman 89. The storytelling in the original version is so weak, so it's hard to do much to change that. The deletion of Jack being the Waynes' killer is great and handled well (with some clever audio editing). Taking out the Vicki romance is a great idea, but it leads to a couple problems. Mostly that it leaves us with fewer Bruce Wayne scenes, which the original version was already lacking. There are also a few instances in the first half of the movie where the cuts between deleted scenes are awkward. There are three Jack/Joker scenes that are scrunched together and don't make a lot of sense timing wise. I also missed the Smilex subplot. But you've gotta make cuts somewhere if you want a shorter movie.

However overall I really enjoyed it. Moving the opening credits was an inspired idea (even though I personally would have cut to black before them instead of fading in, but that's complete nitpicking). The museum scene was MASTERFUL visual and audio editing. You should watch it just for that if you're on the fence. Thanks so much for letting me watch, Silentpete!

Watched black and white version, cropped to 'scope aspect ratio.

I enjoyed this edit more than the original film, which I am admittedly not a fan of, the removal of the subplots was done very cleanly from a story point of view with the only giveaways being a few audio transitions. For example, while I liked the restructured the way the music fades in and out makes the fact that the scene has been shifted here from later quite noticeable. The film still feels quite flat to me, but I think this js less to do with the reduced runtime than its source, and my great fondness for Batman Returns and all it's delightful weirdness.

AV quality was generally very good, the only time I noticed the cropping was the Warner Bros card at the start, but sometimes found the image dark enough that I couldn't quite understand what was being shown. A boost in lightness and/or contrast should solve this, and if the originally-yellow title text could be redone to appear more white than grey that would help too.

On the whole, I think that I slightly prefer Dwight Fry's less aggressive take, but this edit is a worthy addition. I'm not sure if 1989's Batman could ever be made into a great film in my opinion, but in this form it's definitely a watchable one.