Rating:

Originally published June 23, 1989

The first thing you notice about "Batman" is it doesn't live up to the hype. Big deal. No movie could.

 So forget the hype. Truth is, stacked up against the blockbuster summer retreads, "Batman" fills up the big screen like no other movie this season.

 The picture succeeds if for no other reason than it offers the largest

 helping of Jack Nicholson ever served to moviegoers in one sitting.

 Nicholson, who plays the Joker to Michael Keaton's Batman, has never been more commanding. Not only because he does an outstanding job, but also because so much of the movie's creative energy is devoted to making the Joker one of the most startling movie characters in recent memory.

 Long after you've forgotten the Prince music and the big-budget special effects, you'll remember the Joker, the "world's first fully functional homicidal artist," as he proclaims.

 The "Batman" movie is much more akin to the sinister, gloomy comic book adventure series than the likably silly TV Show.

 Here, Batman is a brooding, driven vigilante not above dropping a helpless

 criminal into a vat of acid. He's a free-lance Dirty Harry with a nifty costume and bottomless bank account - when he's not Batman, he's zillionaire Bruce Wayne. (Boy Wonder fans: As in the updated Batman comics, there's no Robin. Dick Grayson has moved out of the mansion. People were starting to talk. )

 Keaton's Batman is a cut above gee-golly matinee superheroes like Superman. Batman doesn't have superpowers and he's not invincible - he fights criminals with gadgets and guile. And Batman is not comfortably Good - he has a terrible lust for vengeance that would put hair on Hamlet's chest.

 Batman/Wayne isn't some outer space muscle goon like Superman/Kent who doesn't have the guts to tell his girlfriend about his night job. When Batman falls in love, he puts his cards on the table.

 His girl is Vicki Vale (Kim Basinger), who loves the gentle Wayne but fears Batman and his troubling mania for bringing justice to hopelessly corrupt Gotham City.

 "It's just something I have to do," Wayne explains.

 "Why? " Vicky asks.

 "Because no one else can," he replies.

 Some Batman aficionados have complained that the diminutive Keaton is an insult to the stalwart image of Batman. Those people, of course, don't have enough to keep them occupied. The truth is, Keaton's thinning hair and unimposing physique add to Batman's distinctive vulnerability.

 Keaton, though, is the movie's nominal star. Top billing deservedly belongs to superstar Jack Nicholson.

 As Batman's nemesis, the Joker, Nicholson surpasses even the hilarious ''Here's Johnny" psychosis of his role in "The Shining. "

 We first meet Nicholson as gangland capo Jack Napier, an ambitious thug in Gotham City's top crime family. When Batman drops him into a vat of liquid chemicals, he emerges as The Joker, a psychotic evil genius with blanched skin, green hair and a perpetual sneer that is the result of botched reconstructive surgery.

 The role of the Joker - the entire movie, in fact - has been tailored for Nicholson's sly, sardonic persona. "Batman" is an expensive suit (official budget figure is $40 million) that fits Nicholson perfectly. He's given the best lines and best scenes; naturally, he steals the picture.

 The movie successfully re-creates the timeless feel of the Batman comics. Gotham is a partly animated, partly real city not unlike the dark urban landscape seen in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil. "

 "Batman" shares that movie's disjointed sense of time - the fashion and architecture are 1940s and older, the Batman equipment is super sleek and futuristic.

 At an even two hours, the movie is at least 15 minutes too long. Warner Bros.' creators seem reluctant to part with any of the expensive footage, no matter how bland it may be.

 The most glaring examples are the MTV-style sequences featuring the expensive music of rock star Prince. You can feel the excitement of the audience diminish during those tedious scenes.

 This may not be summer movie entertainment at its best, but it's the best of the summer movie entertainment.