Kim prefers "batmanathon" for the similarity between "-manathon" and "marathon"; I prefer "batathon" for the resonance with inane bat-prefixed bat-technology -- batarang, batmobile &c. No matter the name, though, today was spent almost entirely on Batman movies.
First up: Tim Burton's Joker. My feelings haven't changed since I saw it last week, so I won't bother opining on it again. Or rather, I probably will, but it'll be as part of my comments on the other two movies watched: Batman Returns and Batman Begins.
Underwear Perverts
I'd only seen this movie once before, when I was home sick from primary school and convinced my mum and sister to rent some videos for me. Batman! Die Hard 2! Oh, glorious violence.
It may even have been my introduction to Batman the character; I certainly hadn't read the hundreds of issues of the comic that I have now. Since then, of course, my experience of filmic Batman was -- the polite word might be "tainted" -- by the likes of Batman & Robin. In retrospect, it's no surprise that that the movie was much, much better than I remembered or expected.
The credit for this goes to the Joker. How often are villains actually entertaining? "Hilariously evil" is not a common description. It's quite the tragedy, actually: they made it impossible for him to appear in the sequel, and the awe in which Hollywood now holds Jack Nicholson will probably prevent an appearance in the Batman Begins continuity. Burton didn't show the dark side quite as explicitly as some other contributors (compare Moore's Killing Joke, for example), but it's there -- menace and amusement in equal parts.
Worth seeing. Definitely worth seeing.