"A little excessive" is a lot of understatement.
I actually just went back and rewatched all the old Batman films and encountered two painful surprises.
First, that the original Tim Burton flick is fucking terrible. Sure, Nicholson is fun as the Joker, but he's still just being Jack Nicholson. Batman is one of the least heroic characters ever, and I don't mean in an antihero sense. He seems incapable of appearing without being shot and falling down, he pretty much just fucks things up wherever he goes, and he kills a shitload of people with bombs. Batman does that. Without batting an eye. In fact, the only remotely heroic character is the reporter guy. Knox is the only character to do any actual detective work and puts himself in harm's way to help people. Batman, on the other hand, is just a colossally incompetent dick.
The second thing to surprise me is that while Batman and Robin is still an incredibly bad movie, it's also the most internally consistent, committed, and constantly entertaining of the bunch. I'd go so far as to say it's the best of all the pre-Nolan flicks barring the 66 one. Go ahead and crucify me.