TServo2049 said:

And as to how dark the first Batman was, I have a theory. It had to have been dark enough that the Joker reveal actually worked. In every video transfer of the film, when he's standing in the shadows talking to Grissom, you can make out his face (to differing degrees depending on which transfer). But I just can't believe that Burton would have intended this; the original prints had to have had blacks sufficiently deep so as to almost completely hide him in darkness until he steps out into the light and says "You can call me...JOKER!"

That's interesting. I always enjoyed the fact that you could almost see his face but not quite make it out entirely. The way Grissom winces and strains his eyes trying to get a better look at Jack while he's talking as if he can see that something isn't quite right but it's too dark to see what is exactly how I felt watching it. I feel the scene would lose some of it's creepiness if Jack were entirely in silhouette up until the reveal so I'd prefer to think that was intended. It would be interesting to see how the final script describes that scene as the reveal is such a key moment. All I can find online are earlier drafts in which Jack is hiding his face with a muffler.

I agree that the movie should definitely be darker though. I saw the movie in the cinema in 1990 when I was 11 and right from when I got hold of the first-release VHS tape the following year, I thought that it was too light and grey compared to the deep blacks that scared the hell out me the first time I saw it. No home video release has ever reminded me of how I first saw that movie.