This will the be the third time that I have sat down to write this entry. I completed it altogether the first time I attempted it, but Blogger lost all but the first paragraph after I went back in to edit a word. The second time, I was about two paragraphs in when I just lost interest and scraped the whole thing. This time around I am dedicated to rewriting it. So let's get started.
I was recently home sick from work flipping through the channels trying to find something on daytime television that wasn't about going back to school or filing for workers compensation. That's when I stumbled across a movie that I haven't seen in a long time.
I loved the Batman movies when I was a kid. I can still remember the summer day in 1989 when my father took the whole family to see Batman. I absolutely loved that movie and the sequel Batman Returns. But there was something different about Batman Forever. Actually, there were a lot of things that were different. First of all, that's the same Alfred and Commissioner Gordon, but that's not Michael Keaton as Batman! I soon found out why this movie looked and felt so much different from the first two movies. This movie was not directed by Tim Burton, but Joel Schumacher.
Batman Forever clearly seems to be directed towards a younger audience, but why? Tim Burton's Batman was a great success and this is still part of that same series. If the studio wanted to make the movie differently, why didn't they just reboot the franchise? Probably because they already had an audience and a reboot would NEVER work.
I don't have anything against Val Kilmer as an actor. In fact I really like him. And I think we can all agree that Tommy Lee Jones is a great actor, but I'm not sure if he was really trying to play Harvey Dent/Two Face or just another version of The Joker. If you remember in the first Tim Burton's Batman Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent. I heard that Williams was set to play a more prominent role as Two Face in a future sequel, but once Joel Schumacher took over as director he had Billy Dee Williams' contract paid off so that he could cast Jones. When I first heard this I was a little bummed, but now I feel like Williams lucked out.
When it comes to casting I think Jim Carrey was a great choice for The Riddler. He was THE funny man at the time with the success of Ace Venture: Pet Detective, Dumb and Dumber, and The Cable Guy. He was definitely a good “get” for this one. As far as Chris O'Donnell, I have no opinion. What happened to that guy?
I feel like Schumacher was trying to recreate the 1960s Batman series. Was he even aware that Batman was based on a comic book? I have a feeling like Burton was more inspired by Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns version of a much darker Batman. Schumacher on the other hand used a lot of those crooked camera angles that were popular in the 60s Batman. Ok, so it's obvious what Schumacher was trying to do here, but keep in mind that this isn't his series really. He was taking over the series. Sure, every director should put there own touch on something, but again, the series should have just been rebooted.
You know what's really wrong with this movie? Batman had nipples. Seriously, he had nipples! What was that meeting like? “Joel, we're very pleased with what you are doing with our Batman franchise,. We don't really care about a story, but we need something to sell to the kids. Can we put nipples on Batman's suit? Kids love nipples!”
Also, what the fuck is up with all the neon? Did Gotham suddenly spend all of the city's income on neon lights? Even the Batmobile was tricked out in neon lights. What was wrong with the Batmobile before? Sure, there have been some pretty ridiculous versions of the Batmobile, but I think that Tim Burton's version was one of the coolest. Why would Batman want to light up his car. He should be more concerned about sneaking up on his enemies not give them a big bright warning sign.
Is this really a bad movie? No, I wouldn't say so. Hell, I really liked this movie as a kid. I even owned a copy of it on VHS. There are just some things that I never understood about the differences. I could write a whole other entry about the movie that followed, Batman and Robin, but it's already gone down in history as one of the worst films ever made.
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