So with this we’ve entered the second half of the Batman franchise that both resurrected and then ultimately put the nail in the coffin of comic book movies. But that’s a story for next time.
Here we’re presented with a Tim Burton production of a Joel Schumacher film and “mixed bag” can barely begin to describe it. Burton built the foundation and now Schumacher has come in to chip away at it.
Let me preface this by saying, when I first saw this movie in theaters in 1995, I was at the perfect age for it, and I LOVED Batman Forever. But I’m sad to report, it didn’t grow up with me and now it’s a bit of a struggle to sit through.
But it was the right movie at the right time despite time not being kind to it.
THE GOOD
Val Kilmer is actually great in this.
For a change, Batman is actually at the center of his own movie and Kilmer is up to the task. In some ways he’s even, dare I say it, a better Bruce Wayne than Michael Keaton. He just feels more comfortable in the role of the handsome playboy with a secret and we completely buy ever second of it. Kilmer has been great in a lot of other roles and this is no exception as he effortlessly fills the Bat suit, making it his own, despite occasionally being fed dumb dialog like “I’ll get drive thru.”
With Burton out, Elfman didn’t stick around either so Elliot Goldenthal stepped in to take over scoring duties and it actually turned out pretty good. The new Batman theme is distinct and memorable and he takes it in a new direction. It matches the tone of the movie and comes across very triumphant and confident so the tradition of a memorable score in a Batman movie continues here.
Tommy Lee Jones is the worst. I was too young to realize it at the time and was easily entertained I guess, but man this was BAD. They took one of Batman’s greatest, most tragic villains, and stripped him of everything that made him interesting. We never got to see Two-Face represented on the Adam West series, but this version would have fit right in. Jones chews the scenery up like nobody’s business and I could write an essay on how much I can’t stand this bastardized version of Harvey Dent but I’ll just leave it at that for now.
Jim Carrey’s Riddler does not get much more love from me. After an especially hammy delivery he asks Batman “Was that over the top? I can never tell.” The answer is yes, a thousand times YES. This is not the Riddler, it’s Jim Carrey in a Riddler costume.
This is when Carrey was at the height of his popularity and pretty much was called in to do what he does best which meant not turning in a performance based on character but just playing Ace Ventura again but with more question marks on his wardrobe this time. It gets worse and worse as the movie goes on.
Whereas Burton’s movies tried to move as far away from people’s memories of the Adam West show, this one seemed to embrace it from the Batmobile driving up the sides of buildings to Robin’s “Holy Rusted Metal, Batman” joke, etc. Schumacher was brought on with the intention of making Batman kid-friendly again but he didn’t need to backtrack.
Speaking of Schumacher, I’m sure he made the studio happy or they wouldn’t have brought him on for the follow up, so I won’t hammer him too hard this time around, but he definitely could have reigned in some of these performances and made a movie that was less cartoony than the cartoon at the time.
Other new additions to the franchise are Chris O’Donnell as Dick Grayson and Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian.
I wouldn’t go as far as to say that they brought the movie down but they didn’t do anything to elevate it either. Dick Grayson eventually becomes Robin by the movie’s end and Chase reminds me of more of a Bond girl in her look and name than any of the previous Bat love interests.
She’s little more than eye candy and is of course obsessed with Batman which is the extent of her role.
THE BAT
Franchise mainstays Alfred (Michael Gough) and Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle) return, the only major consistency that ties these movies into the previous ones and cements the fact that they are in fact connected and this is a continuation of those entries despite the tonal shift and recasting of our lead.
The only other tip off is when Chase refers to Catwoman briefly but not directly by name, proving to Batman that she’s done her homework and read up on him.
Other nuggets include a mention of Metropolis, tying this into the greater DC universe, as well as our first glimpse at Arkham Asylum. Another Easter egg includes Dick suggesting Nightwing as a possible name for his superhero identity.
Although this movie gets a lot wrong, when recapping Harvey Dent’s origin and how he was scarred, they actually get this part right showing Boss Maroni on the stand in the courtroom dousing him with acid.
They elude to this in The Dark Knight when Maroni pulls a gun on Dent, but here we have the correct origin intact, proving that even though you get some of the details right, it doesn’t mean a thing if you don’t execute it properly and that’s the ONLY thing about Two-Face they did right (we’ll get into that later).
Robin’s origin is a bit muddled as well. His parents’ accident plays out somewhat the same except this time they add a brother into the mix for some inexplicable reason to add to the pain I guess. The biggest change though is having Two-Face be responsible as opposed to Maroni because as we know, in Batman movie-world, it has to be a major villain that created a superhero and not some crook nobody’s ever heard of (see: Joker filling in for Joe Chill in Batman).
One thing though that’s crazy to me, is how Batman lectures Robin throughout giving him the speech about how revenge is not good and killing is bad, and yet by the end, he essentially causes Two-Face to plummet to his death and makes no attempt to save him. But I guess they had to tie up lose ends somehow seeing as Harvey now knew Batman’s true identity.
Speaking of tying up lose ends, what about Sugar and Spice?
They got away and presumably they know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. So in other words, I’m holding out for the return of Sugar and Spice to come back and get their revenge after 20 years of plotting.
THE ROGUES
Ok, so after giving us Joker, Penguin, and Catwoman, I guess the next logical villain to tackle was Riddler since he’s one of the more widely recognized villains thanks to the Adam West series. Clearly that is where they took their cues from based on Carrey’s performance. We know he’s a genius because they keep telling us he is, but he doesn’t really show it.
Looking back at how Batman: The Animated Series tackled the character, they treated him with more respect than a gimmicky outcast who occasionally spouts, “Riddle me this.” In BTAS, he SOUNDED smart. Here, it sounds like Carrey is auditioning for The Mask. I don’t buy him in this role or even his master plan. The whole ploy feels more like a Mad Hatter scheme to me, which they could have easily done by swapping out hats and losing a few riddles and the plot would have essentially functioned the same.
This is more-or-less Riddler’s movie as we get his whole origin and he comes up with the grand scheme, bringing in Two-Face as muscle because, of course, they have to team up. They’re an odd pairing really and I don’t see how or why they chose to put these two in a movie together.
Speaking of Two-Face…
Sigh. Thankfully Harvey has since been redeemed on the big screen, but this was a pretty low point. I absolutely HATED the fact that Two-Face would flip his coin multiple times until he got his way, which COMPLETELY defeats the point. His duality consisted of referring to himself as “us” or playing to the camera with the whole “me” (does a 180) “and ME” bit which was so campy it hurt.
Two-Face was one of my favorite villains growing up and it was in no way because of this movie. In the animated series they introduce him first as Harvey Dent, and then we get to see Big Bad Harv come out in a two-parter that is absolutely heartbreaking and tragic. It is the definitive Two-Face story (well, The Long Halloween is pretty amazing, but still!).
Here, he’s just a clown. WORSE than a clown cause he’s no Joker, even though he tries his hardest to be. I don’t really get what he’s doing in this movie except I guess to provide more action with his continuous failed attempts to kill Batman and then having a meltdown when it doesn’t work. He’s really bad at this. Because Jones has Carrey to compete with, who exhausts the range of his Carrey-isms, I guess Jones felt like he had to match him note for note and in doing so, makes a mockery of one of Batman’s best adversaries. Seriously, I could go on but what would be the point, what’s done is done.
This should have fallen under THE BAD, but while we’re on the topic, the villain’s costumes in this are atrocious. Say what you will about Penguin and Catwoman’s depictions but at least their outfits looked somewhat realistic and they stuck with them. Here, Jones and Carrey look like they’re trick ‘r treating (which is I guess how they convinced Alfred to open the door for them). I know Schumacher was getting a lot of studio pressure to make these movies more “toyetic” which explains why Carrey has FOUR costume changes (he even managed to squeeze in one more during the final battle).
And don’t even get me started on Two-Face’s animal print suit.
THE CONCLUSION
I actually used to blame this movie on Robin. It seemed to me that Burton was smart not to include him because as soon as they introduced him, it marked the sharp decline of the franchise. But honestly Robin is far from the worst thing about this movie. In fact, he’s barely in it.
The biggest problem, other than the messy handling of two of Batman’s greatest foes, is the terrible plotting. There’s the story of Robin shoehorned in there, and there’s Riddler’s origin, and the budding romance between Bruce and Chase, and then whatever the hell Two-Face does, but there’s no real plot thread connecting any of it. It’s just a bunch of scenes with no flow. Kilmer deserved a better Bat movie. We all did.
But I can say with complete confidence that it’s the best Batman movie directed by Joel Schumacher. Oh, you say he directed one other Batman movie? Oh, that movie was Batman & Robin? Well then…
Hey, at least this movie gave us Seal’s Kiss From a Rose, right? You can’t take that away from it.
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