Batman Forever (1995)

This is the 3rd part to my series on the Batman movies since 1989. So after the just bizarrely dark Batman Returns, Warner Brother studios wanted to go into a different direction with the Batman franchise.

They pushed Tim Burton into a production role and replaced him with Joel Schumacher. Audiences thought Batman Returns was too dark and the studios wanted a more family friendly Batman. What's interesting about Schumacher is that he has a dark side as well. Obviously not to the level of Tim Burton but he did Flatliners, The Lost Boys, and everyone knows St. Elmo's Fire was dark as hell (sarcasm of course) But jokes aside, we often forget this man brought the live action film of Phantom of the Opera. Not saying it was a good movie but it was by no means a light movie. It was just... different. The same can be said about Batman Forever. 

The basic premise is, Batman's doing his thing but now played by Iceman from Top Gun (Val Kilmer). When a disgruntled employee of Wayne Enterprises finds new brain manipulating technology, The Riddler is born (played by Jim Carey). He along with Harvey "Two-Face" Dent (played by Tommy Lee Jones) are out to make trouble for Gotham City. All the while Bruce Wayne fights his double life with the added drama of a psychologist (played by Nicole Kidman) who he has a thing for, but she like's his alter ego better. 

The first thing I have to say about this movie is that Gotham city had a face lift. 

A CGI face lift

Now this may have looked good and cool in the mid 90's. Now it just looks stupid. (Maybe it looked stupid then, I don't know) What also confuses me about this set is that there are multiple scenes where the set is in actual locations that look nothing like the bullshit above. Lots of the times, the sets look real and realistic, and others it looks like a unicorn threw up a rainbow on the city. 

But believe it or not, I didn't mind it all that much. Yeah the CGI looks really shitty, but this looks like Gotham. The Gotham I imagine is very gaudy on the surface but you get to the lower levels, that's when things get weird, that's where the crime is, that is what Batman is fighting. It's the duality of world Bruce Wayne lives in. I don't know maybe I'm looking too into it than I should but the bottom line is, despite the crappy CGI, I didn't mind this Gotham. It looked like a cartoon, or dare I say, a comic book. It didn't look like Nightmare Before Christmas Gotham, it looked like Gotham, the way we knew it was suppose to be.

The second thing is you may realize that I didn't mention Dick Grayson in the summary. Well that's because it takes this movie a while to bring Dick Grayson into the mix. When he comes in there is a parallel between Grayson losing his family and Bruce Wayne's memory of his. But I will talk more about Dick Grayson later.

Bruce Wayne

Now if you've read my earlier posts, you may be wondering what I thought of Val Kilmer as Batman  in comparison with Michael Keaton. The answer to that question is... kinda? I think Michael Keaton is a better actor than Kilmer, but I am kind of the opinion that Val Kilmer was a better Bruce Wayne/Batman combination.
Keaton was good at Batman, but I never really felt him as Bruce Wayne. With Kilmer I think he did a little bit better of a job portraying a millionaire with a little bit of a grounded personality. He's not a snobby rich guy, he's a down to earth kind of guy that happens to be rich. With Keaton, he just felt out of place in Wayne Manor and he never struck me as a businessman.
As Batman, Kilmer fills out the costume a little bit better. Batman actually looks like a force to be reckoned with. In still pictures he looks like of silly but don't let that fool you. I think he looks better than Keaton at least.

What I liked about this movie was that they actually explained why Bruce becomes the Batman. I thought that this was really lacking in the first two films as villains were often overshadowing Bruce Wayne. Lots of times Burton just created his crazy world and the put Batman in. He didn't always fit, especially in Batman Returns. Did Kilmer do a great job portraying the inner struggles of Bruce Wayne... kinda? I knew what they were doing and the script allowed me to understand, even if I wasn't totally convinced.

Now with all the praise I've give Kilmer's performance, I will say Kilmer is not a great actor. There were several moments where he had the same exact expression on his face no matter what he was talking about. He never seemed to open his mouth when he talked.
And then there was this...

That smile is just creepy

 And then there was a line that just confused me. Bruce Wayne is talking about Dr. Chase Meridian (Oh and believe me, we'll get to her) and he tells Alfred that he's never been in love before... Really Bruce? You've never been in love before? Are we just pretending that Vicki Vale and Selina Kyle never happened? Well no because at one point Dr. Chase mentions that rumors had floated around that Batman and Catwoman had a thing. But Vicki Vale? Did that ever happen?

This brings up another problem with this movie. It kind of forgets a lot of the events of the last movies. Yes the movie had a new director but that doesn't mean that you drop all the cannon from before. It's a small line but it kind of bothered me only because I kinda liked Vicki Vale from the first movie. In fact, I really liked the first movie. Don't you dare just forget the first movie, that movie is why you're in existence, without that movie you wouldn't be here right now.

Batman continues to seem to have an open relationship with Commissioner Gordon which in the second movie threw me off but in this movie I was used to it. Batman works with the police but it still seems like a secret relationship. And I think in this universe, it works.

I'm not really sure why Val Kilmer didn't return as Batman. Rumors say he had other commitments, other rumors say he had difficulties working with Schumacher. Either way, from what I've heard, Kilmer dodged a bullet by not being in Batman and Robin

Dr. Chase Meridian

As much as I liked Vicki Vale as a romance interest to Bruce Wayne, for some reason Nicole Kidman plays that role a lot better. And I feel like a psychologist is a perfect match for Bruce Wayne because obviously he has some serious issues that none of the actors that have played him so far have been able to latch onto.

Nicole Kidman plays this character similar to a lot of characters she plays. Overtly sexual. And that's... that's pretty cool. She's almost too sexual which again confuses me about this movie. It's suppose to be more family friendly and Kidman just wants to get it on with Batman. I'm not complaining, just an observation. Kidman epitomizes the sexy girlfriend of the 90's and she is a champ at it. And Dr. Chase is a badass. An over the top badass, but a badass nonetheless.

She's like Jessica Rabbit... but real

Kidman plays a character drawn to both sides of Bruce Wayne. Him and the Bat. She also plays a role in the discovery of why Bruce Wayne became Batman.

But beyond that... she doesn't really do anything in this movie. Commissioner Gordon brings her in to help with situations with Two-Face and the Riddler but she doesn't do much.

Regardless of the lack of action she has, I love Nicole Kidman in this movie. I'm not a big fan of her other work but this movie gets a pass in my book... Chase Meridian is one smoking love interest.

The Riddler

The Riddler gives me a confused reaction. On one hand, I love Jim Carrey as the Riddler, and on the other hand I really hate Jim Carrey as the Riddler. Maybe I just love the idea of Carrey as the Riddler and I don't like how he was executed.

Regardless the Riddler was not what I expected. Like a lot of comic book characters, I don't know the complete origin of the Riddler but I do know that he cannot kill his victims without challenging himself. I watched a documentary on Batman villains and the Riddler is actually a kind of sociopath who wants to get caught. He creates a series of puzzles for Batman to figure out. The riddles are his gag. Unfortunately, this Riddler doesn't do enough riddles. They're there but they're not prevalent enough. This Riddler is more focused on manipulating brain waves with his machines. He's more of a scientist rather than a genius mastermind. His genius isn't even his, he steals people's IQs with his machine. Even when all the riddles he's given amount in the end, Batman figures them out in the most rushed way possible its insulting to the entire character of the Riddler unfortunately.
And then there's the costume...

The costume started out so great... Once he took off his hat I just said... The Riddler's a ginger?
More importantly, the skin tight body suit was just... weird.
Edward Nigma was just odd... He works for Bruce Wayne and he is obsessed with him. When Bruce shoots down his ideas, he calls upon the help of Harvey Two-Face Dent to build up a fortune and build his brain sucking machine.
Before I go into that duo, I want to talk about Nigma.

He starts out looking like this. When he gets money, he looks like this

I feel like this Edward Nigma can still be an obsessed sociopath without looking like a crazy person. And then there's performances like this:

Spoilers: Duh

 There is actually a line where Carrey asks if one of the actions he did was, and I quote "Was that over the top? I can never tell." No Shit Jim... No shit. Lots of times it just feels like you're watching Jim Carrey in a Riddler costume, not the Riddler.

That being said, I like how they made the Riddler dark. Was it the dark I wanted? No. Do I think Tim Burton could have done the Riddler better? Oh hell yes. Would it have been really really weird? Probably but that's okay. Overall I guess I like Jim Carrey's Riddler. It's not an Oscar Winning Performance but it'll do for an entertaining Batman flick

Two-Face

and then there's Two-Face...

Tommy Lee Jones really went in a weird direction with this character. I love Jones but I have no idea what he was doing with this role. Now it's not his fault they decided to make him look like half the jolly purple giant in drag but still... the performance is just... odd. I get that it had to fall into the theme of there is always two sides to a person... like Batman. But they made the two sides of Two-Face painfully obvious. Also is it not kind of funny that Drew Barrymore was one of Tommy Lee Jones's nameless whores?

But seriously Tommy Lee. Did you just have to pay some bills or what with this movie? I mean its good to know that Jones has a fun side and hopefully he took the job because he wanted a fun role... or maybe he needed a paycheck. 

Either way, I've probably been spoiled by the Dark Knight Trilogy because the origin story of Harvey Dent is so overlooked in this movie its sad. They go over it in a TV clip, it was so rushed. Probably because he's not a complex character... even though he really could be... if he was Billy Dee Williams.

In case you forgot, Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent in the first Batman movie. His contract expected him to be in sequels and eventually become Two-Face. Warner Brothers had to buy out that part of the contract to hire Tommy Lee Jones. 

It's not a huge deal as the character was nothing important. In fact it was probably good for Williams. Maybe I just want Lando Calrissian in more stuff. 

Now the funny thing is, the two kind of work well as a team... and then on the other hand, I just kept thinking this many times. 

There's a lot of moments where these two oddly close...

That's really the only complaint I have of them. They're over the top, sometimes they just laugh, shake, scream, and jump around for no reason but they're not bad villains. It doesn't really make sense why they're working together but I guess it works for this movie. 

Robin

And then there is Robin. Dick Grayson is the son of a family of trapeze artists who are killed by Two-Face. Grayson then vows revenge by killing Two-Face. When he realizes that Bruce Wayne, the man who took him in after his parents are dead, is Batman, he insists he be his partner in crime, fighting bad guys and eventually getting to Two-Face.

The problem with this is that it has nothing to do with the main story. Sure Dick Grayson is in a similar situation that Bruce Wayne is but beyond that he serves no purpose. They could have done this entire movie without him and it probably would have been better. Chris O'Donnell is really not a good actor so he doesn't give Robin much beyond what we expect him as, a whiney addition to the awesomeness of Batman. 

My point is, Robin did not have to be in this movie... plain and simple. 

However, the Holy Rusted Metal Batman line, although stupid... was a little bit clever that they added that nod to the movie. It gives me a little bit of comfort to know they cared enough to put in fan service like that and Grayson almost calling himself Nightwing. I appreciate that. But overall I just didn't see the point of Grayson in this movie. I'm not going to delve into it anymore than that. He was stupid, whiny, and had no point. Nuff said.

Despite the pointlessness of Robin, the ambiguous gayness of Riddler and Two-Face, the subpar acting of Val Kilmer, and the kid friendly tone, despite Batman killing multiple nameless henchmen and Nicole Kidman's sexual overtones, I liked Batman Forever. Is it my favorite 90's Batman movie? No. Was it the worst? Absolutely not. That is reserved for the next movie in line...

Overall the movie was fun, worth a watch if not only for Nicole Kidman... damn..

And hey... at least it was better than Batman and Robin...

So have you seen Batman Forever? Did you like Val Kilmer? Jim Carrey? Nicole Kidman? Who am I kidding, who didn't like Kidman? Who is your favorite Batman villain? Comment Below and let me know

_____________________________________Update______________________________________

One other great thing that came out of this movie was the music video from Seal's Kiss From a Rose...

What a douche...