From the beginning of the title sequence of the movie "Batman Forever" and from the first dialog between Batman (Val Kilmer replacing Michael Keaton) and his butler Afred (Michael Gough), we can feel that there's obviously something in that movie that makes things different from the first two Tim Burton movies.
And what follows for the next two hours corresponds exactly with what you were expecting. The film is far less dark and it is fulfilled with action, explosions and gaudy images, just like a James Bond flick. It is obvious enough that the new director Joel Schumacher has a vision which is the opposite of Burton's one.
Schumacher seems to be a filmmaker who grew up with the campy TV series from the '60s which starred Adam West and Burt Ward. The movie "Forever" looks like a conjugation of that series and the atmosphere from the Burton movies and Schumacher never hesitates to include references from that series and the first two films. Unfortunately, this is a disastrous move...
At the very beginning, we assist to a gravity-less confrontation between Batman and coin-flipping, disfigured gangster Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), whose only purpose is to give an introduction without rushing anything in. By the way, we assist to the introduction of Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman), a psychologist who tries to seduce Batman, but she falls in love with Bruce Wayne.
One night at the circus, Two-Face kills the members of the Grayson family, an acrobat group, except the youngest one Dick (Chris O'Donnell). Bruce Wayne then offers to Dick to accommodate him. But the boy quickly discovers his host's secret. Progressively, Dick wins Wayne's trust and he's allowed to become Batman's sidekick, Robin.
At the same time, the Riddler, aka Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey), arrives. Nygma is the inventor of the Box, an apparatus having the capacity of picking up cerebral waves and transmitting them directly to the Riddler's brain.
While the first two movies only counted three main actors, this one has no less than five major characters. And of these five characters, two are good, two are bad and one is rather average.
It's Val Kilmer who's that average actor. His performance is correct, without being exceptional. We feel that he doesn't own that glum and tortured soul which Michael Keaton owned so well in the first movie. However, he is not insensitive and we can notice some moments of melancholy when he dreams about his parents' murder. He might be intelligent, but when he tries (and succeeds) in finding the Riddler's real identity, nobody can fall for his mental capacities. To sum up, his performance can be ranked in-between both Keaton roles.
After Vicki Vale and Selina Kyle, it's Chase Meridian's turn to fall in love with Bruce Wayne. But she is boring and often annoying, having practically no role to play, but the traditional damsel-in-distress role.
But it's Tommy Lee Jones who is the worst of them all. And yet, he was the ideal guy to play this part... if only he played it the right way. Jones' legendary serious and imperturbable mood should have been the main ingredient for Two-Face, but Jones decided to go over-the-top and transform himself into a wild man. And these are the results : he acts like a moron when he's happy and when he's not, he reacts like a child who has been stolen from his lollipop. One technical mistake involves that Two-Face flips his coin until he gets the option he wants, while it's not the way it works in the comics. But I have to admit that his make-up was pretty good and convincing.
On the good actors' side, we first find Chris O'Donnell who is surprisingly successful as Dick Grayson/Robin. We can feel his boiling and impetuous temperament after the murder of his family and the parallelism of this drama with Bruce Wayne's own tragedy acts like some sort of catalyst and brings out Wayne's dark memories, adding a slight, but essential psychological side to the film.
But it's Jim Carrey who steals the show as the Riddler. Contrary to Jones, Carrey plays his part like any other role he's played before, that is by being exuberant and maniacal. And he's so sensational that he unavoidably provokes laughter from the audience, should he act sensefully or not. Besides, I think that it's there that Jones made his mistake. He saw what Carrey was doing and thought that it was great, so he tried to act the same way. He just didn't realize that it wasn't working in his case.
Anyway, the whole movie is exuberant and over-the-top. This should explain the overabundant use of more-or-less adequate gadgets. The Batcave, which was previously a sinister place, now looks more like Q's headquarters. I was strongly disappointed to see the Batmobile rolling on the side of a building with the help of a grappling gun. And the idea of the fireproof cape under which Batman hides is frankly ridiculous.
Gotham City's architecture doesn't really change, but its peaceful and calm look is transgressed by the apparition of ludicrous billboards, like the giant luminous eye. And how could we forget the the incredibly stupid replica of the Statue of Liberty?
So, overall, "Batman Forever" is an attempt to make the franchise more accessible to those who didn't appreciate Tim Burton's dark and bizarre treatment.
But it's not necessary to be a fan of the series to realize at which point Schumacher's movie is silly and ridiculous. The director can try to redeem himself by strewing his work of references to win over the nostalgic ones, but it changes absolutely nothing. It can even make things worse...
"Batman Forever" might be superior to its 1997 sequel "Batman & Robin", which slightly rises its value, but it's far from receiving praises.
And what follows for the next two hours corresponds exactly with what you were expecting. The film is far less dark and it is fulfilled with action, explosions and gaudy images, just like a James Bond flick. It is obvious enough that the new director Joel Schumacher has a vision which is the opposite of Burton's one.
Schumacher seems to be a filmmaker who grew up with the campy TV series from the '60s which starred Adam West and Burt Ward. The movie "Forever" looks like a conjugation of that series and the atmosphere from the Burton movies and Schumacher never hesitates to include references from that series and the first two films. Unfortunately, this is a disastrous move...
At the very beginning, we assist to a gravity-less confrontation between Batman and coin-flipping, disfigured gangster Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), whose only purpose is to give an introduction without rushing anything in. By the way, we assist to the introduction of Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman), a psychologist who tries to seduce Batman, but she falls in love with Bruce Wayne.
One night at the circus, Two-Face kills the members of the Grayson family, an acrobat group, except the youngest one Dick (Chris O'Donnell). Bruce Wayne then offers to Dick to accommodate him. But the boy quickly discovers his host's secret. Progressively, Dick wins Wayne's trust and he's allowed to become Batman's sidekick, Robin.
At the same time, the Riddler, aka Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey), arrives. Nygma is the inventor of the Box, an apparatus having the capacity of picking up cerebral waves and transmitting them directly to the Riddler's brain.
While the first two movies only counted three main actors, this one has no less than five major characters. And of these five characters, two are good, two are bad and one is rather average.
It's Val Kilmer who's that average actor. His performance is correct, without being exceptional. We feel that he doesn't own that glum and tortured soul which Michael Keaton owned so well in the first movie. However, he is not insensitive and we can notice some moments of melancholy when he dreams about his parents' murder. He might be intelligent, but when he tries (and succeeds) in finding the Riddler's real identity, nobody can fall for his mental capacities. To sum up, his performance can be ranked in-between both Keaton roles.
After Vicki Vale and Selina Kyle, it's Chase Meridian's turn to fall in love with Bruce Wayne. But she is boring and often annoying, having practically no role to play, but the traditional damsel-in-distress role.
But it's Tommy Lee Jones who is the worst of them all. And yet, he was the ideal guy to play this part... if only he played it the right way. Jones' legendary serious and imperturbable mood should have been the main ingredient for Two-Face, but Jones decided to go over-the-top and transform himself into a wild man. And these are the results : he acts like a moron when he's happy and when he's not, he reacts like a child who has been stolen from his lollipop. One technical mistake involves that Two-Face flips his coin until he gets the option he wants, while it's not the way it works in the comics. But I have to admit that his make-up was pretty good and convincing.
On the good actors' side, we first find Chris O'Donnell who is surprisingly successful as Dick Grayson/Robin. We can feel his boiling and impetuous temperament after the murder of his family and the parallelism of this drama with Bruce Wayne's own tragedy acts like some sort of catalyst and brings out Wayne's dark memories, adding a slight, but essential psychological side to the film.
But it's Jim Carrey who steals the show as the Riddler. Contrary to Jones, Carrey plays his part like any other role he's played before, that is by being exuberant and maniacal. And he's so sensational that he unavoidably provokes laughter from the audience, should he act sensefully or not. Besides, I think that it's there that Jones made his mistake. He saw what Carrey was doing and thought that it was great, so he tried to act the same way. He just didn't realize that it wasn't working in his case.
Anyway, the whole movie is exuberant and over-the-top. This should explain the overabundant use of more-or-less adequate gadgets. The Batcave, which was previously a sinister place, now looks more like Q's headquarters. I was strongly disappointed to see the Batmobile rolling on the side of a building with the help of a grappling gun. And the idea of the fireproof cape under which Batman hides is frankly ridiculous.
Gotham City's architecture doesn't really change, but its peaceful and calm look is transgressed by the apparition of ludicrous billboards, like the giant luminous eye. And how could we forget the the incredibly stupid replica of the Statue of Liberty?
So, overall, "Batman Forever" is an attempt to make the franchise more accessible to those who didn't appreciate Tim Burton's dark and bizarre treatment.
But it's not necessary to be a fan of the series to realize at which point Schumacher's movie is silly and ridiculous. The director can try to redeem himself by strewing his work of references to win over the nostalgic ones, but it changes absolutely nothing. It can even make things worse...
"Batman Forever" might be superior to its 1997 sequel "Batman & Robin", which slightly rises its value, but it's far from receiving praises.
