Rating of
2/4
Was that over the top? I can never tell.
MikeInMotion - wrote on 08/16/12
Batman Returns was too dark for some people, so they decided to get rid of Tim Burton and get somebody who can deliver a more light-hearted affair. Enter Joel Schumacher, and enter the beginning of the end of every good thing about the previous Batman films. All of the intrigue, the complexities, and the excitement that came with Burton’s films have been replaced with campiness, bad acting, and a pretty forgettable script. Batman Forever isn’t the worst movie ever made, but considering the two films that came before it, it is very disappointing.
The story involves Two-face and The Riddler this time around as the main villains. The Riddler (played perfectly by Jim Carrey) plans to suck the brainwaves out of Gotham’s residents through a box on their TVs and transfer them to his own brain to become smarter, leaving those who were used as vegetables. Yes, I am serious. Two-Face (played way too over the top by Tommy Lee Jones) is just a crook who wants to wreak havoc on Gotham, but The Riddler persuades him into joining him, as it would benefit both parties involved. That pretty much sums up the plot. Batman Forever doesn’t spend much time with motives or reasoning and just goes straight for the action.
Michael Keaton did not want to return as Batman for this film, and he was replaced with Val Kilmer. Val Kilmer just does not have any of the charm or wit that Michael Keaton has. He is very plain, rarely shows any kind of facial expression other than complete blankness, and honestly doesn’t get much from the script to change that expression. It seems they were perfectly fine with Batman being a much more stale character, surprising seeing as they were going for a campier and brighter mood.
One of the biggest changes in Batman Forever is that we now have Robin as the sidekick (played by Chris O’Donnell). Robin’s family was killed by Two-Face, and Bruce Wayne offers to take him under his wing. What this leads to is a lot of scenes of Robin whining and wanting to be a rebel. All he wants is to get revenge on Two-Face, but Bruce Wayne, being the mentor, is trying to warn him that revenge makes nothing better. Robin’s story is pretty interesting, but they definitely needed a better actor to play him so people would actually care about that story.
Of course, it’s not a Batman movie if there isn’t a love interest, and this time around it’s Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, a psychiatrist. Her character is pretty one dimensional as well, which is odd considering she is somebody who deals with the human mind. From the beginning, she falls head over heals for Bruce Wayne/Batman and spends most of the runtime trying to seduce him into liking her as well. When you have a romance that involves two dull-as-dirt characters, let’s just say it doesn’t lead to much intrigue.
I can understand what the studio was going for with this film, I really can. The darkness of the previous Batman film was off-putting to many, and they decided it was time to make a change in order to possibly salvage the series and keep interest in it. The only thing that I can say that worked in this film was The Riddler. The whacky comedy that he brings to the film is the kind of campiness that really works. Unfortunately, most of the other ideas are very half-baked ones, and they could not come up with a script or actors to properly interpret the direction they wanted to go in.
