Batman Forever
The total and utter collapse of the Tim Burton / Michael Keaton Batman Universe is one of the most tragic in cinematic history. Burton as director had rocked most people’s consciousness with his 1989 franchise debut, proving that Batman can escape the shackles of its 1960s camp TV show origins and stand on its own two feet in modern times as serious, adult oriented, (and most importantly) SOPHISTICATED entertainment, plus having Jack Nicholson contribute an amazing performance as The Joker made it all the more worthwhile. Then in 1992 came the brilliantly dark and gothic Returns, featuring Danny DeVito’s uninhibited turn as The Penguin along with Michelle Pfeiffer also achieving iconic status as Catwoman while Keaton stoically continued to carry the franchise. But Returns actually turned out to be SO dark and dreary that at first parents’ groups complained and then (even worse) McDonalds threatened to pull out of a merchandising tie in campaign if Burton was not replaced immediately. That was good enough for Warner Brothers to relieve Burton of his duties, allowing him the consolation prize of serving as a producer on this 1995 followup as Joel Schumacher (a good director if working with good material) was brought in to helm Part 3 in the series. But turmoil would still reign: Keaton asked that the script be rewritten and overhauled and when Schumacher told him no, Keaton would walk away from what would no doubt have been a lucrative payday. Burton’s original concept of using The Riddler as the primary villain was retained and the excitement level of many when Robin Williams reportedly committed to the part was tempered when he too expressed issues with the problematic script, leading to him being dropped and recast with Jim Carrey (himself an enticing choice for the part or so we thought). Then Schumacher called an audible away from Burton’s concept, deciding that the film would also feature Harvey Dent in his villainous persona of Two Face, but the issue there was with Billy Dee Williams (who had played Dent in Burton’s 1989 original) being contractually guaranteed the role of that villain should he ever be used in a film, a notion that Schumacher rejected which led to Williams being paid in full his contracted salary just so that Tommy Lee Jones could legally be cast as Two Face. The irony is that all of these big names (which would also include Nicole Kidman as psychiatrist Dr. Chase Meridian, herself an original character never previously used in the comic books and for which Kidman was a more age appropriate replacement for Rene Russo who was originally cast opposite Keaton) were essentially all in the absolute primes of their careers and yet still the finished movie turned out to be such a dud, fully vindicating Burton and featuring a script that had dialogue which sounded like it was written by a five year old with learning disabilities. It didn’t take long for the disgruntled players to mark their territories, with Kilmer and Schumacher famously clashing early and often and with at least one physical altercation coming out of it which guaranteed that this was both Kilmer’s first and final go around playing the character. But the problems would go deeper than that with both lead villains Carrey and Jones butting heads throughout production with the belief that Tommy Lee Jones’ end of it was based on his intense dislike of Carrey’s previous work (Ace Ventura, Dumb And Dumber) leading to an inherent lack of respect on Tommy Lee’s part. The film’s one notably positive aspect was with the full introduction and development of the Dick Grayson / Robin character (something which Burton had toyed with the idea of doing but never pulled the trigger on) played well enough by Chris O’Donnell. The viewer knows that we’re in trouble right away when Kilmer’s Batman is immediately called into action and does a lame McDonald’s promo line (“I’ll eat drive thru.”) and then it’s headlong into Tommy Lee’s interpretation of Two Face with Jones never even being given the chance to show us the dedicated District Attorney who had gone insane after being scarred with acid and instead it’s just Tommy Lee in full cackling insanity mode even though judging from the performance that he gives here that it might have been wise to remind him that he was NOT playing The Joker (a cackling, maniacal, sometimes childlike psychopath) and to reign his Two Face in a bit more to be the brooding, even tempered tragic figure who is dependent on his coin to make decisions (something Aaron Eckhardt would get right a decade later). But no: here Two Face is just a crazed clown and things would get no better when paired up with Jim Carrey’s Edward Nygma, first shown as a Wayne Enterprises employee who seems to have a bizarre man crush on Bruce Wayne, but his real passion project is that he has invented a device (The Box) which projects TV images into people’s minds to have a 3D effect while at the same time stealing their brainwaves to increase the intelligence of a host figure (Nygma himself). After being fired from Wayne Enterprises over concerns about the unethical uses of such a device, Nygma vows revenge, takes on his Riddler persona, and personally heads straight over to Two Face’s lair, promising not only to share the power of the device with him but also to use it to help destroy Batman himself, which is something that these two should have succeeded in doing about 2/3rds of the way through the film when they DISCOVER BATMAN’S TRUE IDENTITY AND THEN PROCEED TO DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WITH THAT KNOWLEDGE. Just as well, since Riddler and Two Face’s entire schtick here is in having the two stars literally taking turns back and forth in front of the camera showing off their craziness and since Carrey was obviously being allowed to free form adlib his way through his role, it just makes Jones’ more scripted Two Face look that much worse. As for Kilmer, he plays Bruce Wayne as a soft spoken stiff, rarely projecting the tormented aspects of the character that Keaton had captured so well and the scenes between Kilmer and Kidman (giving what is most likely the least subtle female performance in history) reeks of stilted, amateur hour dialogue, not to mention Kidman (who does look good) might as well be wearing a sign around her neck saying “fuck me” every time she encounters Batman in person and her attempts to make educated psychiatric analysis only result in Kidman making a fool out of herself. As cringe worthy as their scenes are, it’s really a toss up between them and Carrey’s wildly inappropriate approach to the Riddler character (although much of it is a direct homage to Frank Gorshin’s 1960s TV version which makes sense since Carrey is known to have been influenced by Gorshin himself and his overall body of work), tossing off so many adlibs and madcap comedy moments that the character should have just been renamed Ace Ventura: Master Villain. And then there’s O’Donnell, looking past all of the other nonsense and just giving us a believable, credible Greyson, complete with a harrowing depiction of his family’s deaths and his own bonding with (the returning) Michael Gough’s Alfred after arriving at Wayne Manor as Bruce’s ward (i.e. foster care), incidents which in and of themselves serve to trigger Bruce’s own repressed memories which leads to Wayne being resistant to Grayson’s insistence on being his crime fighting partner, Robin. The film succeeds in getting so much of the Grayson stuff right that it becomes a glaring contrast to all of the other lame happenings, as Two Face and Riddler carry out some robberies (ostensibly to finance Riddler starting his own tech company to market his mind control product), Kidman and Kilmer engage in constant witless banter that’s supposed to indicate that they’ve fallen in love or something, and O’Donnell gets his first of two shots at the Robin character even as that falls flat towards the end (“Holy twisted metal, Batman”). With all of the issues on display here that only wind up redeeming Burton and his own work on the franchise, the greatest riddle of them all remains just how and why Schumacher was even allowed to direct yet another Batman movie after this one…?
4/10