Wednesday 13 August 2008

Batman Forever


Tim Burton departed as director and acted as producer for Batman Forever and Joel Schumacher took over (Flatliners, The Lost Boys, Phone Booth) the reigns from Burton, unfortunately in this case.

Batman Forever was a return to camp Batman, camp comic style films and a return to the bad. Don’t get me wrong I really thought that Val Kilmer was a great choice for Batman and he made Michael Keaton look pathetic as Batman. The cast is fantastic with Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey the perfect bad guys and Nicole Kidman the beautiful love interest.

How could a director get a film so badly wrong with such a brilliant cast? The only man who knows that is Joel Schumacher. I thought Jim Carrey was very good at times as The Riddler however he was far too annoying and for me The Riddler wasn’t as evil as he could’ve been. The Riddler is next to The Joker the best bad guy in the Batman comics and it could’ve been so, so much better. Tommy Lee Jones was very good as Harvey Dent / Two Face and he did the role proud and himself. Aaron Eckhart in The Dark Knight plays a different Dent but ultimately better despite Tommy Lee Jones solid performance.

Nicole Kidman was pretty cringe worthy at times and her scenes with Val Kilmer were not ones I enjoyed. Now. Robin, why? I think Robin is pathetic and any director who believes in the character of Robin should not be making Batman films. The choice to include Robin seemed very random and Chris O’Donnell was fairly lame as Robin.

What pretty much saved the film was Val Kilmer’s performance as Batman and at times Carrey as The Riddler and of course Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face. Otherwise this would be simply getting zero out of ten. Please don’t let Schumacher near any comic book adaptation ever again, and please Christopher Nolan don’t ever, ever bring back Robin.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

jim carrey is hilarious. camp and over the top. But I loved it as a kid