Blu Review: BATMAN FOREVER12 – 121mins – 1995
Story by: Lee Batchler and Janet Scott-Batchler
Screenplay by: Lee Batchler, Janet Scott-Batchler and Akiva Goldsman
Based on the characters created by: Bob Kane and Bill Finger
Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O’Donnell, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, Drew Barrymore, Debi Mazar, Ed Begley Jnr.
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Congratulations to Ian Montgomery for deciphering the correct answer to my prior-posted riddle (reacquaint yourselves HERE); alas, I've no prize to give away except the pride for being right. The rather obvious answer was, of course, Batman Forever, and my microcosmic brain-teaser ushers in the second in my sporadic and unchronological blitz through Bat flicks old and new which I began last month with Batman & Robin (read my long-but-fair review HERE, if you dare!).
The second sequel to Tim Burton’s 1989 gothic big screen introduction, Forever is unofficially regarded as the beginning of the end of the first anthology of Bat-busters: Burton was reduced to producer and Joel Schumacher brought in as director because studio heads at Warner Bros. were concerned that 1992’s Returns was too dark and the mood needed lightening (a decision they thoroughly regretted some two years later when B&R’s dire reception lead to the canning of proposed fifth film Batman Triumphant).
Previous lead Michael Keaton (wisely) jumped ship and Val Kilmer was brought in – without reading the script in must be noted, leading to many an on-set conflict and the need to replace him for B&R – as the billionaire with a penchant for violent do-gooding. Despite playing Harvey Dent in Batman, Billy Dee Williams wasn’t even considered for the role of the disfigured D.A. “Two Face” here, the dubious honour instead going to Tommy Lee Jones. Michael Gough as butler Alfred and Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon returned as reassurance that we are still in the same diegetic universe.
Prior to my rewatching of Batman & Robin, I did actually attempt to watch Forever first, sticking on the disc one evening in the hope of rekindling my childhood love of the film. I say attempt because I didn’t even get beyond eccentric inventor Edward Nygma’s (Jim Carrey) brain-draining murder of his boss, Fred Stickley (Ed Begley Jnr.), before my irritation reached fever pitch and I turned it off. The juxtaposition between moody and mad just didn’t sit well with me – at least B&R knew it was camp frivolity and never attempted to be anything else, whereas I found Forever to be awkwardly stuck between darkness and lighthearted.Last week, however, I prepared myself and made it all the way through. In fact, I re-evaluated my exasperation because I realised how ironically apt it is that a film which deals with a menagerie of duplicitous and delusional wack-jobs is indeed a schizophrenic beast itself. “Two Face” is the literal visualisation of this juxtaposition, but Edward Nygma is also a genius with an unpredictably psychotic alter ego in “The Riddler”, and Bruce Wayne himself is a respected businessman who plays vigilante superhero dressed as a giant Bat. It’s no wonder a psychologist (Kidman's Dr. Chase Meridian) is playing the love interest with all these dual natures running rampant!
Fans bemoaned the bringing in of orphan Dick Grayson, AKA. sidekick Robin (Chris O’Donnell) – particularly because O’Donnell was too old for the “Boy Wonder” role – but I think this was handled well, even if it could be argued that Batman works better alone and doesn’t need a kid to assist him! The circus-based murder of Dick’s family at the hands of “Two Face” nicely mirrored Bruce’s pain of watching his own parent’s being shot down, while dressing the Flying Grayson’s in the same garish outfit which the camp 60’s TV version of Robin donned was a neat little in-joke (so too the tongue-in-cheek line “Holey rusted metal, Batman!”).
While the age-old movie complaint of “How the hell could these people afford all this equipment, costumes and interior renovations?!” does diminish the believability of The Riddler’s elaborate plan to drain Gotham’s brain-power and harness it for himself using his hi-tech Nymatech headgear (seriously, the giant construction and climactic island locale just appeared out of nowhere, already constructed and fully operational), but a number of vast script alterations mid-production did cut the film from a bum-numbing 2hours 40mins to the 121minute mark, so it is likely that a lot of exposition was lost in the chop.
Whether Joel Schumacher’s fabled Director’s Cut (missing from this otherwise decently thorough Blu-ray set) would successfully smooth over the jolts in tone (quipping one liners one minute to mournful moody reflection the next) remains to be seen, but what we are left with isn’t a complete shambles, it just fails to hit the heights of Burton’s pitch-black predecessors while slowly ushering in the toyetic exuberance which temporarily killed off the franchise in a blaze of neon inanity.
In a CR@B Shell: Uneven and dualistic in tone, Batman Forever is neither spectacular nor unwatchable (provided you’re prepared for the change in direction), but it is often awkward in its uncertainty of how sinister or zany to be – a flaw which is just as much the studio’s fault as it is Schumacher’s.
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Supported by an ensemble of colourful misfit cohorts (McLendon-Covey, Kemper and McCarthy), Annie and Helen attempt to give Lillian her dream send-off, but their competitive natures often lead to cringingly awkward but laugh-out-loud hilarious calamities which begin to threaten Annie’s friendship with Lillian – and her involvement in the fast-approaching nuptials.
While copious sly peephole shots create a fittingly claustrophobic atmosphere, Antti J. Jokinen’s voyeuristic thriller sadly falls short of success due to its lack of tension and a stripped down, linear plot. Within 10minutes Juliet is already paranoid of every creak and shuffle, and after just half an hour the timeline is reset to show Max stalking her every move, just out of camera.
But I've grown a lot, learned a lot and watched a lot since 2001, and I can now fully comprehend why these mesmerizing magical marvels have so enraptured a generation of children and adults alike. As the loose-end-tying encore, it was nigh-on guaranteed that Deathly Hallows Part Two would go out with an almighty bang – and in that sense this epic conclusion certainly does not disappoint: from a break-neck break-in to Bellatrix Lestrange's (Bonham Carter) private vault at Gringotts to a rallying of the troops prior to the last stand against He Who Shall Not Be Named's army of rabid Death Eaters, this fourth David Yates-directed instalment is almost non-stop action!
And before you ask: yes, this final film is by far the darkest of them all – as if you hadn't guessed the trend years ago! Death, destruction and disfigurement, giant spiders, ghostly apparitions and freaky Voldemort-shaped fetus-thingies (brace yourselves, kids!) are all in ripe supply in this sumptuous-yet-brutal clash of good versus evil.
Following a ridonkulously ma-hoosive box office take which guaranteed no magnitude of critical dissatisfaction would prevent a third instalment, Bay – after initially citing “my brain needs a break from fighting robots”– quickly changed his tune and set to work, promising any naysayers that the stoopid tomfoolery and dumb-ass robo-characters which disgraced RotF would be dialled down in favour of a return to the successful balance of fun and fighting achieved in the original.
Meanwhile, on a military-aiding mission to Chernobyl, Optimus and the Autobots discover a Decepticon-possessed fuel cell from the presumed destroyed Ark which leads them to the crash sight on the moon and the uncovering of an “off-line” Sentinel Prime (Nimoy) – the robot who Prime took over from as leader – and his creation, the Pillars, which, when used in unison, can open up a Space Bridge between two points in space. You with me so far?
When the camera remains stationary for long enough for you to immerse yourself in the diegesis, the 3D upgrade actually does impress – it’s just exceedingly rare that all hell isn’t breaking lose on screen leaving you lost for a single focal point. Our poor planet doesn’t exactly come out of Dark of the Moon all too well, with the plot all too frequently descending into a frenetic excuse for a fight with giant toys pummelling the scrap out of one enough and taking not just entire buildings but streets and pockets of petrified people with them too.
With a concept which drips “exotic”, "perverse" and “bizarre” from every pore, I was disappointed that this seventies incarnation was a rather flat and dispassionate depiction. Lancaster's Moreau may be visually akin to his prose namesake (something Brando's outlandish reinvention certainly wasn't), but he was far too calm and blasé for a man so utterly devoted to a cause that he is blind to reason. I never believed that he truly believed in his monstrous vision, and I likewise failed to sense a strong-enough objection from York's ostensibly outraged Braddock.
Too many of the sketches feel overlong; favourite characters (such as MacFarlane's wacky “Palpy” and Donald “Turk from Scrubs” Faison's everyman Gary the Stormtrooper) are recycled to death while other more obvious targets (Jar Jar, C3PO, little Ani, the Ewoks) are sidelined to little more than cameos. Yes, admittedly, it would be far too easy to bully the weak, but when Ahmed Best and Anthony Daniels gamely return to voice their career-shaping roles and the boy-who-will-be-Vader is brought to life by none other than Zac Efron, then you can't help but feel like they are somewhat wasted with no more than a couple of lines apiece.
It’s hard to pick out a “favourite” skit (they’re all recklessly daft), but the most foul and indecent have a strange car crash curiosity about them: even the threat of throwing up can’t tear you away from watching Steve-O propelled into the air in a porta-potty loaded with dog shit, or drink a beaker of sweat collected from the less-than-trim Preston Lacy’s cellophane exercise wrap. *Heave*
The acting fluctuates from corny over enthusiasm (Glover's garishly unstable cap'n; a bubbly but criminally underused Jones) to monotone amateur disinterest (pretty much everyone else). It's a shame the film's tone sticks much closer to the latter than the former, feeling almost completely soulless and lacking any humour to complement its fantastical frivolity. For anyone who thought Season of the Witch was bad (which I didn't – see my review 
Free to roam and think independently, Kable breaks out of the deadly arena in the hope of tracking down his wife Nika (Valletta) – an avatar on a debauched Sims-like pseudo-community game called “Society” – and his daughter, in the process learning that there is more to Ken Castle’s maniacal plans for his mind-control technology than simply life-like videogames…
Foster – who very much reminded me of Ryan Half Nelson Gosling – does a convincing turn as the hot-headed and impulsive waster for whom Arthur has a remarkable amount of patience. Arthur is tied by a sense of duty to his deceased comrade (which, of course, contradicts the fact it was him who pulled the trigger), but Steve really pushes his luck with his mutinous antics in lethal scenarios. You really do wonder why a pro of Arthur’s calibre would risk his reputation by leaving his assignments in the hands of an undependable student.
