Batman Forever Review
by Ram Samudrala (ram AT mbisgi DOT umd DOT edu)June 27th, 1995
BATMAN FOREVER
A film review by Ram Samudrala
Copyright 1995 Ram Samudrala
Disclaimer: this comes from the perspective of someone who follows the "Batman," "Legends of the Dark Knight," and "Shadow of the Bat" comic book series.
The Batman universe has undergone a lot of changes (I mean, wouldn't yours, if you had your back broken?) with the "Knight Fall," "Knight Quest," and "Knight's End" series. I thought this movie would exploit the trend set by the series, one of the best written in the history of comics, which brings the Dark Knight character to life. But this movie fails to show any of those characteristics that make Batman great.
So I am biased toward the comic book, but in "Knight Fall" you have Batman pitted against almost every villain he has faced and he defeats them all even when he is on the verge of exhaustion. In this movie, you have Batman giving up his secret identity and career on hormonal impulses and making quips that would be best left to the likes of Spiderman. It seems as though the script writers couldn't make up their minds whether to make a movie about Batman the Dark Knight or Batman the clown.
The plot itself is quite decent, but hurried---Batman is pitted against Two Face and the Riddler. Two Face wants to kill the Batman. The Riddler wants revenge on Bruce Wayne and become the most intelligent person in the world. The problem, however, with doing comic book superhero movies is that the person playing the superhero sucks. I've always been disappointed whenever I see the superhero (with the exception of Christopher Reeve in SUPERMAN I). In this movie, Batman never really is threatened. But the strength of the Batman character is that he's a normal guy who's facing evil, and highly prone to injury and risk. When I heard that they were casting Val Kilmer for the part, I was pleased since I thought Keaton was a wimp. But Kilmer also does a horrible job both as Batman and Bruce Wayne, acting too stiff. One of the things I think they should do to improve the look of the superhero is get rid of the eye slits and have opaque lenses or something like that.
The authenticity problem faced by people acting the superhero part is usually not a problem for actors playing the villains. In BATMAN I and II, we had actors literally becoming villains (Joker by Jack Nicholson, Penguin by Danny DeVito). This movie is no exception. Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and the Riddler (Jim Carrey) carry the show and make watching this movie worthwhile. While each of them are quite good on their own, particularly Jones as Two Face, together they have a great chemistry between them. I think it'd be interesting to see Jones and Carrey together, playing similar conspiring roles. Two Face is the villain that haunted my nightmares as a kid and Jones carries that role to perfection. However, there are times when one villain dominates a scene and the other is left twiddling his thumbs. This makes for a couple of awkward moments.
I do not see any reason for including Nicole Kidman in the movie---the last thing that was needed is a romantic theme to this movie when there's so much of it around in others. Chris O'Donnell plays a decent Robin. But the interaction between Batman and Robin is simply not there. At first, Wayne is adamant against Dick Grayson becoming the Robin. Then suddenly, even when there's a possibility Grayson will kill Two Face if he had a choice, Wayne agrees in an instant. This sort of waffling around occurs throughout the movie, making someone like Bill Clinton look decisive.
The movie is worth watching on the big screen for the effects alone, and for the Carrey-Jones interaction. Ultimately, screen writers for comic book superhero movies can take a tip that "Star Trek" writers can also use: survey diehard fans who *know* the material and the characters.
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