Daubs of colour and dull witted farce (Batman Forever (DVD))

Member Name: dave27

Product:	Batman Forever (DVD)
Date:	19/04/03 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The end, Alfred

Disadvantages: The story, The acting

The Batman Franchise went through three distinct phases: in the beginning was the dark and edgy creation pieced together by the Michael Keaton-Tim Burton axis. By the end of the line there was the farcical and shallow campery of George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman as we went for animated cartoon played by real live people, although they exhibited slightly less animation and depth than their two dimensional forebears.

In between was a frankly weird period when we had the well chiselled features of Val Kilmer, the gaudy imaginings of Joel Schumacher, the never quite believable vampery of Nicole Kidman and the arrival of Robin. Things were rounded off by Jim Carrey playing his normal stereotypical manic clown as The Riddler and an over the top tour de force from the normally outstanding Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face.

The original screen version of a Nightmare in Gotham as envisioned by the gloriously visionary Burton was all nightmarish darkness and sleazy black rubber with a sharp focus on the schizophrenic nature of the Dark Knight and the internal tussles between Good and Evil. Of course, it also had a nifty performance by the superb Jack Nicholson to give it a real hard centre, but even the second episode with Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny Devito as the Bat's nemeses was well up to the mark, with the Gothic/Gotham imagery everywhere and nary a shaft of sunlight to dispell the darkness of mood.

Burton's steamy and smoky caves made neon were supreme embodiment of the Batman legend, as depicted in the haunted later comic strips of the 70's, glorying in the inner torment facing its main protagonist as the darker version of the cartoon had done. Michael Keaton somehow managed to pull off a perfect reading of the Bruce Wayne/Batman dynamic, with moody and distant charm and grandiose mania. It had been a risky choice, but had been in retrospect a masterstroke.

However, by Episode Three and Batman Forever,
both Keaton and Burton were long gone, although Tim Burton co-produces (whatever that means), and with them went the Midnight Killer theme. Now, the beautiful yet vapid Kilmer came stumbling centre stage with the bright sun and a total lack of empathy for the legend and we had a rapid descent into facre. The expression on Kilmer's square and flat features never changes one iota throughout the entire film, but you can understand it with fare as dull as this on offer.

Things aren't helped by the viciously over the top hamming of Carrey and Jones. If they had only ever believed in the less is more ethic then things may have been a little more tolerable. Both try to play schizoid lunatics with little connection to reality, but just come over as larger than life daubs of technicolour with little beneath the image.

Schumacher tried to major on the creation of Robin as a second rerun of the Joker makes Batman makes Joker etc theme of the first Batman movie, but all the fanciful crap about "flying in like a robin" and "broken wings yet may heal" come over as dire desperation of the worst kind. "Leave that, Master Dick," is far more appealing as a byline. However, Schumacher is never quite sure whether to go totally down the cartoon comedy route or retain a semblance of the investigation of schizophrenia, and consequently manages to convince on either score.

It's a crude and ill conceived splash of entertainment which never really manages to seize the attention or retain your interest for long enough to escape the unpleasant world of the turkey farm.

It's very odd because in The Doors Kilmer proved he could be a superb player of manic genius, while Jones and Kidman are renowned for acting substance, but to get all three totally off form in this way is either appalling bad luck or the fault of an errant Puppet Master.

Still, the film is visually stunning, you get some decent fight
scenes and Kilmer looks pretty neat in a rubber suit with sticky up ears and blacked out eyes (and even in one scene tight little leather buttocks and builder's cleavage) and can swoop from the stars with some feeling. At least he has some big screen presence (despite the stolid lack of feeling), while Chris O'Donnell is just Mr Tepid Trapeze Artist who is overly concerned with coming over as Brash Young Thing with no self control. Oh well, at least Michael Gough is as solid and dependable as ever as Alfred the butler.

You also get some commendable music on the soundtrack, including the Damned's Smash It Up, Kiss From A Rose by Seal and the epic Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me a la U2. There's also a gripping and quite enticing denouement with Carrey finally starting to make perfect (non)sense.

These things alone might get the rating up to two or three out of ten, but Batman Forever is on the whole very limited and disappointing, although the kids will probably adore it.

PS Look out for the totally naff bit towards the end where Robin utters the cliched nightmare "Holy twisted metal, Batman" for an idea of how bad this awful really is, especially O'Donnell's moronic and unnecessary explanation...

Summary: