Report on the Batman Film Festival



[ Batman | Batman Returns | Batman Forever | Batman and Robin ]

Last night Marty and I finished up a Batman film fest that has run for the last month or so. We've been renting the Batman DVDs from Netflix (membership should be required for anyone who has a DVD player!) and last night we viewed Batman and Robin, the final movie in the series.

Before we watched them this time around, I had seen only Batman (1989) and Batman Forever (1995) before. I couldn't remember much of Batman, but I remembered liking Batman Forever very much. Here's my report on what I thought after watching the whole series.

The first two were directed by Tim Burton, the final two by Joel Shumacher. There's quite a measurable difference in feel between the two directors. Batman is fairly dark and brooding, and Batman Returns (in my opinon) verges on nasty and disturbing. Batman Forever, on the other hand, is campier and more fun than the first two, and Batman and Robin pushes the boundaries of camp and slapstick even further. Just from looking at the DVD covers (above), it's fairly easy to see which are the darker movies and which are the lighter ones.

I like all the actors who played Batman just about equally. Michael Keaton starred in the first two films; Val Kilmer was in Batman Forever, and George Clooney was the most recent Batman. I liked elements of each of their portrayals, but none of them did such a great job that the role seems completely his. (At the same time, none of them was just so wrong that he leaves me going, "huh?" either. Like that dude who played James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, whatever his name was.)

A few comments about the movies individually:

• Batman (1989) was a movie that Marty and I anticipated eagerly before its initial release, and saw in the theater when we were dating in college. (It's hard to believe it's really been so long since this movie came out.) I remember enjoying it, but -- this is telling -- when we rewatched it again recently, neither of us recognized a single scene from the whole movie. I remembered that Jack Nicholson was the Joker, but I didn't remember any of his scenes or lines. Also, the movie seems quite dated now, in ways that other movies from 1989 don't. (Maybe because Kim Basinger plays the love interest, Vicki Vale, and when was the last time you saw her in a movie?) Entertaining, but not a movie I feel the need to watch over and over again. Besides, there were way too many evil clowns in this movie for my taste.
  
  
• Batman Returns (1992) is probably Tim Burton's favorite of the series. It has that nasty edge to it that his work so often has. The Penguin (Danny Devito) is the series' most disturbing villain, and Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) is definitely Batman's most fucked-up love interest ever. (While we were watching, I joked that it was a good thing he dates a psychologist in the next movie.) I liked Catwoman but didn't find the movie particularly engaging as a whole; the stuff with The Penguin just grossed me out. Christopher Walken made a very creepy appearance as a department store millionaire. And again, what's with the evil clowns?
  
  
• Batman Forever (1995) is campy and fun, and my favorite of the series. Maybe it's because of the introduction of Robin -- somehow it seems like having a sidekick develops Batman's character much better than any of the female love interests ever did. There's a huge subtext about acceptance and trust, and the scene where Batman is forced to choose between saving his sidekick and saving his girlfriend is great. (I won't make any comments about SNL's Ambiguously Gay Duo here.) I like Val Kilmer just fine as Batman; he's understated and stone-faced, the way Batman needs to be. Chris O'Donnell does a great job as Robin, and I think this may be the best role I've seen him play. Robin has a bit of an edge to his character that was a pleasant surprise to me. Joel Schumacher's direction is something of a departure from Tim Burton's style (although Burton produced this movie), and I think the lighter touch is a good thing. Jim Carrey does fine as The Riddler, but Tommy Lee Jones is woefully underused as Two-Face. Nicole Kidman plays Batman's new girlfriend, Chase Meridian, and I like her best of all the Batman love interests. More evil clowns, but not as many as in the first two movies, thank god.
  
  
• Batman and Robin (1997) takes the campiness of Batman Forever and pushes it about five notches farther. Sometimes it works, other times it just goes over the top. This movie is kind of all over the place, and I think it's partly because there are just so many characters -- two sidekicks (with the addition of Batgirl, played by Alicia Silverstone) and two villains who don't make much sense together (Mr. Freeze, played by Ah-nold, and Poison Ivy, played by Uma Thurman). Add to that a pointless love interest (Elle McPherson) and Alfred, and you've got a lot of major characters in this movie. George Clooney is completely serviceable as Batman, and Chris O'Donnell is great -- again -- as Robin. The movie definitely has its moments -- Mr. Freeze forcing his frozen minions to sing along with "I'm Mr. White Christmas" from The Year Without a Santa Claus had me laughing so hard I had to put the DVD back to hear what came next. Lots of physical humor and one-liners in this movie. We laughed a lot more during this one than we did in any of the others. One big plus: I don't remember any evil clowns. (But I could be blocking them out.) In the end, this is my second favorite Batman movie, after Batman Forever.

So that's the verdict. I like Batman Forever and Batman and Robin best, followed by Batman and Batman Returns. Sure, they're not great art or high cinema, but they're enjoyable. And, as Poison Ivy said, "There's something about an anatomically correct rubber suit that puts fire in a girl's lips." Almost makes up for all the evil clowns.