BATMAN FOREVER
A film review by Andy Jacob
Copyright 1996 Andy Jacob
S: Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell D: Joel Schumacher
I've been putting off watching this movie for a long time. When it was in the theater I opted to watch Apollo 13 instead. One reason was that many reivews said the film stunk, so I stayed away from it. But having watched it, I realized that I had missed a pretty good movie.
The latest Batman flick differs quite a bit from the other Batman movies. For one thing, the role of Batman has been passed along from Michael Keaton to Val Kilmer. Gothem City has changed from a dark and dreary town to a hip, modern town. And once again, Batman's foes have changed. Some of the changes were good, but there were some minuses to the movie, too.
On the plus side, Val Kilmer. I think that he made a much better Batman than Michael Keaton. But the way he spoke in the film was almost comical; he always had a deep, almost fake superhero voice.
Also a big plus was Tommy Lee Jones (who plays Twoface, Batman's main enemy in the film). He was probably the best actor in the film. I've seen him in many other films, and this just proves once again how diverse of an actor he can be. The way he plays the "bad guy" is just right: He acts just right when trying to catch Batman and acts just right when he fails. He also (to my surprise) added a lot of humor to the film.
Nicole Kidman (who played Dr. Chase Meridian) was absolutely gorgeous, as she usually is. Definately a plus on that level. However, she really didn't serve much of a purpose in the movie other than to drag out a soap opera of sorts (the saga of herself and Bruce Wayne). She's a very good actress in addition to her good looks, but she really wasn't given a very good part to work with. So she was both a plus and a minus.
Jim Carrey (who played The Riddler) was good, but was a disappointment to me. He was given a perfect "Jim Carrey" part and he pretty much blew it. There were certainly some funny parts, like the scene where he and Two-Face are trying to blow up the Batboat by playing a game of "Battleship" that triggers bombs in the water. When Two-Face got a hit that destroyed the boat, The Riddler exclaims in a dorky kind of voice like the commercial for the game Battleship: "YOU SUNK MY BATTLESHIP!" Overall, he wasn't as funny as he could have been.
Chris O'Donnell was the biggest disappointment. He played Robin, Batman's sidekick. His acting was terrible, and the plot of his parents getting killed by Two-Face was also very corny. There is one good scene were he pokes fun at the earlier T.V. series of Batman. He's walking along and he says "Holey rusted metal, Batman!", meaning that literally (He was standing on rusted metal full of holes, thus "holey").
The plot was different enough from the other movies to be interesting. Batman is trying to destroy Two-Face, the Riddler joins Two-Face as another enemy to Batman, meanwhile Chase dumps Batman for Bruce Wayne and soon finds out that Bruce Wayne is Batman. The bad guys discover this at the same time, though, and capture Chase and Robin. Then Batman has to save them. Personally, I liked the little bits of humor in the movie the best. In addition to the things I've already mentioned, I like the part at the beginning when Alfred, the butler of sorts for Bruce Wayne, asks him as he's about to leave as Batman to fight a crime: "Could I persuade you to take a sandwich with you, sir?" To this, Batman responds: "I'll get drive-through.
The special effects both added a lot to the movie and took away from the movie. The effects were excellent, but they were used too often. When this happens, the whole movie becomes boring because you have Batman kicking and punching bad guys and things blowing up as a result every ten minutes.
Despite all it's minuses, this movie was pretty good. The little things made it ok. It adds yet another chapter onto the Batman story, and there will no doubt be another one in a couple years. This is a pretty good movie that had the potential to be a great movie but blew it. Nevertheless, it's always nice to watch a good old fashioned good guys versus bad guys movie. And even after all the changes to Batman, the good guys still won.
Rating Scale: * - Terrible. Don't see it; it's a waste of time ** - Not very good at all, probably not worth seeing *** - Average. Plusses and Minusses **** - A very good movie. Worth seeing. ***** - Excellent. Don't miss it!
Rating for "Batman Forever" - *** 1/2
Andy.
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