BATMAN FOREVER: 4K Blu-ray (Warner Bros. 1995) Warner Home Video

Either agonizing from too much creative torpor or a far-reaching lack of continuity with the previous Batman movies, Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever (1995) denotes the beginning of the end for the original big and bloated film franchise. At once, Batman Forever is a kitschy and kooky spectacle, bathed in lurid Technicolor hues that appeal mostly to the ‘cartoony’ aspects of a Saturday morning animated serial, rather than the apocalyptic world of the Dark Knight, as depicted by Tim Burton in the two preceding pictures. That Burton’s own Batman Returns (1992) – while still a sizable hit for Warner Bros. – underperformed the original Batman (1989) at the box office by nearly $150 million might have had something to do with the studio’s decision to ease him into the producer’s chair this time around. Interestingly, the studio would have preferred to stay with Michael Keaton as its star, despite a massive outpouring of scorn from comic book fans. It was Keaton who bowed out this time, turning down a $15 million enticement to pursue ‘serious’ roles. Arguably, this decision put a premature end to his own eminence in pictures. In Keaton’s absence, the judgment call was made to search for a younger, more physically robust star to fill the rubber suit. Mercifully, an offer made to Ethan Hawke (really?!?!?) was rejected outright. And although Schumacher had seen Kilmer as Doc Holliday in the epic western, Tombstone (1993), he still preferred Daniel Day-Lewis, Ralph Fiennes, William Baldwin, or Johnny Depp (all of whom refused to partake), before finally settling on Kilmer, who signed on to the production without first reading the script. Alas, the decision to hire Val Kilmer as Keaton’s replacement was as off-putting to fans; not so much for Kilmer’s lack of command or credibility as the socially conflicted millionaire/philanthropist/industrialist, Bruce Wayne and his caped alter ego, but because Kilmer was a slender-built blonde, and creator, Bob Kane’s comic book Wayne was a big and strapping, muscular brunette. So, fans – not at all accepting of the oddly ordinary and slight Keaton as the man to the manor and Batcave born, still had to contend with an actor who, in no way, typified the character as depicted in the comics.  

The other difficulty for Batman Forever remained in the casting of Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones as arch nemeses, The Riddler (a.k.a. Edward Nygma) and Two-Face (a.k.a. Harvey Dent) respectively. Aside: Jim Carrey’s appeal has, frankly, always baffled me. Like Adam Sandler, Carrey’s gift – if one can call it that – is to stress the tolerance of the average theater patron by drenching his audience in a tsunami of egotistical showboating and uber-camp, herein, more befitting of the 1960’s Adam West/Batman TV series. As either Nygma or his alter ego, Carrey is so crudely/rudely weird and unappealing, his overt dynamism becomes an anathema to the diabolical nature of the character. Carrey loses most of his believability even as the exotic questioner poured into lime-green tights, and, is inconceivably ridiculous as the ‘mad sycophant’ who fawns over the elegant Bruce Wayne with more than slight homoerotic tendencies. With as simpering bombast, Nygma tortures his boss, Fred Stickley (Ed Bagley Jr.) using his hand-crafted mind-control device to weaken his mental state before shoving him - bound and gagged - through a high-rise window to his death. As for Tommy Lee Jones, an infinitely more accomplished actor; alas, in Batman Forever, he seems to have forgotten he is supposed to be playing a man with split-personality disorder. We see none of the ‘half’ that used to be Harvey Dent – the once, virtuous District Attorney whose face, publicly disfigured by acid during the trial of a mob boss, is now revealed as the convulsing and repugnant Two-Face. Jones’ modus operandi for the part is in a constant flux of leering agony. He screeches, as though every line required a proclamation to induce peril – marking his time without a shred of subtlety.

As scripted by Lee Batchler, Janet Scott Batchler, and, most ironically of all - Akiva Goldsman (who knows better), Batman Forever is a clumsily stitched together series of noisy nuisances (action, that is for action’s sake, but in no way advances the plot) and voracious vignettes (the pointless circus sequence, which attempts to tell the origin story of Dick Grayson – a.k.a. Robin). The original concept for Batman Forever ought to have been Frank Miller’s graphic novel, Batman: Year One. Schumacher loved the idea. Alas, Warner Bros. rejected it outright as Miller’s work was a prequel – not a sequel. One of the oddities of Batman Forever is that, through regressive psychotherapy, Bruce Wayne interprets Two-Face as being responsible for his parent’s murder. This is problematic for ‘two’ (pun-intended) reasons: first, at the time of the murders, Bruce Wayne was not only a child, but Two-Face had yet to emerge as a bona fide villain: Dent, in full possession of his faculties and a forthright pillar of the community. So, murderer?!? I don’t think so. Second, the original Batman unequivocally identified the Waynes’ murderer as the Joker – hence, the whole point for Bruce’s avenging Dark Knight alter ego, and, the original movie’s dramatic arc.  

Marginally disenchanted with the Batchler’s treatment, Schumacher hired Akiva Goldsman with whom he had had great success on The Client (1994).  Even so, other oddities persisted during the movie’s conception. First, focus group research imposed ‘Batman Forever’ on the production – a title Tim Burton, as producer, absolutely hated, and, in fact, held very little appeal for Schumacher as well. Also, the decision was made, chiefly from a marketing standpoint, to promote Batman Forever as a movie for the MTV generation with yet another blitzkrieg of studio tie-in merchandising with various sponsors, clothing companies and toy manufacturers.  Finally, while the city of Gotham was completely redesigned, bearing little to no resemblance to the decaying Gothic metropolis from the first two movies; herein, given a considerable upgrade with heavily laden CGI mattes, and, including the decision to stage one of the movie’s key action sequences between a crashing helicopter and the Statue of Liberty – brutally defaced in the process. Question: has New York’s skyline suddenly morphed into Gotham proper? Curiously, no other famed Manhattan landmarks, apart from a bastardization of Rockefeller Center’s bronze statue of Atlas, are glimpsed in Barbara Ling’s production design. And director, Christopher Nolen would similarly set the action of his rebooted Batman trilogy in a reconstituted facsimile of New York City, still calling it Gotham. (Aside: Manhattan also played host as Metropolis in Richard Donner’s original Chris Reeve/Superman franchise).  For her inspiration, Barbara Ling was encouraged by Schumacher to re-invent Gotham City as a metropolitan center with what he called ‘a personality’ – eschewing virtually all of the quirky and claustrophobic byways and back alleys in the Burton movies. So, Ling’s rebuild mimics the New York of the early 1940’s with a Tokyo/neon influence and a lot more statues.  Does it work? Marginally, although Gotham now takes on the flavor of an architecturally mashed-together World’s Fair with carnival and grunge elements factored in.

Batman Forever was originally green-lit with Rene Russo as Dr. Chase Meridian. Owing to Kilmer’s ‘younger’ Bruce Wayne, Russo was dropped as the studio briefly considered Robin Wright, Jeanne Tripplehorn or Linda Hamilton, before choosing Nicole Kidman to play the part. Once again, Billy Dee Williams was passed over for Two-Face as Schumacher campaigned for Tommy Lee Jones in his stead, with whom he had had a sold working relationship on the aforementioned The Client. Very reluctantly, Jones’ accepted the role at his son’s behest. Both Robin Williams and Michael Jackson lobbied hard for the part of The Riddler. And although fans had been eagerly awaiting the chronically staved plans to debut Batman’s sidekick – Robin – this time around the role would go to fair-haired Chris O’Donnell, only after Marlon Wayans and Leonardo DiCaprio were overlooked. Batman Forever would prove anything but a meaningful experience. Schumacher severely clashed with both Kilmer and Tommy Lee Jones on the set. Schumacher found Kilmer to be utterly childish and impossible. It is rumored Kilmer actually refused to speak to Schumacher for nearly 2 weeks following one of their particularly heated altercations. As for Jones, believing Jim Carrey’s chewing up of the scenery to be a real threat – despite Schumacher later reiterating Carrey’s total professionalism – Jones openly voiced his dislike of Carrey’s ‘buffoonery’ on the set between takes; then, withdrew and became remote and unresponsive to any and all of Schumacher’s suggestions on how to play his scenes. “I am tired of defending overpaid, overprivileged actors,” Schumacher would later comment, “I pray I never work with them again!”

Batman Forever was to have originally featured a blood-curdling prologue in which Arkham Asylum’s chief physician, Doctor Burton (René Auberjonois) discovers one of his most dangerous patients, Two-Face, has escaped by murdering his psychologist, left hanging from the ceiling in his cell with ‘The Bat Must Die’ scrawled in the dead man’s blood on the walls. Although this scene was shot, evidently Warner Bros. felt it too dark and violent for its targeted ‘family audience’ and ordered its excise from the final cut. So, instead Batman Forever opens with an explosive action sequence as Batman manages to defuse a hostage situation in Gotham, saving himself and a Security Guard (Joe Grifasi) from being consumed in a vault of acid. Batman then narrowly survives a helicopter crash into the Statue of Liberty. This sequence introduces us to the demented former D.A., Harvey Dent – a.k.a. Two-Face, whose entire purpose in life appears to be the total annihilation of Gotham’s populace and the ruin of Batman. Meanwhile, at Wayne Enterprises, researcher, Edward Nygma, intercepts his boss, Fred Stickley’s courtesy tour of the laboratories to introduce himself to Bruce Wayne as his most ardent supporter. Alas, Nygma’s proposal of a highly experimental device that can manipulate brain waves is almost immediately shot down by the cordial, but otherwise aloof Wayne – kick-starting Nygma’s plan to prove Wayne wrong by secretively using company funds to further his experiments. Regrettably, Stickley discovers Nygma lurking in the labs at night and confronts him with dismissal. In reply, Nygma knocks Strickley unconscious, binds him to a desk chair, and, after manipulating his brain waves, sends Strickley to his death from a high-rise window.

Previously, Wayne met Chase Meridian, a psychiatrist with a fetish for Batman. Drawn to her in his disguise, Wayne instead decides to present himself at Meridian’s offices as himself, under the pretext of analyzing his subconscious. He then invites Chase to attend a fund-raising circus event, featuring the acrobatic family, The Flying Graysons (played by Glory Fioramonti, Larry A. Lee, Noby Arden, Marlene Bologna, Danny Castle, Troy S. Wolfe and Chris O’Donnell). Regrettably, the night’s festivities are interrupted by Two-Face and his army of muscle-bound thugs who set about to seal off the exits and trigger a megaton bomb in the center ring that will effectively wipe out Gotham’s most affluent citizenry.  Rather idiotically, in reply to Two-Face’s query for Batman to come to the rescue, Wayne blurts out his real identity; his declaration, mercifully drowned out by the panicking crowds. Meanwhile, the acrobats make their valiant attempt to intercept the bomb. While Dick Grayson is successful at hoisting the bomb through an opening in the stadium roof, rolling it into the Hudson River where it harmlessly detonates, the rest of his family are killed when Two-Face shoots the rigging they are clinging to high above the stage. Now, Dick vows revenge for these murders.

Inexplicably, Bruce invites Dick to stay with him at Wayne Manor. And while Dick is not inclined to initially except this offer, he is delayed in his departure by his own interests in Wayne’s formidable collection of vintage motorcycles. Given the highly secretive nature of Bruce’s alter ego, it does not take much for Dick to discover Bruce is Batman – delaying his ever-devoted butler, Alfred (Michael Gough) long enough to steal the Batmobile and take it for a joy-ride through the streets of Gotham. Here, Dick comes across a gang of thugs about to rape a young girl. He thwarts their attack with his Ninja-styled physical prowess. Bruce arrives, in Batman’s garb, to reclaim Dick and the Batmobile. Now, Dick implores Bruce to take him on as his sidekick. Bruce refuses, knowing Dick’s motives are wrapped up in killing Two-Face to avenge his family.  Meanwhile Nygma, inspired by the circus raid, creates The Riddler as his alter ego, invading Two-Face’s lair and showing off his mind-control apparatus, using sexpots, Sugar (Drew Barrymore) and Spice (Debbi Mazar) as his guinea pigs. Impressed by the demonstration, Two-Face allies his interests with the Riddler. Embarking on a reign of terror, the pair steals millions from Gotham’s treasuries and jewelry shops. Flush with capital, Nygma launches his own company - Nygmatech - and aggressively begins to syphon off the intelligence of the city’s populace through mind-manipulation.

At Nygmatech’s one-month anniversary party, Nygma taunts Bruce into partaking of his latest device. Given all Wayne has to lose it is a wonder he agrees to experiment with the device – but does, and inadvertently reveals to Nygma his true identity. Two-Face predictably crashes the party. However, his plans to kill Batman are once more foiled – this time, by Dick’s quick thinking. By now, Chase has fallen hopelessly in love with Bruce; a genuine lust that surpasses her obsession with Batman. Secretly delighted, Bruce tells Alfred he will retire Batman to pursue an ordinary life with Chase. Regrettably, this does not come to pass as Two-Face and The Riddler invade Wayne Manor on Halloween night, taking Chase hostage, decimating the Batcave, destroying the Batmobile, and, knocking Wayne unconscious. Awakening several hours later, Bruce is alerted by Alfred that Chase is Two-Face’s hostage. Decoding the Riddler’s veiled queries, Alfred deduces Nygma as his real identity. As the only suit to have survived the earlier deluge on Wayne Manor is an experimental prototype (complete with chiseled nipples!) Wayne now dons it now and prepares to do battle with the Riddler and Two-Face at Claw Island, accompanied by Dick (whose own rubberized suit, designed by Alfred, includes a ‘cup’, rather hilariously to emphasizes his girth in an area unnecessary for this assignment). Batman and Dick – rechristened ‘Robin’ – approach Claw Island from air and sea. Alas, Two-Face and The Riddler are prepared for this and quickly dispatch with both crime fighters. Swimming ashore, Robin is confronted by Two-Face on the craggy rocks of Claw Island. And while Robin manages nearly to destroy Two-Face, he is stalled in his blood lust by Wayne’s earlier inference: killing Two-Face will never satisfy Dick’s personal agony. In fact, it will prolong it. Two-Face seizes this opportunity to capture Robin.

Hence, when Batman arrives, he is confronted with a dilemma. Both Chase and Robin have been bound and gagged independently in containment tubes, dangling over a perilous pit of spikes which Two-Face plans to drop them into simultaneously. As Batman cannot save both, he must choose.  Instead, Batman destroys the Riddler's brainwave collecting monolith with his Batarang, causing the Riddler to suffer a complete mental breakdown. In the resulting chaos, Batman rescues both Robin and Chase. Now, Two-Face corners the trio, preparing to flip his infamous coin to confirm their deaths. Instead, Batman tosses a handful of coins into the air, confusing Two-Face, who stumbles and falls to his death on the spikes below as Robin looks on. His mind in total disarray, The Riddler is imprisoned in Arkham Asylum, claiming to know the true identity of Batman. In response to his ravings, Chase is called for her medical expertise. Already knowing the answer, Chase confronts The Riddler with the secret identity of Batman and Nygma – totally mad – declares himself to be the Dark Knight, thus ensuring no one will believe him now, even if he regains his sanity someday and blurts out what he knows to be the truth. Relieved, Chase meets Bruce just beyond the asylum’s gates. As the Bat signal is shining brightly against low-lying clouds, Bruce bids Chase goodbye. She teases him not to ‘work’ too late. Now, we encounter Bruce and Dick, in full crime-fighting garb, racing towards the camera.  

In every way, Batman Forever is a forgettable movie with not much to contribute to the pantheon of big-screen spectacles that came either before or since it. Make-up artist extraordinaire, Rick Baker’s prosthetics are undeniably impressive. Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face is a repugnant masterpiece, even if Jones’ inhabiting of the character is far-less fulfilling. So too, do we add praise for John Dykstra, Andrew Adamson, and Jim Rygiel’s cornucopia of visual effects, augmented by Pacific Data Images CGI work. Initially, Swiss surrealist painter, H. R. Giger (perhaps, most famous for conceiving the ‘alien’ in the Alien(s) film franchise) was to have completely re-engineered the Batmobile for this movie. Instead, his concept art was deemed ‘too sinister’ and set aside. In some ways, Batman Forever became the victim of its own editing process. Reportedly, Schumacher’s rough cut ran just under 3-hours. In paring down this superhero epic, major edits resulted in the excising of nearly 40 minutes of key scenes that might have added dimension and understanding to what otherwise has emerged as a claptrap of truncated dialogue and action sequences. In 2005, Schumacher was in talks to reassemble this missing footage for an extended ‘director’s cut’. But to date, nothing has come of this rumored revision. So, still MIA is the thematic undercurrent, exploring Wayne’s repressed memories from childhood and the revelations to be found in his father’s diary – briefly glimpsed during a flashback with Val Kilmer’s voice-over attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to fill in the blanks and missing pieces of this fractured ‘origin’ story. Arguably, most of the excisions made, were, in tandem, to satisfy time constraints, and, the MPAA, to ensure a ‘family-friendly’ rating. Hence, we lost the Riddler’s brutal bludgeoning of a security guard with his cane, as well as other more overt acts of violence.

Despite its artistic/narrative deficiencies, as well as being fairly eviscerated by the critics, Batman Forever had one of the strongest openings at the box office: at $52.8 million, surpassing even Jurassic Park's record, and, grossing $336.53 million world-wide by the end of its theatrical run. Indeed, Batman Forever was the second-highest-grossing film of 1995, overshadowed only by Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story. It is becoming a little redundant to review these 4K releases from Warner Home Video as it is quite obvious the studio is putting its very best ‘feet’ forward on considerable upgrades, afforded them all of the bells and whistles anticipated from any 4K remaster. Batman Forever looks very fine indeed, with ripened colors, gorgeous contrast, a modicum of film grain looking very indigenous to its source, and a sweetened Dolby Atmos soundtrack, adding subtle ambience to the quiescent moments and a real exercise to the entire sound field during heightened effects-laden sequences. As with previous 4K offerings of Batman and Batman Returns, Batman Forever’s singular extra on the 4K disc is an audio commentary. Mercifully, we have also been given the standard Blu-ray, to include all of the extras as before; including featurettes on the making of the movie, independent character studies, SFX and sound design, another on production design, music videos and, of course, a theatrical trailer. Bottom line: if you are a fan of Batman Forever, as with the previous two Batman 4K releases, this one is a no-brainer. Highly recommended for mastering quality. As a movie, I found it largely unremarkable, trivial and tedious. But hey, it’s just an opinion. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

5+