Mario’s Musings (Anniversary Edition): Batman Forever
Alfred Pennyworth: I'm sorry to bother you, sir. But I have some rather distressing news about Master Dick.
Bruce Wayne: What, is he all right?
Alfred Pennyworth: I'm afraid Master Dick has... gone traveling.
Bruce Wayne: He ran away?
Alfred Pennyworth: Actually, he took the car.
Bruce Wayne: He boosted the Jag?
Alfred Pennyworth: Not the Jaguar. The other car.
Bruce Wayne: The Bentley?
Alfred Pennyworth: No, sir. The other car.
Okay, I’m going to admit it, this MIGHT be my favorite Batman movie, but I can’t honestly explain why. Is it because it’s a Jim Carrey movie that just happens to have Batman in it? Is it because it has the hottest movie soundtrack of the 90s featuring Seal, U2, and the Offspring? It is because Val Kilmer plays perhaps the dumbest Batman of all time? Or is it because it’s the movie that made Nicole Kidman my first celebrity crush? Maybe all of the above?
Batman Forever was released 25 years ago, the first Batman post-Tim Burton, and the first without Michael Keaton as the Caped Crusader. As a kid, this was a jarring experience for me, as I was so used to Keaton that seeing Val Kilmer take up the cowl seemed so wrong. Then to add in Joel Schumacher’s directorial style, changing Gotham from a gothic 1930s style Chicago like city to an almost flashy Romanesque New York City was another big adjustment (the opening chase scene sees a helicopter crash into the face of the Statue of Liberty).
With that flashy style brought even flashier villains, with Jim Carrey donning a bright green leotard and red hair, while Tommy Lee Jones had half his face painted bright purple. And let’s be honest, thanks to Kilmer not being anywhere near as charismatic as Keaton, Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones are the real stars here with their over the top antics.
“…there is a good one!”
Carrey plays Edward Nygma, a low level employee at Wayne Enterprises that Bruce Wayne wouldn’t have looked twice at, but when he finally does, rejects Nygma’s invention, The Box. The Box directs a signal into the brain of the person watching television, making them seem like they’re in the show itself. Or at least, that’s what it was before Wayne’s rejection. Post-rejection, Nygma kills his supervisor, and configures the Box to not only input images into the brain, but also take information from it as well. He becomes the Riddler, teasing Bruce Wayne with riddles while at the same time gaining production capital in order to get the Box into every home in Gotham.
And then there’s Jones’ Two-Face, former Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent, who was hideously disfigured by a mob boss and blamed Batman for not being able to save him. So the first half of the movie is Dent trying to kill Batman in different scenarios. The plot picks up when Riddler sees a common ally and has Two-Face help him gain that production capital in order to produce the Box, in exchange for using the Box to help them discover Batman’s secret identity. Jones spends the movie trying to keep up with Jim Carrey, and it’s almost embarrassing. If only we still had Billy Dee Williams.
What couid have been…
In the midst of all this confusion is Dick Grayson, who would become Robin at the end of the movie. After Two-Face kills his family and leaves him orphaned, Dick goes on to live with Bruce and Alfred, leading to the scene quoted at the beginning of this article. He spends most of the movie pestering Bruce about becoming his partner (even suggesting “Nightwing” as a potential superhero name for himself) after he discovers Bruce is Batman.
Last but certainly not least, there’s Nicole Kidman’s Doctor Chase Meridian, who’s infatuated with Batman while finding Bruce Wayne completely uninteresting at the same time. Her reactions to Bruce’s awkward attempts at flirting are pretty hilarious. And her exchanges with Batman almost leave me needing a cigarette, and that’s BEFORE she references Catwoman:
Batman: I don't blend in at a family picnic.
Dr. Chase Meridian: Oh, we could give it a try. I'll bring the wine, you bring your scarred psyche.
Batman: [Chase removes her coat, revealing a sexy black dress] Direct, aren't you?
Dr. Chase Meridian: You like strong women. I've done my homework. Or do I need skin-tight vinyl and a whip?
Batman: I haven't had that much luck with women.
Dr. Chase Meridian: Maybe you just haven't met the right woman.
Is this movie actually good though? It’s hard to properly gauge because I was such a huge Jim Carrey fan growing up, and he steals the show in this. There’s a scene where he’s hosting a big NygmaTech gala to show off the Box, and he pretty much patterns his appearance after Bruce Wayne, right down to wearing the same glasses as him. The way his character just commands the movie, turning Two-Face into almost HIS lackey, is almost brilliant, but that all comes at the expense of Val Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne.
Don’t get me wrong, Kilmer works with what he has, and he does a great job, especially in the scenes where they dive into Bruce’s psyche and why he became Batman. The problem is, his Bruce Wayne is kind of an idiot. How could he not figure out that Edward Nygma is the Riddler, let alone some kind of criminal in general? How does a low level Wayne Enterprises employee get that kind of money to form a company that ended up rivaling his former employer? You’d think he’d put two and two together right there that Nygma might have stolen the capital needed, rather than solving a bunch of riddles. You know what? Who cares! I love how ridiculously over the top this flick is.
Speaking of over the top, this is the one of the first attempts at an extended movie universe. Bruce Wayne openly mentions Metropolis, Superman’s adopted city. In the next flick, Batman & Robin, he says Superman by name.
And with that, I leave you with “Kiss From a Rose”.