The Batman Film Franchise: An Ultimate Failure

[TMC]

The biggest cons in my estimation that surrounded the Batman movies regardless of whether you prefer Tim Burton's take or Joel Schumacher's:
1. Casting stars for pure "marquee & name value":
In this case names like Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeffier, Jim Carrey, and Arnold Schwarzenegger as perfect examples. Even getting Alicia Silverstone as a shameless act to cash in on her sudden "it person" status due in large part to "Clueless" should seriously be put under this umbrella Lets face it, the Batman name has and will always (even before the Adam West TV series in all likelyhood) have a huge built in audience since it's arguably the most reconizable comic name behind Superman. The problem that I have w/ this is that you just simply get the impression that big names playing the parts of long established characters are really doing it for either the paycheck or some extra industry clout. It's just too much of a distraction when you're not really able to see a big name star disappear w/ their comic characters because of the automatic recognition. I for one when looking back, believes that the producers should've aimed for considerably younger & hungier up & comers. Take for instance, Christopher Reeve for Superman, Hugh Jackman for X-Men, or Tobey Maguire for Spider-Man who weren't necessarily "huge names" at the time yet their comic book movies still managed to become huge hits. Then again, the Superman movies did pay a lot of dough to get already established names at the time like Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman (both of which were billed over Christopher Reeve in the very first Supes movie), and Richard Pryor.

2. Weak continuity in-between movies:
The Batman movies really became sort of an unwanted joke upon itself in various ways. To be fair, when it comes to the Harvey Dent issue in the sense that the character kind of pulled a "Michael Jackson in reverse" as he was first played by Billy Dee Williams and eventually played by Tommy Lee Jones, I'll cut the movies some slack since you can't tell me that when the first Batman movie came out in 1989 we all were thinking way ahead to the second sequel in 1995! Besides, you can take this for what it's worth I guess but lets put it this way, how much clout did Billy Dee Williams still have (especially when compared to Jones, who was still fresh off winning an Oscar) by the time the sequels rolled around!? With that being said as much as it pains me to say this, the movies lost more and more credibility whenever a new actor (unlike the Superman movies which gave us an extra safety net in spite of the consideredly falling quality of each sequel since we could accept and grow comfortable w/ the aspect of Christopher Reeve playing the title role in each and every film) was brought in to wear the cape & cowl (unless of course, you want to look at the James Bond angle for example). Personally, I don't know the actual stories behind Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer's decisions to give up their roles. Supposedly, Keaton either asked for too much money or he decided to quit once he realized that Tim Burton wasn't going to continue directing the movies. Kilmer on the other hand, either got run out because he couldn't get along w/ Joel Schumacher on the set of "Batman", figured that since he's generally considered a "character actor" feared that he would forever by typed-cast in the Batman role just like Adam West was, or was mislead into believing that "Batman & Robin" was going to be released three years apart from "Batman Forever" just like the other movies instead of two years.

3. Little knowlege and/or respect for the characters:
Prime examples:
*Two-Face-For what ever the reasons (I guess out of fear of being completely overshadowed by Jim Carrey) Tommy Lee Jones opted to go the full-blown hyper-active and campy route rather than being a more low-key contrast to the Riddler.

*Mr. Freeze-For those who are very aware of the character (especially after watching his protrayal on "Batman: TAS"), it's quite obvious that Freeze is very disinterested, cold hearted (no pun intended of course), and troubled by his wife's sickness. Well if that was truly the case in "Batman & Robin" then why exactly does the script insist on having Freeze act so nonchalant the current circumstances in his life since he kept on cracking boatloads of cheesy puns and wisecracks (thank you very much "Academy Award Winner" Akiva Goldsman)!?

*Bane-Lets see, where as prior to "Batman & Robin" Bane was smart enough to device a plot that would lead to Bats getting his back broken, in the movie he's turned into a pathetic, grunting sidekick without a mind of his own.

*Gordon-Even though he was painfully underused in the first three films, at the very least, Gordon was presented as a respectable and headstrong policeman. But in "Batman & Robin" he's suddenly turned into a sad, pathetic, comic foil w/ the keystone cop attire to add insult to injury.

*Bats-For some reason, when looking back, I just can't stomach the rather lazy-brain idea to all of a sudden incorporate the idea that Bats is simply some ruthless killer (at least in Burton's movies), who goes through the motions during a fight. I never really thought that Tim Burton was able to make us believe that he could able to create an effective action sequence unlike Joel Schumacher was able to due (even though they may have been a bit more cartoonish and/or over-blown in retrospect). Lets put it this way, it seemed as if Bats looked stiff during most of his fight scenes and when all else failed Burton would resort to cheap shock value & gore.

*Batgirl-In retrospect, the fact that Batgirl wasn't Barbera Gordon in "Batman & Robin" doesn't really bother me since w/ all due respect, I don't think that Barbera Gordon has been the same character (since the Joker put her in a wheelchair if I'm not mistaken) in over 10 years. The biggest problems that I had was number one, Batgirl really shouldn't have been in "Batman & Robin" since it was called "Batman & Robin" as it needed to focus much more strongly on the building relationship between the Dynamic Duo, and number two, if you're going to make the Batgirl a completely different character (in this case, Alfred's niece instead of Gordon's daugther) as before, do not still give the new Batgirl the same old first name (how tacky can you get).

4. The "Batman & Robin" effect:
Where as for better or worse the first three movies had their own unique style and flavor, "Batman & Robin" shamelessly took bits & pieces from previous movies and junked them all together. Not to mention the rather intelligence insulting script, the often lazy-minded and inane storytelling, poor sense of character devolopment, etc., etc., etc. Another issue to deal w/ was the rather disturbing sense that way too many of Joel Schumacher's various "indulgences" can be found. Examples include:
*The nipples on the costumes.

*The presumably inapproriate sexual innunendos.

*The close ups of people's buttocks while putting on their costumes/uniforms.

*The rather distracting 1960s TV show influence (e.g. the Riddler's skin-tight costume, the "Holy [fill in the blank] Batman!" homage in "Batman Forever", the villains desperately feeling the need to over-act and chew as much scenery as you can possibly can, etc.).

To be fair Burton had his annoying indulgences too:
*Being so wrapped up in the aspect of being very stylish and "twisted" for a comic book adaptation like Batman that the script somethings don't make much sense. Take for instance the whole "Yets rig the Batmobile!" plot in "Batman Returns."

*Supremely contrived, corny, and/or tacky, would be cute add-ons like Joker hopping around to the sound of Prince's music or the Penguin having a posse of mind-controlled little penguins for example.

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[Brian Damage]

I will not say the Batman movies were an ultimate failure, however I do think they made mistakes by killing off central villians like The Joker and The Penguin. Joel Shumacher alsomade the films into some sort of burlesque show. The movies did make a lot of money and they are planning to resurrect the franchise.

[Brian]

I liked Batman, Batman Returns, and Batman Forever. But when they made Batman and Robin, that is when it jumped the shark (for movies that is).

[Sitcomwriter]

I watched "Batman Returns" and TV last night and I never realized how scary the Batman movies were.Catwoman goes nuts and starts breaking things while bleeding all over the place,The Penguin is incredibly ugly (even for the penguin),The Riddler sets the batcave on fire,Two-Face goes crazy and starts killing EVERYBODY,etc.

"Batman & Robin" was the least violent if I remember correctly but of course it sucked.

[DarleneIllyria]

Eh, let me see.

Batman 1966 movie- Yeah, I love it. This is my fave. out of all the Batman films

Batman 1989 (?) movie- Hmm, I didn't really like it. However, I do feel that Michael Keaton was the best Batman after Adam West. I just didn't really like the storyline all that much.

Batman Returns- Prob. my favorite out of the 'recent' Batman movies. We had Penguin and Catwoman and we still had Keaton as Batman.

Batman Forever- The only good thing about this movie was Nicole Kidman. I just didn't think Val made that great of a Batman. Chris O' Donnel made a pretty good Robin.

Batman and Robin- Yeah, someone flushed this down the toilet. I could list so many reasons why I hate this movie, but I won't list. It's just a crappy movie, if you ask me. They royally screwed up the Robin character. No, didn't cast another actor. We still had Chris, but they just screwed up the actual Robin character.

[TJL]

Plain and simple. Schumacher killed the franchise. Too much camp for my taste. Tim Burton should have stayed on to direct one more.