Writers: Akiva Goldsman, Lee Batchler & Janet Scott Batchler
Producers: Tim Burton, Peter MacGregor-Scott
Director: Joel Schumacher
Batman: Val Kilmer
Time indexes refer to the 2005 Special Edition NTSC Region 1 DVD of the film.
00:00:12
-- This time in our special WB logo, the sky not only goes black, but
the shield itself morphs into the Bat-logo. I will say right now this is
not a subtle movie. The font for the credits was designed for this
movie and its promotional materials, and was even incorporated into the
trade dress of the comics themselves from May 1996 to March 2000, along
with the redesigned Bat-logo.
00:01:04 -- So the title of
this movie, techinically speaking, is just "FOREVER". Also, two
Bat-logos in one credits sequence because, again, subtle.
00:01:08
-- The movie originally opened with a dark, gothic sequence of Two-Face
escaping from Arkham Asylum, complete with "The Bat Must Die" written
in his guard's blood on the cell's wall. After BATMAN RETURNS getting so
many parental complaints for its dark content, WB had this sequence
removed and sped the film's pace up to begin with Batman suiting up in
the Batcave to go catch Two-Face. All in all about close to 40 minutes
of footage was excised from BATMAN FOREVER, including an entire subplot
that basically explains Bruce's character arc in the film. We'll talk
more about this as we go.
00:01:32 -- Apparently repairing
the Batmobile from RETURNS meant redesigning it from scratch. Along
with the Batcave. The new Batmobile takes a few prominent design
elements from the original comic book version, notably the single large
fin down the middle of the car. Schumacher wanted an "H.R. Giger" look
to the car, which somehow got translated into very bright glowing blue
lights everywhere.
00:01:48 -- Batman is now Val Kilmer.
With Burton replaced by the studio with Schumacher, Keaton no longer
felt comfortable in the role of Batman and opted out of the project.
Kilmer was Schumacher's top choice to play Batman and accepted the role
before even reading the script. Kilmer ended up being Bob Kane's
favourite live-action Bruce Wayne, of the ones he lived to see (Wilson,
Lowery, West, Keaton, Kilmer). The Batsuit has undergone another
redesign -- roughly the same as Burton's version, it's been resculpted
to a more organic look after RETURNS' industrial lines. Schumacher
wanted the musculature to resemble the idealized beauty of Greek
statues, and when questioned, did not understand what the problem was
with putting prominent nipples on the Batsuit.
00:01:51 --
Michael Gough reprises his role as Alfred. Gough and Pat Hingle
(Commissioner Gordon) are the only returning cast members from Burton's
films, and only their inclusion and a few lines of dialogue connect
FOREVER to the earlier films, otherwise this might as well be a reboot.
00:02:17
-- While Burton's Gotham City was, well, Gothic, Schumacher's is much,
much, much more colourful. Filled with neon lights, and odd gobo
projections everywhere, Schumacher wanted an aesthetic that mixed the
four-colour sensibilities of old comic books with modern Tokyo. Like
Burton's Gotham, it is created entirely on a soundstage.
00:02:25
-- Danny Elfman left with Burton (of course) and so we have a new
rousing Batman theme by Elliot Goldenthal, who covers the movie almost
head to toe with a score that will be essentially repeated note for
note in the next movie.
00:02:38 -- The role of Harvey
Dent has been recast with Tommy Lee Jones. While Billy Dee Williams had
taken the role of District Attorney Dent in BATMAN solely to play
Two-Face in the sequels, Schumacher didn't want him and replaced him
with Jones, whom he had worked with on THE CLIENT. Jones agreed to take
the role because he was interested in the Jekyll/Hyde aspect (ultimately
very downplayed in this film) and wanted to please his kids. Williams
had a play-or-pay contract, so he was paid Jones' salary despite not
appearing in the film at all. In addition to going from black to white,
Dent has also become Two-Face off camera and between movies. The
transformation had been meant to happen in RETURNS, but was written out
of the film. Two-Face first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (August
1942), created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Kane had been inspired by
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde but the twist was that Two-Face was both the
good and evil personalities at the same time. When he flipped his coin,
he would choose between an evil action (robbing a bank) or a good action
(giving to charity) depending on the toss. As the years went on this
dichotomy between good and evil was ultimately simplified into evil or
not-evil, to not act at all if the good side came up, and the
character's tragic and complex actions and motivations were simplifed
into a cackling villain who committed crimes based on the number two and
uttering bad puns. Jones' Two-Face is far more influenced by the later
campy 1950s version of the character, as typified in stories by David
Vern and Dick Sprang. Two-Face never appeared on the 1966 show, his
backstory and visage considered too gruesome for the series, and thus
never gained the widescreen pop culture recognition of the other
villains used in the movies to this point, but he had always been well
regarded by comics fans and writers as a great tragic foil to Batman and
so remained prominent enough in the comics to warrant inclusion in the
films, finally.
00:03:20 -- Two-Face's scarred visage,
here designed by make-up artist Rick Baker, is coloured hot pink.
Scarred on his left side by a vial of sulphuric acid (or nitric acid in
later retellings), Two-Face's burns were originally coloured green in
the comics art of Bob Kane, and varied between green and grey until the
late 1970s, when purple emerged as a third alternative. The burns where
coloured blue in the 1992 animated series. Since the publication of
1997's THE LONG HALLOWEEN, a fleshy red has become the most popular
depiction. The burns were originally seen to peel away Dent's lips and
eyelids, blinding him in his left eye and burning some of his hair as
well, producing the appearance of a bulging eye and snarling mouth with
ragged hair on that side. Modern comics have taken a more extreme turn,
often showing almost all the skin burned off for a practically skull
like image. For this movie, the snarling mouth and absent lips have
instead become a strange Joker-like permanent smile on that side
(complete with purple lipstick!), and no attempt was made to alter the
eye. The pink colouration has, for some reason, also extended to the
hair. In reality, vitriol burns to the skin would probably result in a
yellowish discolouring if anything, and the damage to the flesh would be
more like what Bob Kane originally drew than the extremes of say, Tim
Sale's art.
00:03:58 -- Two-Face's suit is also split down
the middle, in a typically comic book fashion choice. The original
comics used orange for the good side and purple for the bad
(green/purple being traditional comic book villain colours; see Joker,
Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Green Goblin, Dr. Octopus, Dr. Doom, etc.). A
far classier, and seemingly obvious, variation was half black and half
white in the animated series, which soon became popular in the comics as
well. I'm unsure as to the reasoning behind Schumacher's version, which
has a normal suit for the good side, and then a bizarre purple/yellow
animal print suit for the "evil" side.
00:04:16 -- Nicole
Kidman, on the very beginning of being super famous, plays Dr. Chase
Meridian. Despite the ridiculous name, Dr. Meridian is not from the
comics, and was created for the sole purpose of being Bruce
Wayne/Batman's love interest for this movie. She's a criminal
psychologist, primarily in order to service a subplot which isn't even
in the finished film. Schumacher cast Kidman, then 28, as the PhD solely
because of her stunning good looks. Schumacher has gone on record to
state that he believes in casting good looking, sexy actors in movies
whenever possible, a principle which kinda screwed up his take on
PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
00:04:27 -- "The Second Bank of
Gotham on the second anniversary of the day I captured him". A totally
typical and obvious Two-Face ploy that apparently the GCPD didn't see
coming. This implies that Dent became Two-Face in 1993 or so, between
movies.
00:04:34 -- Two-Face just got out of Arkham
earlier in the evening and is robbing a bank (which has a vault on the
upper floors of a skyscraper for... some... reason...) and yet Gordon
called in an out-of-town criminal psychologist to consult on this case,
because Gotham City isn't the sort've place that would already have a
ton of those on call or anything...
00:04:51 -- Dr.
Meridian, the expert on Two-Face's psychology, declares that he'll
slaughter his hostages "without thinking twice", a line that I think was
written more for the pun than anything else, since Two-Face's whole
modus operandi is thinking twice about every single thing he does and
using the coin to decide. He's half good and half evil, people!
00:05:06
-- The writers have, however, chosen to continue Burton's "Batman's
just as crazy as the villains!" theme, and Bruce's sanity is the main
subject of that subplot that's no longer here that I keep harping about.
00:05:28
-- So... Two-Face and his men are in the vault of this bank, high in
this skyscraper, and the police (and several inexplicable crowds) have
it surrounded, yet he somehow manages to get a helicopter carrying a
wrecking ball (I don't think that's physically possible) into the
airspace to knock down a wall of the building.
00:05:56 --
While WB no longer trusted Burton to direct a Batman film, they still
felt his involvment was pivotal enough to the series image and success
to keep him on in a producing capacity.
00:06:01 --
Two-Face's goons use Tommy Guns decorated with neon lights because
EVERYTHING IN GOTHAM IS INEXPLICABLY DECORATED WITH NEON NOW.
EVERYTHING.
00:08:25 -- So the vault is filled with
boiling (?) sulphuric acid instead of money because this was all an
overelaborate trap to kill Batman. Which, yeah, is pretty typical for
the kind of 1950s comics this movie is taking its inspiration from.
00:08:52
-- The hearing aid makes a cartoony "pop" noise when Batman takes it
out of the guard's ear. Yeah, this is not a movie that is taking itself
very seriously.
00:09:04 -- How, and from where, is enough
boiling sulphuric acid to fill the vault being pumped into the vault
from within the vault and why is it not eating through the vault? And
why is it glowing red for that matter?
00:09:54 -- I'm not even gonna try to understand the non-physics behind that.
00:10:07
-- Dr. Chase Meridian, reknowned criminal psychologist, came to a crime
scene dressed in an overcoat and skimpy lingerie. Are you sure I'm not
watching the porn parody of this movie? Also, you did understand that WB
wanted a more "family friendly" Batman, right Schumacher?
00:10:30
-- Giant novelty billboards are, in all fairness, an old tradition in
Batman comics going back to the Bill Finger/Dick Sprang days of the late
forties/early fifties.
00:11:45 -- So Gotham's gone from
being a New York analogue, to basically just a crazy comic book version
of New York, complete with "Lady Gotham", the Statue of Liberty with
GOTHAM written on the crown. In the comics, Gotham went from being New
York to being a New York analogue, to finally becoming it's own city
with its own geographic identity. It's located in southern New Jersey,
off the coast of Cape May, according to the OFFICIAL ATLAS OF THE DC
UNIVERSE. Schumacher's film implies that Gotham is New York, a confusing
implication given that the Donner Superman movies of the 1980s also
made Metropolis literally New York.
00:12:01 -- Two-Face's
parachute literally appeared out of nowhere on him after he jumped out
of the helicopter. It's not there, he jumps, it's there.
00:12:33
-- So, let's review. Schumacher/Kilmer's Batman 1) fails to anticipate
that Two-Face would rob the 2nd Bank of Gotham on the 2nd anniversary of
his capture, 2) fails to anticipate that it's all a trap to kill him,
3) fails to stop the destruction of the Lady Gotham statue, 4) fails to
recapture Two-Face.
00:12:38 -- Unlike Keaton's Wayne,
Kilmer's actually works for a living. Wayne Enterprises first started
appearing in Batman comics in the late 1970s, and accomplished several
storytelling goals that seem glaringly obvious without it. First and
foremost, why is Bruce Wayne rich? Where is the money coming from? And
specifically, where is the money continuing to come from so he can
continually upgrade all his bat-gadgets? And where are those gadgets
coming from and who's producing them? Wayne Enterprises answers all of
that and it also gives Bruce something to do other than be Batman, gets
him into the world of big money corporate intrigue that Tony Stark got
to play in and was selling well in late seventies Iron Man comics.
00:13:13
-- And here's Jim Carrey as Edward Nygma, not yet the Riddler. It's
important to remember that Carrey was beyond huge in 1995. In a period
of two years he'd done ACE VENTURA, THE MASK, DUMB AND DUMBER, BATMAN
FOREVER, ACE VENTURA 2, and THE CABLE GUY, which remain to this day the
biggest films of his career. For a brief period Carrey was king, and was
the obvious pick for the Riddler. Carrey modelled his performance after
that of Frank Gorshin's in the 1966 series, but Carrey's Riddler lacks
any of the subtley, intelligence or menace of Gorshin's. Carrey's
Riddler basically plays as a Joker imitation, which is a gross
misunderstanding of the character that unfortunately many, including
those working on the comics themselves, fall prey to. Granted Carrey
doing Riddler-As-Joker also ends up being a lot like any other comedic
Carrey character of the mid-nineties; Carrey's movies of the period were
mostly just an excuse for him to run wild with his zany over-the-top
antics. The differences in character between Ace Venture, The Mask, and
The Riddler aren't much. The Riddler first appeared in Detective Comics
#140 (October, 1948) by Bill Finger and Dick Sprang. Edward Nigma was an
intellectual criminal whose biggest talent was cheating at puzzles and
riddles, and after a career as a con man decided to become the costumed
Riddler purely to match his wits against the police and specifically
against the Batman, believing he could cheat his way through puzzled
crimes the Batman could never solve. The Riddler leaves riddles and
clues at the scenes of his crimes for Batman to attempt to solve, being a
purely cerebral challenge to the character known as one of the world's
greatest detectives. Because of the need for Riddler's schemes to be so
intellectual in nature, he is a character who often eludes comic book
writers. Gorshin's performance was one of the biggest successes of the
1966 series, and so the Riddler became greatly associated with it.
Modern writers often use the Riddler as a stand-in for an old-fashioned,
silly, "gimmick" villain and usually modern comics spend their time
making fun of him.
00:13:22 -- Why, in a world without the
Riddler, does the pre-Riddler have a Riddler bobble-head doll that
laughs like the Joker?
00:13:40 -- Kilmer continues to wear the glasses that Keaton wore as Wayne, in an odd bit of continuity.
00:13:52
-- Schumacher and the writers chose to re-envision Nygma as an obsessed
stalker of Bruce Wayne, for reasons that are creatively unclear to me.
The idea that Edward was the unhappy employee of a big technology
company with a hatred for his boss comes from "If You're So Smart, Why
Aren't You Rich?", a second season episode of the 1992 animated series
wherein Nygma was a computer programmer for a software company cheated
out of his royalties.
00:15:26 -- The sky of Gotham is red, just like the popular animated series, which was enjoying its third season.
00:16:07
-- A Batman villain whose beginnings are as a Wayne Enterprises
scientist who has invented a form of mind control and later uses that
device in his evil plot actually describes The Mad Hatter far more than
The Riddler, specifically his backstory from the episode "Mad as a
Hatter" from the animated series.
00:16:50 -- In the
comics, Batman has several "auxillery Batcaves" in key locations
throughout Gotham, most notably one directly under Wayne Tower. In this
movie, we instead must believe that there's a man-sized tube running all
the way down the tower and then all the way up north to Wayne Manor
outside the city, directly into the Batcave, that can transport Bruce in
some kind've human torpedo at speeds of around 200mph, and that when it
stops is hot enough to cause sparks and smoke but not cook Bruce alive
inside.
00:17:30 -- Let's reiterate. Bruce is in Downtown
Gotham, sees the Bat-signal, travels by human torpedo all the way up
north to Wayne Manor JUST TO CHANGE INTO THE BATSUIT, then drives in the
Batmobile all the way back to Downtown Gotham to Police Headquarters
where the Bat-signal is.
00:19:09 -- "Or do I need
skintight vinyl and a whip?" Basically the one in-dialogue reference to a
previous movie and the only direct acknowledgement this is a sequel to
RETURNS and thus, somehow, takes place in the same universe. My respect
for Gordon's judgement of criminal psychologists is low, since it seems
Dr. Chase Meridian agreed to come to Gotham purely so she could jump
Batman's bones. Which is also the only reason her character is in the
script. Direct, indeed.
00:19:24 -- And if we needed
confirmation that Pat Hingle's Gordon has been reduced to a doddering
old fool, he arrives on the roof in his pajamas wondering what's going
on.
00:19:44 -- So, can anyone explain what's going on
here? Batman jumps off the roof and into a big... red... box.. one of
many on a Gotham skyway... that contain's the Batmobile... and has a
sunroof just for doing this... is this some kind've weird hightech
parking system? Is this like anything that exists in the real world? Is
the audience supposed to understand this at all?
00:22:22
-- The idea that the Riddler grows smarter by feeding off brain waves
through a machine is... well... stupid... but also wholly original to
this movie. Comic book Riddler is smart because he's smart, but I guess
movie version needed an origin story??
00:24:48 -- And so
we get Harvey's entire backstory rendered in a TV news review. I guess
the whole Maroni trial was covered, including close-ups and alternate
angles. The version of events seen here is basically the Golden Age
Two-Face origin, complete with Batman being at the trial and attempting
to save Dent. The way its shot is a little confusing however -- he holds
a folder up to guard his face, apparently to explain why the acid only
hits half, but we clearly see it hit his entire face. Also the
voice-over from the reporter claims that the acid burns gave him "left
brain damage" which transformed him into a violent criminal, which is
the single dumbest explanation of Harvey's split personality I've ever
heard. Even if we buy into the popular physiological notion of
left/right brain, the left brain is the "rational side", so why would
left brain damage make someone a criminal based on the duality of good
and evil?
00:26:14 -- One thing that's bugged me, ever
since I was a kid, is that the movie never explains how Nygma faked this
security footage. Is it supposed to be computer animation of some kind?
Cuz that'd be pretty fuckin impressive for 1995.
00:27:21
-- Riddler's riddles for the movie were written by New York Times
Crossword editor Will Shortz. I'd like to note that Nygma has not yet
decided on his Riddler persona, his criminal enterprise, his scheme,
etc. but his first riddle to Bruce already uses the patented Riddler
symbol developed for this movie.
00:27:32 -- This
crossword billboard is a reference to Riddler's first appearance, in
which he reprogrammed a crossword billboard to pronounce the clues for
his first big crime.
00:27:46 -- The song playing here is "Bad Days" by The Flaming Lips. It just might be the coolest thing in the whole movie.
00:28:09
-- I think the idea that Nygma bases his Riddler persona entirely on an
pre-existing carnival game character called "The Guesser" to be not
only bizarre, but seriously lazy. It'd be like if the new Superman movie
had a scene of young Clark Kent watching the old 50s George Reeves show
and going "it's perfect!"
00:28:43 -- For this film,
Wayne Manor is played by the Webb Institute in New York, and so once
again looks completely different than the last two movies. The big "W"
on the gates is actually for Webb, not Wayne.
00:29:06 --
For the first time in three movies a Gotham City location is played by a
real-world location. "City Hall" is New York's Surrogates Court, and
looks nothing like City Hall in the previous two movies.
00:29:27
-- Bruce walks inside and the building labeled "City Hall" on the
exterior now seems to be GCPD headquarters on the interior, which is
hilarious because it looks nothing like the building the Batmobile drove
to.
00:33:04 -- And HEY! It's the Gotham Charity Circus,
because OH SNAP, Robin's in this one! Robin had been planned to be in
the third Batman movie by Tim Burton, where he was to be played by
Marlon Wayans and was gonna be a young garage mechanic who rebuilt the
Batmobile, was actually named Robin, and who wore mechanic's overalls
with an R on the chest. That didn't happen, and Wayans got the same
pay-or-play buy out that Williams got when the role was recast with
Chris O'Donnell in a more traditionalist flavour. That's two black guys
Schumacher recast with whites, for those paranoids counting. Before
Wayans, Robin had been present in an earlier draft of BATMAN, a version
of the third act where the Joker killed the Flying Graysons and Dick
became Bruce's partner, but it was all, correctly, deemed too much to
try to squeeze into the ending of that movie. Also, Burton hated Robin.
The Boy Wonder first appeared in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), the
first kid sidekick for a superhero ever. Robin was created by Bill
Finger primarily so that Batman could have someone to talk to, a Watson
to his Sherlock. He was made a colourful kid so that he could be an
identitification point for the young kids reading the comics -- maybe
they couldn't be Batman, but they could pretend to be Robin! Batman and
Robin became an inseperable duo, despite continued allegations
throughout the 1950s that the partnership of Bruce and Dick was a coded
message for homosexuality. Eventually, as Batman comics became "darker"
and "more mature", efforts were made to be rid of Robin. Young Dick
Grayson grew up and became Nightwing (Tales of the Teen Titans #44, July
1984), his replacement Jason Todd was killed by the Joker (Batman #428,
December 1988), but Robin persisted. In 1995 Tim Drake was Robin, and
even had his own solo comic book series. The character was also popular
in the animated series. So it seemed inevitable that Robin be included
by the time of the third Batman film. And finally, I'd like to note that
thanks to Tim Burton associating the Penguin with the circus somehow,
this is the third Batman movie in a row to use circus imagery.
00:33:33 -- Gossip Gertie is played by Betty Kane, wife of Bob Kane.
00:34:08
-- In the original comics, the Flying Graysons consisted of Dick and
his parents, but Schumacher here adds a brother for reasons that are...
unclear. Especially since one of the biggest points about Dick's origin
is that it mirrors Bruce's -- an only child whose parents are murdered
by crime.
00:34:49 -- The main reason Dick was given a
background as a circus acrobat in the comics was to explain how a
ten-year-old boy was able to keep step with highly trained Batman in
leaping across rooftops and fighting criminals. But movie Batman doesn't
do a lot of rooftop leaping or martial arts fighting and movie Dick is
twenty-five, so it doesn't really seem necessary anymore. Granted,
making Robin fifteen years older than he's supposed to be was a move
designed to make the character seem more believeable and less silly on
film, but actually renders his origin completely nonsensical.
00:35:43
-- This whole "awe-inspiring Death Drop, without the safety of a net"
bit is of course needed to give some plausibility to the death of the
Flying Graysons. Because they died when the ropes to their acrobat act
were cut and they fell, in a modern act they'd fall on the net and be
fine. Of course, the main reason a circus would employ a net would be
safety reasons for insurance purposes so how they could be able to do
one trick without it I have no idea.
00:36:16 -- Chris
O'Donnell's stunt double was a fellow named Martin Gaylord. Not even
making that up. Making Robin not gay has been an uphill battle since
1954, and this movie just does not want to even try. Have you seen the
earlobe stud he's wearing?
00:36:45 -- Everyone in the
audience is all "who's that?" because the camera can only see the good
side of Harvey's face, despite the fact that half the audience should be
able to see his bad since they're, y'know, sitting on that side of him.
00:36:47
-- The Flying Graysons are here employed by the "Circus
Internationale", while in the comics it was the far more local "Haley's
Circus".
00:37:39 -- Hey, I guess that mayor from BATMAN RETURNS did get recalled anyway, because here's our third mayor in six years.
00:38:15
-- Stuck in a hostage scenario with a two-minute timer, KilmerWayne's
first response is to yell "I'm Batman!" in a crowd, in an altruistic
effort to stop Two-Face's plan by giving in to terrorism. Rather than,
y'know, suit up and be a hero and stop the scheme like Batman would do.
Granted when the Batsuit is a few hundred pounds of foam rubber it's a
lot harder to quick change.
00:40:37 -- Okay, so some
changes to Robin's origin here. In the original story, a group of
mobsters led by Boss Tony Zucco attempted to hustle protection money out
of Haley's Circus, and when Mr. Haley refused to pay, the gangsters
poured acid on the acrobat's ropes, causing them to snap
mid-performance. Dick was on the sidelines and watched his parents fall
to their deaths before his very eyes. Bruce was at that performance, and
seeing his own parents murders mirrored in the boy's, takes him in and
turns him into Robin, his sidekick, partly out of a desire to harnass
the boys' rage and lust for revenge into a force for good. Here,
however, we get the addition of a brother, the addition of a bomb, and
the addition of Two-Face. Two-Face's role in Robin's movie origin feels a
lot like shoehorning Joker into Bruce's back in BATMAN, a way to make
the conflict with the villains personal. Of course, both villains
already have a personal-level conflict with Bruce Wayne/Batman, but I
guess Robin needs motivation too. While Two-Face was never involved with
Robin's comics book origin (he first appeared in comics two years after
the Boy Wonder), he is a villain often associated with him. The first
villain fought by both Jason Todd and Tim Drake was Two-Face (Batman
#410 and #441, 1987 and 1989), and even Dick Grayson in the ROBIN: YEAR
ONE storyline (2000), the battle between Two-Face and Robin does however
lack the power of that between Batman and Two-Face, as none of the
Robin's have ever really understood the tragedy of Harvey Dent and see
him as nothing more than another murderous villain. The addition of the
bomb plot is supposed to set up Dick as a hero before he even puts on
tights, but it results in the odd change that he doesn't actually
witness his family's death -- everyone else does but he's busy getting
rid of the bomb. It's supposed to give another layer of guilt ("if only
I'd been there!"), but ultimately it lessens the connections between his
tragedy and Bruce's.
00:41:28 -- There are a lot of
variations on exactly how Dick Grayson became Bruce Wayne's ward. A ward
is a somewhat outdated term and notion but essentially means that Bruce
is Dick's legal guardian but not an adoptive parent. It's key to note
that in the comics, Dick is ten years old when his parents died. In
Detective Comics #38, Batman just kinda... well.. takes Dick straight
from the tragedy to the Batcave, and almost immediately drafts him into
the war on crime, revealing his identity as Bruce Wayne later and
arranging to take Dick as his ward, and they eventually team up to take
down Zucco. This version is also used by Frank Miller in his ALL-STAR
BATMAN AND ROBIN series. Later retellings add further details: In the
BATMAN: YEAR THREE storyline (1989), Dick is placed into an orphanage
following his parents death. Bruce, moved by empathy, adopts him. Dick
eventually discovers Bruce's identity on his own and becomes Robin when
he expresses his desire for vengeance on Zucco. In the animated series
episode "Robin's Reckoning", Dick is placed under police custody after
the murder and Bruce agrees to take care of him under witness
protection, since Zucco may try to kill him. The animated series used a
19 year old Robin who was in University, based on the Bronze Age Dick
Grayson (but using Tim Drake's costume), as part of an effort to make
Robin less silly and ridiculous -- but when they did the origin they
used flashbacks to assure that Dick was indeed 10 when he was taken in
by Bruce and learned about Batman. Schumacher appears to be using the
animated series version, which had a similar scene between Bruce and
Gordon, but his choice to make Robin older as well (Chris O'Donnell was
25 when the movie was made) begs the question of why Bruce, or anybody,
needs to take Dick in. Isn't he old enough to be on his own? Also, while
I understand that making Dick older gets rid of the "reckless child
endangerment" concerns regarding the Robin character, turning him into a
25-year-old that a 36-year-old Bruce agrees to take in makes them far
MORE suspiciously gay than a 10 year old being taken into legal
protection by a 30-year-old billionaire.
00:42:23 --
Metropolis exists in the Batman movie-verse. But if Gotham IS New York,
complete with Statue of Liberty, where and what is Metropolis (which
also WAS New York, complete with Statue of Liberty in the Superman
movies)? In the comics, Metropolis is across a bay from Gotham, in
Sussex, Delaware.
00:43:37 -- "Alfred's actually a very
good mechanic," in the absense of other supporting characters from the
comics, the movies took the hilarious route of having Bruce's butler be
the guy designing, building and maintaining all of Batman's gadgets and
technology.
00:43:42 -- Dick's love of motorcycles is an
element taken from the animated series, where Robin generally drove a
motorcycle when on solo missions.
00:45:01 -- One of the
most iconic Batman images, from Batman #404 (February, 1987) is David
Mazzuchelli's rendering of young Bruce Wayne kneeling beside the dead
bodies of his parents, lit in a circle of light by an overhanging street
lamp. The two dead bodies within a circle became a recurring image, and
Schumacher used it earlier with the dead Graysons on the circle floor
of the circus tent. But here, hilariously, the circle the dead Waynes
are in is not a circle of light from a street lamp, but a LITERAL WHITE
CIRCLE PAINTED ON THE ALLEY FOR SOME REASON.
00:45:32 --
And here's the Red Book, the focal point of an entire deleted subplot in
the movie. All the clues are still there, for the most part, but it's
the resolution and explanation of these elements that are gone. Which is
bizarre because they could've easily cut out the elements of Bruce's
nightmares and flashbacks that involve the book, but they don't, leaving
it an odd, unexplained element in the movie.
00:46:38 --
Well, at least in this movie Bruce can see the Bat-signal from Wayne
Manor without needing auxillary Bat-signals to point it right into his
face, but hilariously enough he can also hear downtown police sirens
from all the way out here as well.
00:48:01 -- And so here
we have an extremely convoluted explanation for the superhero name
"Robin", and apparently the only reason Dick suddenly has/had a brother
in this movie. In the original comics, Dick called himself "Robin" after
Robin Hood, and that heoric influence is also why his superhero costume
looks like a medieval tunic. It mirrors Bruce's inspiration being
Zorro. Eventually, however, this was forgotten, and it became common to
associate the Robin name with the bird in order to tie the Boy Wonder in
as an animal totem alongside BATman. This made explaining the costume
more difficult, and so it became what his family wore in the circus,
despite not being such in the original story, and despite the fact that
if that were so it would make figuring out Robin's secret identity
hilariously easy to anyone who had seen the Flying Graysons perform.
Other attempts at justifying the Robin name include Jeph Loeb's DARK
VICTORY storyline (2000), where Dick claims it was a nickname his mom
gave him because he was always "bobbin' along", which is the dumbest
thing I've ever heard. Frank Miller's ALL-STAR actually remembered the
Robin Hood connection, and thus makes sense, despite what most people
say about that series.
00:52:06 -- Two-Face's two gun
molls are Sugar and Spice. Spice is played by Debi Mazar, later to be
best-known as Vince's press agent Shauna on ENTOURAGE, and Sugar is
played by Drew Barrymore of all people. Two-Face never had any molls in
the comics because comic book Harvey had a wife named Gilda before his
was scarred and she's part of his whole big tragedy.
00:53:53
-- This is Jones' first scene with Carrey in the film. Reportedly the
two did not get along well. Jones was threatened by Carrey's extremely
quickly rising star and felt he was being upstaged. This resulted in
Jones abandoning any subtlety in his performance as Two-Face in an
attempted out go more over-the-top than Carrey, an arms race of ham that
escalated into both characters being completely cardboard. Schumacher
apparently lost a lot of respect for Jones during this, feeling that
Carrey was a gentlemand and Jones simply another coddled star who needed
more babysitting than directing. I may also point out that the GCPD are
totally unable to find Harvey's hideout (they drive right by it in the
establishing shot), but loser Nygma finds it no problem, and is able to
get inside no problem.
00:54:41 -- Riddler's brain wave machines are ALREADY IN HARVEY'S HIDE-OUT WAITING FOR HIM TO PICK THEM UP AND USE THEM.
00:57:30 -- Y'know he's good in a fight because of his HARD-CORE KUNG FU LAUNDRY SKILLZ.
00:58:28
-- "With no sign of Batman,": there used to be a "Batman No More!"
style subplot in this movie that explained this lack of Bruce DOING
ANYTHING, but it's gone now. It's related to the dreams/flashbacks of
the Red Book.
01:01:15 -- The entrance to the Batcave is
now through a locked silver closet, replacing the Iron Maiden trap door
from the previous movie.
01:04:36 -- Most of this scene is
actually tied into the excised Red Book subplot, but it's still here
because it's also practically the only time we really see Bruce and
Chase doing anything lovey-dovey, and it's a necessary connection into
the next, terrible, scene.
01:05:13 -- First up, how did
Dick steal the Batmobile? Alfred was right there. He would've had to
assault and overpower him to get to the car. Second, does the Batmobile
not have keys? How did he figure out how to drive the damn thing? And
why, for this one scene, does the central fin split in two? It's
something the toy version of the car could do too, so it seems like
something the movie car did because the toy could do and the toy could
do because the movie car did in some bizarre cross-marketing chicken and
egg.
01:05:46 -- And here, in WB's mandated "more family
friendly" Batman movie, we have Dick Grayson attempting to pick up
hookers in the Batmobile.
01:08:13 -- And suddenly Dick's
fighting prowess goes from "ultra cool martial artist" to "flailing with
his hands like Sheldon Cooper".
01:09:49 -- It's a little
hard to give Bruce a moralizing "killing is wrong" mentor speech when
this is the same Batman who Burton had killing villains left and right,
but Goldsman actually finds a good way around it by turning Bruce's
murder of the Joker into a learning experience wherein Batman has
learned the emptiness of murder for revenge, an interesting twist where
the murderous Batman of yesterday has grown into a man who is past that
kind've violence. In an intriguing change from the comics, this Batman
wants to actively discourage Dick from joining him in his nightly
crusade, which he views as a curse, rather than encourage the young man
to become a force for good. It's Goldsman actually making decent
lemonade out of the lemons he was given by Burton, and the dialogue is
also one of the few direct acknowledgements of the previous movies in
the series.
01:13:48 -- Why does Chase agree to dance with
Edward? And why does she look so into it? I can only conclude that's
she's kind've a slut.
01:16:30 -- Anyone of the hundreds
of members of the press invited to this thing seeing Nygma talking
casually with the wanted criminal looting the party?
01:17:35 -- The sexy love interest just invited Batman to a midnight booty call in our family friendly Bat-film.
01:18:24
-- Schumacher wanted Batman's cape to move in the same dramatic ways it
did in the comic books, which it had failed to do in the Burton movies
because it was heavy leather. Rather than change the material the cape
was made out of, Schumacher instead had the cape animated with CGI. In
1995.
01:18:52 -- This kind've overelaborate deathtrap
that seems to have been preplanned and yet came out of nowhere at the
same time is actually kind've perfectly suited to the 1950s comics style
this movie is inspired by. If anything it's not overelaborate enough.
01:19:14 -- And as with most of those ludicrous deathtraps of the Silver Age, Batman escapes using equally ludicrous gadgetry.
01:20:33
-- One of Dick's guesses for sidekick name is Nightwing. Nightwing is
the adult superhero identity Dick took on in the comics after he felt he
had grown out of being Robin and no longer wanted to be Bruce's
partner.
01:21:16 -- Here it's Alfred who makes the
realization that young Dick, thirsting for revenge, needs the guidance
of a mentor, a realization Bruce made perfectly well on his own in the
original stories.
01:21:41 -- Movie Bruce claims to have
"never been in love before", which implies that both Vicki and Selina
didn't mean anything to him, and that he's actually in love with this
kind've vapid, stalkerish, desperate, hot, least professional
psychologist ever.
01:22:42 -- I guess having Batman do
things like show up for midnight sexytime rendezvous rather than fight
the villains was Schumacher/Goldsman's way of fighting the homosexual
overtones potential in the rest of the movie?
01:23:52 -- Thaaaat's just creepy.
01:24:01
-- The headline on the lefthand side cracks me up. "Prodigy Child Wins
Every Award Given": well yeah, I'd win every award too if they were just
given to me.
01:24:57 -- "From this day on, Batman is no
more." Erm... why?? Other than having the hots for a girl, there's been
nothing even close to a reason given for Bruce quitting, and the speech
he gives here is impossibly cryptic, vague and meaningless. He is sick
of protecting "faces I've never seen", but the "innocent aren't faceless
anymore"... and... that's... why he's quitting? "Is this something else
explained in the deleted subplot?" you ask. "You catch on pretty
quick," I reply. "Quickly, you mean."
01:26:18 -- Holy
shit, Chase took a cab from her place downtown all the way to Wayne
Manor? That's like $50 of cab fare. I mean, I suppose Bruce can cover
it, but still, wouldn't a gentleman have Alfred pick her up or
something?
01:27:00 -- And here we have Dick running away, a subplot that's COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN after this moment.
01:27:21
-- Holy shit, these kids walked a long way for some Halloween candy. I
mean, yeah, they CLEARLY know where the house with the best candy is,
but damn that's commitment.
01:30:46 -- And there you have
it, folks: the origin of Batman! Kinda. The two Burton movies had never
bothered to explain how or why Bruce went from young orphan to
"dressing up like a giant bat to fight crime", no attempt was made at
replicating the famous scene from Detective Comics #33, wherein a bat
flies through the window of Bruce's study after he realizes he must
strike terror in the hearts of criminals. Here, Schumacher and Goldsman
adapt the scene from Frank Miller's THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS (1986) where
young Bruce falls into the batcave as a child and is confronted and
frightened by a single, seemingly huge, bat from out of the darkness. In
that version of the story, the fall happened before the death of
Bruce's parents, and so created a kind of redundancy where Bruce is
confronted by the totem-bat twice, once as a boy and again as a man
about to begin his journey, in BATMAN: YEAR ONE (1987). Goldsman
actually does something intelligent by transferring the fall to after
his parent's wake, thus creating one bat-incident that inspired Batman: a
child's response to the fear of a monster in a cave, and a child's
response to the death of his parents, and a child's way of warring on
crime. The visual of the bat, seemingly massive, flying towards Bruce
from out of the darkness is actually really faithfully reproduced from
Miller's art. Schumacher and Goldsman were actually very interested in
showing the origins of Batman -- both had wanted to do an adaptation of
YEAR ONE, but WB wanted a sequel, not a prequel, and so they can to
condense their interests into these flashback sequences, most of which
were excised from the film. Who knows what Batman we might have had if
Schumacher had not resigned to following the studio's marching order of
creating a lighter, funner, blockbuster friendly Batman? This is the
last time in the finished film we'll see these flashback sequences, but
we still don't have all the pieces of the puzzle, really. These are
memories Bruce clearly already has, not the repressed ones that have
been struggling to get through. That the Red Book was his father's
journal doesn't explain the trauma of the repression, or why he's
remembering it now. Why does Bruce want to quit being Batman at some
points in the movie and not in others? What is the importance of any of
this? Why is Batman forever, anyhow? These questions are all answered in
the deleted subplot -- and yes, I'll explain what it all was
eventually.
01:31:24 -- I may have mentioned this earlier,
but Dr. Meridian is the worst psychologist ever. Her patient's about to
have a major breakthrough and her response is to passionately kiss him
despite no outward signs of consent from Bruce. My diagnosis is
nymphomania.
01:31:36 -- And because making Gordon a
doddering old idiot wasn't enough, now Alfred's one too. Who the hell
would be fooled by that?
01:32:04 -- I don't know how
Riddler's cane unlocks what we've clearly seen earlier in the film is a
mechanical lock, but it's more plausible than Penguin suddenly having
Batmobile blueprints.
01:34:25 -- For one thing,
"JOYGASM!" is a completely redundant portmanteau, and for another --
family-friendly Batfilm, Schumacher!
01:34:40 -- And if we
really needed complete and utter confirmation that the writers
absolutely, positively, do NOT understand the character of Two-Face,
here's this infamous bit: Harvey flipping his coin over and over until
it gives him the result he wants, to kill Bruce Wayne. NO! No! No. Bad
screenwriters. Harvey's coin-flipping tic is, of course, based on the
gangster caricature played by George Raft in his movie appearances
beginning with the original SCARFACE (1932). Raft often played mob
hitmen, and would absentmindedly flip a coin while waiting to kill
someone. But the coin itself meant nothing. Finger and Kane took that
tic and made it a key part of Two-Face's character. Two-Face is
half-good, and half-evil, a man deadlocked in morality. He blames random
chance for the accident that scarred him, declares chance the only true
justice, and uses the coin as the tie-breaker to the deadlock in his
decision making. And what the coin says, is final. Otherwise, why
bother? If he can just flip until he gets the result he wants, why flip
at all? The whole point is that he DOESN'T know what result he wants, he
can't decide without the coin. Without the arbiter. But movie Two-Face
is largely missing the whole "half-good" part of the equation. He's
basically just another cackling madman, a Joker who looks normal on one
side. The marginalization of his character is definitely one of the
great failings of the movie.
01:36:23 -- Okay, time to
explain the big deleted subplot I've been referring to all this time. So
here's what's been going on in the 40 minutes of deleted scenes: Bruce
is trying to come to grips with the guilt of his actions as Batman. He
refuses to kill Harvey in the opening action setpiece when he could've,
but Harvey berates him for the hubris of declaring "Batman does not
kill," when in this movie series, he very clearly does. Bruce's parents
have been avenged, the Wayne Foundation gives millions to charity, the
police handle most of the crime and are no longer corrupt, why is he
still doing this? Bruce begins to believe that he is losing control of
his sense of self. He no longer knows who he really is, Batman or Bruce
Wayne? And these repressed memories and nightmares disturb him. He
remembers falling into the cave, the bat. He remembers running from his
parents' wake. But why was he running? And what does it have to do with
his father's journal? Is Batman just Bruce's response to his fear? Does
he only fight crime because he's still running from his pain? This is
why he's seeing Chase, and the significance of his need for her
dream-thingamajig. His duality here is meant to be mirrored by Two-Face,
who also has several deleted scenes further explaining his rage at both
Batman, his former ally in crimefighting who failed to save him, and
Bruce Wayne, his old friend who seemingly abandoned him. Harvey's fall
and Bruce's guilt over it further explains his reticence to kill Harvey,
as well as his reluctance to take on another partner in Dick, despite
his empathy with Dick's pain. Finally, the media begin a Daily Bugle
style hate parade against Batman, blaming him for the Riddler and
Two-Face's crime spree and declaring that supervillains would not come
to Batman if he was not there for them to challenge (and given that both
villains' motivations are totally personal against Batman/Bruce, this
argument has merit). The media calls for Batman to retire. Having fallen
in love with Chase, and wanting to prevent Dick from following him down
the path to vengeance, Bruce does indeed retire, as we saw earlier.
When Two-Face shoots Bruce in the head, he becomes a partial amnesiac,
and awakes in this scene here remembering his life as Bruce Wayne, but
not as Batman. Alfred, knowing Batman is still needed, takes Bruce on a
tour of the destroyed cave, trying to jog his memory. Desperate, Alfred
pushes Bruce back into the cave, wherein Bruce finds his father's
journal, left here by him as a boy. And what is the secret of the
journal? That it was his parents', Thomas and Martha's idea to go see
Zorro. Bruce had remembered being a boy and insisting on going out to
see a movie, and so blamed himself for his parents' death. But Bruce had
wanted to see a cartoon, and it was his father who insisted he see a
revival showing of Zorro at an old theatre in a bad part of town. It was
not Bruce's fault that his parents were murdered. In a moment of
catharsis, Bruce lets go of the pain he has carried his entire life and
then is once again confronted (in a rather over-the-top and operatic
sequence) by the giant, mythical, totem-bat that frightened him as a
child, and in a truly bizarre and clearly purely symbolic moment, it
flies right up to Bruce and he embraces it. Emerging from the cave, he
declares to Alfred that he is Batman, now and forever. Wow. So not only
does this deleted segment kinda explain the whole movie, it also
explains the frakkin' title! The whole thing gives a character arc for
Bruce designed to take him from the dark, outcast, semi-obsessed and
wholly lethal Burton version of the movies and transition him into being
the far more rational and heroic version of the comics. Who knew that
BATMAN FOREVER was actually a semi-good movie with kinda interesting
ideas, but that they were all hidden in the deleted scenes?? Why was
this stuff excised? Well, part of it was length. WB wasn't in the mood
for their blockbuster Bat to be 160 minutes long (Schumacher is no Chris
Nolan). Another part is that this whole final sequence, while crucial,
happens at the point in the movie where you really kinda just want to
have the climax and go fight the villain, so some executive probably
accused it of "slowing down the movie". And the whole "Bruce undergoes
an inner psychological struggle, which he then overcomes by embracing
the symbolic giant bat-totem of his innermost self" is a pretty heady
idea for a summer blockbuster movie to be based around.
01:37:16
-- Yeah, and if you'd followed the nonsensical laser beams to their
point of origin, the same way anyone follows the Bat-signal to it's,
you'd know that the Riddler is based on the same island as NYGMATECH and
that OHMYGODEDWARDNYGMA'STHERIDDLER!
01:38:28 -- "You
really are quiet bright, despite what people say," When I was a kid this
riddle solving sequence was my favourite part of the movie, but it's
totally a classic Bat-apophenia scene right out of the 1966 series, with
Bruce making wild connections to come to an already kinda obvious
conclusion. So Edward's big plan that he's been orchestrating since the
start of the movie was to send out a series of riddles the point of
which was... telling Bruce he existed? Letting him know the Riddler and
Edward Nygma were one and the same, despite the riddles starting before
the Riddler existed? Granted, the point of Riddler's riddles in the
comics were often as clues to his next crime or as answers to his
previous one, in fact Batman #179 (March, 1966) by Gardner Fox and
Howard Sherman is entirely about the Riddler trying to stop himself from
planting riddles that actually give himself away and finding he cannot,
he's compelled. But none of that is actually explored in Movie Riddler,
there's no compulsion around the riddles, just obsession. It doesn't
really speak to his newly created stalker persona aside from simply
saying "the guy who beat you was me!" -- which, to be fair, was the
Riddler's original comic book motivation: to beat Batman intellectually,
and for Batman to know who'd beaten him.
01:38:45 --
Because what every heroic climatic suiting up scene needs is a big
gigantic rubber ass close-up, complete with a zipper up the crack for
easy access. Why the hell is this in the movie? I mean, I know full well
why Schumacher shot it, but how did it stay in? How did the executives
at Warners cut 40 minutes of plot exposition and character development
and leave in the gigantic rubber ass close-up? It's not like the cape
even comes swooshing down so they can pretend it's about the cape. Nope,
all about the rubber ass.
01:38:50 -- It's not super
obvious, because the screenwriters have done a semi-decent job of
working it into the storyline, but the main reason Batman adopts an
entirely different (and gleaming silver!) Batsuit at the end of the
movie is to sell more toys. One detail to note however is that it's the
first movie Batsuit to use the Bat-symbol sans yellow oval. The original
Batman costume just had a black bat outline on the grey suit, and was
like this for the entirety of Batman's Golden Age. The yellow oval was
introduced in 1964 in order to distinguish the symbol enough for it to
be copyrightable, and became the standard famous Batman logo from then
on. The comic book Batman returned to being yellow ovalless in 2000,
largely owing to the continued association of the yellow oval with
"silly fun campy stupid Batman of the sixties!" and the plain black bat
with "awesome hardcore original Batman of YEAR ONE and DARK KNIGHT
RETURNS!" The animated Batman had already dropped the yellow bat for
it's fourth season in 1997.
01:38:54 -- New Batboat,
designed similarly to the new (already destroyed) Batmobile. As
previously noted, it first appeared in Batman #4 (Winter, 1941) as a
craft that the Batplane could transform into upon hitting the water.
01:38:59
-- And the new Batwing, which resembles the other two vehicles as well
as continuing on the design lineage of the Burton Batwing. First
appearance Detective Comics #31 (Septemeber, 1939).
01:39:05
-- Despite my knowledge of the deleted scenes, even I do not have an
explanation for how Dick went from "running away pissed off to go be
Robin on his own in his silly circus costume" to showing up in full
rubber nippled body armor as Robin.
01:39:23 -- The molded
homoerotic foam rubber bodysuit that old man Alfred has made for young
Master Dick is largely based on the costume worn by the third Robin, Tim
Drake, in the comics contemporary to the movie's release. This costume
was a 1990s update of the classic Robin look and was highly successul,
even being used for Dick's costume on the animated series as well.
01:39:39
-- Movie Batman's still kinda okay with murder though. "The Batman does
not kill, but if his partner wants to, who am I to say no, right?"
01:40:40
-- Why does flying through the cloud/smog/smoke that the Bat-signal is
projected on return it to normal? How does that stop the Riddler's
bizarre laser projectors? I don't think this movie has a firm grasp on
how the Bat-signal/light works.
01:40:46 -- Batman gives
Gordon a thumbs up he can't possibly see because this movie stopped
giving a damn about making sense ages ago.
01:42:03 --
Anyone else remember the mid-90s, when making pop culture references was
just-like-the-cleverest-and-funniest-thing-ever-you-guys?
01:42:20
-- How did Two-Face and Riddler manage to position a squad of
underwater scuba goons right where Robin's ejector seat was gonna land?
01:43:00
-- The Batplane transforms into the Batsub by jettisoning the wings.
Also there was this super-cool-toy when this movie came out that used
the fact that the vehicles all kinda looked alike by letting you have
all four-vehicles in one! With no attachments it was the Batsub, with
wheels the Batmobile, with wings the Batwing and with this nose-cone
thing it was the Batboat! Coolest thing ever! Totally had/have that toy.
What's that you're asking? Were all these things specifically designed
to sell toys? No but damn WB noticed the toys made a lot of money.
Remember that when we watch the next movie.
01:43:27 --
Batman and Robin at a life buoy at sea, JUST LIKE IN THE 1966 MOVIE YOU
GUYS! (Which, yes, I'll eventually get around to, and yes, should've
started with I suppose) No noble porpoises around, though.
01:43:58
-- And there's the movie's oh-so-clever jab at the 1966 show's tendency
to give Robin exclamations that always went "Holy, ________ Batman!"
and were usually a pun. It's not something from the comics, except for
comics referencing it after the fact, but Robin always was characterized
by extreme earnestedness in the original stories -- his bright,
cheerful, and joking attitude often serving in contrast to his more
serious mentor. But then this movie made Robin into a murderous angsty
young adult...
01:45:33 -- As much as this movie got a lot
of heat for not following in the "dark and serious" gothic style of the
Burton pictures, part of me really likes that it just flat-out embraced
several traditional elements of old-fashioned Batman comics, like
overelaborate death-traps.
01:46:43 -- Although I'm not
entirely sure what just happened there and how the physics of it worked,
I will totally defend Batman's rocket-boots by pointing out their first
appearance in Detective Comics #50 (April, 1941).
01:48:32
-- And so the Riddler has developed an overelaborate death-trap scheme
based entirely on taking advantage of the struggles with duality that
Bruce has absolutely not been going through in this movie because they
were all left on the cutting room floor.
01:49:09 -- Robin
has a long and storied history in comics of being kidnapped by the
villain and used against Batman. Joker used to call him "the Boy
Hostage." Good times.
01:53:10 -- Batman foils Two-Face by
confusing his coinflip by tossing in dozens of others, just like in the
climax of the animated episode "Two-Face, Part II".
01:53:33
-- And totally causes Two-Face's death, despite having a whole (unseen)
arc about not killing people anymore, and despite totally telling Robin
that killing is bad on camera, and despite Robin having heroically
refraining from doing so earlier in the movie. Batman's a "do as I say,
not as I do" sorta mentor.
01:54:18 -- Another line that
is supposed to be all heroic but doesn't make much sense since it's the
culmination of an off-camera, unseen character arc.
01:54:33
-- Erm, does, uh, anyone know what Bruce did there? The implication is
that he somehow used Nygma's (destroyed) machine to beam the Bat back
into Edward's mind, thus making him (more) crazy. Which is kinda
extreme, but at least he didn't murder him.
01:54:40 --
And we're back at Arkham Asylum. Or, we would be back if the opening
scene at Arkham hadn't been cut. Why is the lightning red? Did no one at
any time question the red lightning?
01:54:47 -- Arkham
is run here by Dr. Burton, played by Rene Auberjonois. Dr. Burton
would've been seen at the beginning of the film as well if he hadn't
been cut. His name, hairstyle, mode of dress, and job as warden of an
insane asylum are all references/jabs at the movie's producer and the
series' former steward, Tim Burton. In the comics, Arkham Asylum is run
by Jeremiah Arkham (first appearance: Shadow of the Bat #1, June 1992 by
Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle), descendant of the Asylum's founder
Amadeus Arkham (created by Len Wein). On the animated series, the Asylum
was run by the less crazy and more sedated Dr. Bartholomew.
01:56:54
-- And once again, a Batman movie ends with Bruce's blonde love
interest alive, still seeing him, totally aware he's Batman and
apparently totally cool with it. Because apparently WB thought Batman
movies should be like James Bond -- a different significant true love
every movie who's mysteriously gone in the next one. Deleted from the
film was even a similar sequence to the ending of the last two movies of
Alfred driving Dr. Meridian away in the car, and the camera panning
way, way, way, up to Batman and Robin standing on a rooftop as the
Bat-signal lights in the distance.
01:57:22 -- Instead our
final image is of Batman and Robin running heroically towards the
camera, just like in the opening credits of the 1966 television series.
Because while the goal of the Batman film series, as envisioned by
executive producer Michael Uslan, was to turn public conception of
Batman away from the old TV show and towards a vision more true to the
comics, corporate and creative forces eventually drove it right back
there. BATMAN FOREVER is pretty much a movie version of that old show.
Not quite, though. Not quite there yet. BATMAN FOREVER was phenomenally
successful at the box office, similar to 1989's BATMAN, exactly the
response WB wanted, despite mixed reviews from critics. The movie was so
successful, in fact, that the sequel was fasttracked. Hilariously
fast-tracked. Like, "get it out in 24 months" fast tracked. And make it
even kid-friendlier. And more toyetic.
We'll see how well that goes.
01:57:29
-- The song you're hearing is "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by
U2 from the movie's soundtrack, an unused cut from their Zooropa album.
02:00:17
-- The song you're hearing is "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal, which is
hilariously probably the most successful aspect of this movie's legacy.
People still love this (incredibly bizarre) song, and most don't know
it's from a Batman movie.
