Batman Forever

Batman Forever is the third of the Batman movies which began with Tim Burton's 1989 version of the character, although it is a major departure from its predecessor in the franchise, Batman Returns. With dramatic changes to such things as the cast, design, and Danny Elfman's theme, which was scrapped completely (the music was composed by Elliot Goldenthal), it starred Val Kilmer replacing Michael Keaton as Batman, in his first and only appearance as the Dark Knight, and marked the series debut of Robin (played by Chris O'Donnell).

Cast

 * Val Kilmer — Batman/Bruce Wayne
 * Tommy Lee Jones — Two-Face/Harvey Dent
 * Jim Carrey — The Riddler/Edward Nygma
 * Nicole Kidman — Dr. Chase Meridian
 * Chris O'Donnell — Robin/Richard "Dick" Grayson
 * Michael Gough — Alfred Pennyworth
 * Pat Hingle — Commissioner Gordon
 * Drew Barrymore — Sugar
 * Debi Mazar — Spice

Plot
The movie opens as Two Face, the alter ego of former DA Harvey Dent, (Tommy Lee Jones) is holding hostages in a bank vault. Batman (Val Kilmer) arrives at the scene and consults with Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman). Batman then rescues the hostages and foils the robbery but is unable to foil the robbery. While this is going on, Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey), a lowly worker at Wayne Enterprises is doing unauthorized research at work. He is discovered by a senior worker, who promptly fires him. Nygma murders the man and doctors security tapes to make it look as if the man committed suicide.

A while later,Bruce Wayne invites Chase Meridian, to the Charity Circus. Two-Face and his thugs arrive at the event, firing guns and terrorizing the audience. They also bring a bomb that Two-Face will detonate if Batman does not appear at the circus. (Two-Face blames Batman for failing to thwart a criminal who threw acid on Dent's face, disfiguring him.) The Flying Graysons, the circus acrobats, work to remove the bomb through an opening in the top of the tent. The youngest member, Dick (Chris O'Donnell), manages to push Two-Face's bomb out of the circus tent and into the water surrounding the tent by going ahead of his family. When he returns, he finds that Two-Face has killed the rest of his family by shooting up the wires that they were climbing on, sending them plunging to their deaths. Feeling sorry for Dick's loss and feeling responsible for Batman's failure to show at the circus,Bruce takes a reluctant Dick in as a foster son.

Meanwhile, Edward Nygma, former employee of Wayne Enterprises, inspired and delighted by watching Two-Face's raid at the circus, decides to become his partner, Riddler. He proceeds to show Two-Face a device that beams signals directly into the human brain, which allows television viewers to feel like they are “inside” TV shows. The two villains make a deal: if Two-Face helps him steal enough priceless goods and money to fund his project, the Riddler will use the "Box" to learn Batman's true identity. Their deal sealed, Two-Face and the Riddler start their rampage.

The Riddler blows up the batcave and Two-Face kidnaps Robin and Chase. Batman is forced to make a choice between them buts ends up saving both. The Riddler and Two-Face are then defeated with the Riddler goin crazy and Two-Face dying. The movie ends with Batman and Robin running into the camera.

Background
While the previous two films had been directed by Tim Burton, Batman Forever was directed by Joel Schumacher, who made changes to the established designs and thematics of the first two films.

The villains in the movie are The Riddler, played by Jim Carrey, and Two-Face/Harvey Dent, a role played in the original 1989 movie by Billy Dee Williams, but assumed here by Tommy Lee Jones. Also in the movie is Dr. Chase Meridian, played by Nicole Kidman; the movie proved to be Kidman's breakout role and put her on the road to superstardom.

Picking up a few years after the events of Batman Returns, this sequel follows Two-Face's alliance with The Riddler and their resulting plan to destroy Batman. It also tells the origin story of Robin, who was not seen in either of the two previous films; As in the comic books, Robin is a circus performer whose family is murdered (although, in the film, his family is killed by Two-Face, rather than an ordinary gangster) and becomes Bruce Wayne's ward and Batman's partner in crime-fighting. The Riddler, meanwhile, is portrayed as a vengeful, obsessive former engineer who once worked for Bruce Wayne.

At the time the third Batman film went into production, it was initially going to be directed by Burton with Michael Keaton. The film was to have Bruce Wayne enlisting the assistance of an orphan by the name of Robin, in bringing down the villainous Riddler, not expecting to meet with a new love interest to complicate matters. Rumors claimed Micky Dolenz was the Riddler and that Robin Williams was offered the role, but turned it down, with a possible return of Catwoman (who survived the events of Batman Returns). Renee Russo was cast as Keaton's love interest. After initial casting with Marlon Wayans he actually signed on to portray Robin and costume tested for the film. But Warner Bros. ultimately threw out Burton after they realized the tone of the film was to be similar to Batman Returns. When Schumacher came on board as the new director, he threw out most of Burton's decisions and ideas, starting from scratch. As a result, Marlon Wayans' contract was actually paid out in full by Warner Bros. and Chris O'Donnell was cast as Robin instead. Tommy Lee Jones was then cast as Two-Face to replace Burton's choice of Billy Dee Williams, although Burton never intended on using the character in the film but had left it open as a possibility in future installments. Schumacher approached Robin Williams to play the Riddler, who after some deliberation turned down the role. Instead Schumacher cast Jim Carrey. Renee Russo was deemed too old to play Kilmer's love interest, and therefore was replaced by Nicole Kidman.

After some negotiating, Keaton left the film as he was unhappy with the script being lighter-in-tone and the absence of Tim Burton. Due to its huge success, Batman Forever was followed two years later by Batman and Robin.

Critical reaction and box office
The film's budget was approximately $90 - $100 million and earned $184,031,112 (including a record breaking $52.8 million opening weekend) in total domestic sales and $152.5 million worldwide (according to Box Office Mojo ) surpassing the ticket takings for Tim Burton's Batman Returns, making it the most commercially successful movie of the summer of 1995 and second-best of that year (next to Toy Story). It was also the third highest grossing Batman movie as of 2005 (after the 1989 original and 2005's Batman Begins). This success came as a surprise to the filmmakers, who were constantly told by the studio that no one wanted a Batman movie and it was only going to be a moderate success.

Drastic makeover
Batman Forever obtained generally mixed reviews. Much of the negative reaction came from the drastic makeover of the franchise (most of it led by Joel Schumacher at the will of the Warner Bros. executives). Due to the fact that Batman Returns earned less than the original, Warner Bros. insisted the movie to be more "family friendly" to improve merchandising turnover. This included deleting over 30 minutes of footage, including Two-Face escaping from Arkham Asylum, the resolution to the Red Book subplot, and a sequence in which Bruce Wayne confronts a section of the Batcave with a giant bat. Further editing rearranged the first half of the film to start it off with an action scene. The end results reflected the third Batman movie with an overall tone that seemed to be lighter in comparison to its Burton predecessors.

Val Kilmer as Batman
There was debate about the performance of Val Kilmer; some critics charged that Kilmer, while physically fit to play Batman, more so than his predecessor Michael Keaton had been, gave a wooden performance as Bruce Wayne. Other critics though, such as Roger Ebert, had kind words for Kilmer. Batman creator Bob Kane said in a Cinescape interview that of all the actors to have played Batman up to that point (Before the Series was rebooted in 2005), he felt Kilmer had given the best interpretation.

Film critic Leonard Maltin (who heavily criticized the dark tone contained in Batman Returns) complimented Kilmer's portrayal when he reviewed the film for his expanding collection of film reviews, as well as being very favorable of the film as a whole. Defenders of Batman Forever praised the movie for portraying Batman as a more heroic, less ruthless, and more human character than in the Tim Burton films. The film also brought the film interpretation of Bruce Wayne more into line with his comic book counterpart, showing him as a seasoned celebrity of the media and a very public figure rather than the neurotic recluse of the previous films.

One of the biggest complaints about the Burton films was their portrayal of Batman killing his adversaries (especially in Batman Returns) without showing much remorse.

Two-Face and Riddler
Others accused Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones of giving cartoonish performances as the Riddler and Two-Face (Carrey himself even stated, though non-judgmentally, that this film "didn't take itself as seriously" as the past films had.) In one scene, Two-Face repeatedly flips his coin until achieving the desired outcome; in the comics, Two-Face always adheres to results of a single coin toss when a decision must be reached.

Reactions to Carrey's performance were generally similar, though some complained that his portrayal was too over the top, and had more in common with the Joker than with the comic book version of the Riddler. In fact, after the Riddler proclaims megalomaniacally, "For if knowledge is power, then a god am I!" he pauses, then reflects, "Was that over the top? I can never tell."

Criticism of his portrayal aside, Carrey's manic performance was a large part of the film's box office success.

Gotham City and Bat-Gadgets
A prominent criticism of the film's atmosphere centers on the constant use of neon lights, black lights, and glow-in-the-dark elements, which seemingly reaches its peak with the street gang Dick Grayson fights halfway through the film.

H R Giger was chosen to design the Batmobile in the very early stages of production. He left due to creative differences. His designs are on his official website in illustrated and 3D Graphic Art form.

Charges of Homoeroticism
Batman Forever has been regarded by some as homoerotic, especially after Garry Willis, a conservative columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, sardonically bashed the movie's campiness and perceived homoerotic motifs ("'Batman Forever' is a Gay Old Time," Chicago Sun-Times, 1995). One source of this controversy is the introduction of nipples on the chest of the Batsuit worn during the majority of the film, as well as the humorous close-ups of Bruce Wayne while donning the Batman costume, including the close-up shots of the groin and buttocks. Similar charges would be brought up in the sequel, Batman & Robin.

Sequel
Joel Schumacher, a big Frank Miller fan, wanted to make a prequel of the Batman series based closely on Batman: Year One. When Forever became a huge success, Warner Bros. decided to make a campier Batman movie as the sequel. This became Batman & Robin, which was a critical and box office embarrassment.

Deleted scenes
Many scenes were filmed but deleted from the film. These included:


 * The escape of Two-Face from Arkham Asylum. Rene Auberjonois had more scenes filmed here, playing Dr. Burton but his role was reduced to a cameo in the final film. He encounters the escape with the psychologist killed and hanged in Two-Face's cell with his blood smeared on the wall, written as "The Bat Must Die."  This was supposed to begin the picture but producers decided this was far too dark for a family audience.  As this was cut, it made the editing of the final film somewhat muddled to the fans of the original script as later scenes were re-arranged.  This scene appears in a rough edit on the Special Edition DVD.  Segments of the scene also appears on the U2 music video "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me."


 * The construction of NygmaTech was more in-depth. There were scenes shot, that appear in publicity stills of Edward Nygma with a hard hat helping with the construction of his headquarters on Claw Island.  This scene does not appear on the new Special Edition release but is shown in the sticker album published by Merlin Collections.


 * Sugar and Spice, played by Drew Barrymore and Debi Mazar, try out Nygma's device during the montage when The Box goes on sale. They are seated with The Riddler and Two-Face on the couch where Chase is handcuffed later in the film.  This scene appears in the comic adaptation but not in the final film.


 * The most known deleted scene involved further backstory and darkness to the film which many people, including screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, believed would have improved the quality of the film considerably. It involved Bruce waking up from his gun wound to the head from Two-Face, temporarily wiping a part of his memory.  He has forgotten his origin and life as the dark knight.  Alfred takes him to the batcave, which has been destroyed by The Riddler.  They stand on the platform where the Batmobile was and Alfred says "Funny they didn't know about the cave beneath the cave."  The platform then rotates downward to another level where the sonar-modification equipment is kept, from the special batsuit to the hi-tech weaponry.  Bruce then discovers the cavern where he first saw the image that would make him become Batman - A giant bat.  The bat appears and Bruce raises his arms and the shot shows that they are one.  Bruce now remembers who he is and goes with Alfred to solve the riddles left throughout the film.  Akiva admitted the scene was very theatrical on the Special Edition DVD and felt the scene would have made a difference to the final cut.  The bat was designed and created by Rick Baker, who was in charge of the make-up of Two-Face, played by Tommy Lee Jones.  This scene appears in a rough form on the Special Edition DVD and is briefly mentioned in the comic adaptation.


 * The original ending was an homage to the first film. When Alfred drives Dr. Chase Meridian back to Gotham she asks him "Does it ever end?"  Alfred replies, "No, Dr. Meridian, not in this lifetime..."  The bat-signal shines on the night sky and Batman is standing on a pillar looking ahead.  Robin then comes into shot and joins his new partner.  They both leap off the pillar, towards the camera.  A rough edit of the first half of the scene appears on the Special Edition DVD, but not in its entirety.  The sequence with Batman and Robin at the end of this scene appears on a teaser trailer for the video game, which is on the VHS release of this film, released in the UK on December 3rd 1995.

Several fans have wished for a special 'Director's Cut' to be released. Schumacher, back in circa '98, said that he'd be releasing a brand-new cut of the film, yet no release has surfaced. It was later announced that Warner Bros. is considering to release a new cut with Schumacher supervision. It is not official, but is most likely to happen. If released, it'll most likely late '07, or early '08 (to help to promote The Dark Knight).

Home Video
The film was first released on VHS and Laserdisc in October 1995.

Batman Forever was given a "bare bones" DVD release when the medium was introduced in 1997-1998. However, in 2005, the newest feature film, Batman Begins, incited Warner Bros. to release a Two-Disc Special Edition set of all four Burton-Schumacher films in Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997. This included 14 of the 30 minutes of deleted scenes known to exist. The Region 2 DVD restores more than a minute of cut footage. Previous cuts included headbutts and various close ups of Two-Face. The uncut version was certified 12 by the BBFC, higher than the cut version's PG.

Soundtrack
Hit singles from the soundtrack include "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" by U2 and "Kiss From a Rose" by Seal, both of which were nominated for MTV Movie Awards. "Kiss From a Rose" (whose video was also directed by Joel Schumacher) reached #1 in the U.S. charts as well.

The soundtrack itself, featuring additional songs by The Flaming Lips, Brandy (both songs also included in the film), Method Man, Nick Cave, Michael Hutchence (of INXS), PJ Harvey, and Massive Attack, was an attempt to (in producer Peter MacGregor-Scott's words) make the film more "pop." The soundtrack was hugely successful, selling almost as many copies as Prince's soundtrack to the 1989 Batman film.

In 1996, "Kiss From a Rose" won three Grammies for best male pop vocal performance, best record and best song.

A second album, featuring over 40 minutes of Elliot Goldenthal's "Original Score", was released two weeks after the soundtrack album.

Track listing

 * 1) "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" - U2 – 4:46
 * 2) "One Time Too Many" - PJ Harvey – 2:52
 * 3) "Where Are You Now?" - Brandy – 3:57
 * 4) "Kiss From a Rose" - Seal – 3:38
 * 5) "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" - Massive Attack & Tracey Thorn (Smokey Robinson cover) – 4:06
 * 6) "Nobody Lives Without Love" - Eddi Reader – 5:05
 * 7) "Tell Me Now" - Mazzy Star – 4:17
 * 8) "Smash It Up" - The Offspring (The Damned cover)– 3:26
 * 9) "There Is a Light" - Nick Cave – 4:23
 * 10) "The Riddler" - Method Man – 3:30
 * 11) "The Passenger" - Michael Hutchence (Iggy Pop cover) – 4:37
 * 12) "Crossing the River" - Devlins – 4:45
 * 13) "8" - Sunny Day Real Estate – 5:27
 * 14) "Bad Days" - The Flaming Lips – 4:39