Batman Forever (Exclusive Series) (Hulu)
- Matt Palmer
- Mar 5, 2022
- 3 min read
Initial release date: June 9, 1995
Studio: Warner Brothers
Plot: Batman faces off against two foes: the schizophrenic, horribly scarred former DA Harvey Dent, aka Two Face, and The Riddler, a disgruntled ex-Wayne Enterprises inventor seeking revenge against his former employer by unleashing his brain-sucking weapon on Gotham’s residents. As the caped crusader also deals with tortured memories of his parents’ murder, he has a new romance with psychologist Chase Meridian.
Cast
Val Kilmer - Batman/Bruce Wayne
Tommy Lee Jones - Harvey Dent/Two Face
Jim Carrey - The Riddler/Edward Nygma
Nicole Kidman - Dr. Chase Meridian
Chris O’Donnell - Robin/Dick Grayson
Michael Gough - Alfred Pennyworth
Pat Hingle - Commissioner Gordon
Drew Barrymore - Sugar
Debi Mazar - Spice
Writer(s): Lee Batchler (Pompeii)
Janet Scott Batchler (Pompeii)
Akiva Goldsman (The Dark Tower; Rings; Transformers: The Last Knight)
Director: Joel Schumacher (The Number 23)
Rated PG-13 for strong stylized action (121 minutes)
The Tim Burton ‘Batman’ movies of 1989 and 1992 will always be known for being dark, yet entertaining. After the initial mixed response to the 1992 sequel, Warner Bros. decided to make the next movie a little less dark and a little more humor and fun.
Now, ‘Batman Forever’ still has a few moments that can be a little dark, but not too much. The action is still really decent and visually great. There are some moments that can give a slightly campy vibe.
Even though Jim Carrey did a decent job as The Riddler, I felt that Tommy Lee Jones could have done better with Two Face. Now, maybe if the Two Face character was a little more serious and not too comedic and silly at times, it would have been perfect casting.
Overall, ‘Batman Forever' has its moments and is a decent Caped Crusader sequel. Later on, I will be giving another look at ‘Batman & Robin,’ the sequel that derailed the original series.
‘Batman Forever,’ along with the other three movies of the original series, is available to stream on the Hulu streaming platform.
Here are a few interesting tidbits for ‘Batman Forever’:
In the 1989 ‘Batman,’ Dent was played by Billy Dee Williams. Williams accepted the role with the knowledge and expectation that Dent would eventually become Two Face. He reportedly had a clause put into his contract reserving the role for him in any sequels, which WB had to buy out so they could cast Tommy Lee Jones. Williams would eventually voice the character in ‘The Lego Batman Movie.’
According to Jim Carrey, he didn’t get along with Jones, who told him that he hated him and his films.
Before deciding not to don the cap and cowl for a third time, Keaton met with Schumacher and declined to join the project after deciding that he didn’t like the direction in which Schumacher was looking to take the movie. In the brief time that Burton was still considering doing a third movie, Riddler was the only villain he planned on using. The idea of using Two Face didn’t come up until Schumacher joined.
Michelle Pfeiffer was considered to reprise her role as Catwoman.
Schumacher originally wanted to make a much darker and more serious movie, that would more fully explore Wayne’s growing fear that his crusade to be Batman had done more harm than good, and that Wayne was beginning to suffer from burnout, but the WB execs insisted on a lighter tone.
This movie marks the first appearance of Arkham Asylum in a live action Batman movie.
Unlike Burton, Schumacher was a Batman fan. He originally wanted to do a prequel based on Frank Miller’s ‘Batman: Year One.’
‘Batman Forever’ opened in a record 2,842 theaters and 4300 screens in the US and Canada on June 16, 1995, grossing $52.8 million in its opening weekend, breaking the record from ‘Jurassic Park' for highest opening weekend gross of all time (it was surpassed two years later by ‘The Lost World’ in 1997).
The movie went on to gross $184 million domestically, and $152.5 million in other countries, totaling $336.53 million worldwide.
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