When we go to a Batman movie, we aren't expecting "The Godfather" or "Citizen Kane". Like Nicholson in the first, Carrey holds our attention with his shenanigans (even if they annoy us) and make the movie a bit more fun. THE VILLAINS! No Batman movie would be complete without them! Tommy Lee Jones is ok as Two-Face and his presence holds on until Jim Carrey-master of dancing around and acting like the modern, much cooler Jerry Lewis-slides in as the Riddler. It is nice to see Dick Grayson ditch that sickeningly awful "Robin" outfit a la 1966 and get a REAL superhero suit. Speed is what he does best.and he does it! The supporting protagonists do the meager, ok job they need to keep this film acceptable. With Kilmer we get a much more fluid Batman who doesn't seem to lag around like Keaton's did. They were ok for the job but were just too wooden and monolithic for their actions. As far as Batman himself I am happy to say that Val Kilmer is NOT Michael Keaton or Adam West. Good! After Batman Returns I didn't know how much more decadent they could get, with so much lack of lighting I was having a hard time just WATCHING the movies. It was the codpiece.Batman Forever lacks the outright depressing, darkened mood of the first two. In the documentary Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight, O'Donnell said as much: "It wasn't so much the nipples that bothered me. That latter detail was a source of discomfort for Chris O'Donnell, who played Dick Grayson/Robin. Both films would spark controversy for having anatomically correct features, including the infamous "Bat-nipples" and bulging codpieces. Gone was the jet black rubber that Michael Keaton wore in its place was a steely blue suit donned by Val Kilmer in Forever and George Clooney in Batman & Robin. He'd receive a similar costume change for Schumacher's films. Batman ditches his purple gloves and jet black cloak for a bright blue cape, cowl, and gloves with the classic yellow and black oval chest symbol. While World's Finest #141 boasts a standard Silver Age plot - Robin and Jimmy Olsen view the future and see their deaths - it marks the appearance of the Dark Knight's "new look" courtesy of Silver Age legend Curt Swan. When it comes to the heroes, two Silver Age comics seem to have inspired the visuals and plot of Schumacher's vision for Gotham City. And in a scheme that feels ripped out of a Twilight Zone episode, the Riddler builds a device that drains people's mental energy and adds it to his own. Freeze is cursed to live in subzero temperatures after an experiment gone horribly wrong. Jason Woodrue ( John Glover) shoves her into a rack of chemicals and plants, forever altering her DNA. The villains of Schumacher's films lean hard into that aesthetic. Many Silver Age heroes, such as Barry Allen/The Flash and Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, have origins that are steeped in science fiction. Elements of that Freeze wind up in Batman & Robin, including his dedication to save his wife NoraĪnother Silver Age element Schumacher embraced was the mad science that often drove the plot of that era's comics - especially the villain's origins. So does Schwarzenegger's turn as Freeze, which is even more ironic given that Batman: The Animated Series reworked the character as a tragic figure. And Thurman's performance as Ivy embraces the utter campiness inherent in a woman who's become a living plant. They seem to relish playing the villains Carrey, in particular, taps into the same rubbery energy that fuels his performances in The Mask and Ace Ventura while playing the Riddler. Many of Batman's foes usually have an outlandish gimmick and Schumacher took that to the next level, as Forever features the dual menace of Two-Face ( Tommy Lee Jones) and the Riddler ( Jim Carrey) while Batman & Robin has Mister Freeze ( Arnold Schwarzenegger), Poison Ivy ( Uma Thurman) and Bane ( Robert Swenson). Perhaps the biggest Silver Age influence in Schumacher's films is the outlandish villains. In a similar vein, Forever wound up drawing more attention than its predecessor Batman Returns - even becoming the highest-grossing film of 1995. In fact, their comics were bleeding readers until the dawn of the Silver Age. The Caped Crusader was on the outs alongside other superheroes such as Superman and Wonder Woman were far from the icons of the superhero genre that they'd grow to be in later years. While the era saw the creation of multiple characters and superhero teams including the Justice League of America and the Fantastic Four, it also saw a resurgence in interest in Batman. The Silver Age is often regarded as one of the most influential periods in comic book history since it was the moment that the superhero genre regained prominence in the medium.
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