Welcome to Guilty As Charged, a series dedicated to highlighting films that most people consider “bad”, but boy oh boy do I love them! Okay, maybe I don’t “love” them per se, but there is definitely something about them that just checks all those sweet little boxes whenever I watch a film. Maybe it’s the age-old nostalgia, maybe I actually think they are quality films with positives overwhelming the negatives, but honestly these aren’t the best films ever made, they’re just films I can’t seem to dislike no matter how many times people tell me they’re heaping piles of trash. My goal here isn’t to tell you why you’re wrong for not enjoying these films, I am simply here to have a good time just as I do with these films.
So let’s get right into it and explore the puzzling, yet highly enjoyable 1995 Joel Schumacher Batman film, Batman Forever.
The roots of my love for the Batman character definitely dates all the way back to my grandparents sliding in that unforgettable Batman Forever VHS. As a kid it was always harder to get into the Tim Burton films because they were “much too serious” and “far too boring” for my child-like perspective on the character. The colorful light show that Joel Schumacher brought to the table was always a huge highlight for me. Especially when compared to the “drab” and “lifeless” perspective Burton had for the previous two outings. Obviously my tone has shifted a bit as I’ve aged (I still don’t think highly of Batman or Batman Returns, but I appreciate them), but the way that Joel Schumacher approaches Batman, Bruce Wayne, and the mythological world of Gotham has simultaneously stimulated me, and baffled me.
From the moment this movie begins, Schumacher establishes a tone and commits to that from beginning to end. Tommy Lee Jones appears as Harvey Dent/Two-Face after Bruce insists on going through the drive-thru for a late meal, and visual chaos ensues for the next two hours. Composer Elliot Goldenthal instantly gives a new take on the Batman theme and it honestly works for this rendition of the character. There’s a sense of familiarity while instilling a new vibe to it that goes hand in hand with the film’s behavior. It’s loud, it’s overplayed, but it enhances every second it blares alongside bright, full, kaleidoscope frames.
Surely, after the premiere of the highly praised Batman: The Animated Series in 1992, Schumacher and the production team took those cityscapes there and brought them to live action. It’s almost too similar in terms of how they explore so many corners of Gotham with it’s costuming, production design, and even down to the dialogue. Characters talk inhumanely, incomprehensibly (Two-Face especially), or straight out of a 1950s noir. Most notably with Nicole Kidman’s Chase Meridian, and Val Kilmer’s severely underrated turn as Bruce Wayne/Batman. This is obviously the big romantic anchor for the film’s bigger moments, and even though they don’t pay-off, it just reminds me of some of that inherent camp that is apart of Batman. Chase Meridian is barely ever dressed, it sounds like most of her lines were tweaked in post-production, and Bruce’s lust for women definitely gets an overhaul here. As if that meme-worthy Bat smile after kissing a sheet clothed Chase Meridian didn’t say it all. As societal progress has been made, the portrayal of Meridian has earned its criticism over time, but Schumacher really understands the roots of this character’s first big cultural breakthrough back with Adam West. It channels so much of that silliness it is really hard not to admire a filmmaker coming in and reminding audiences about a time before Michael Keaton donning the suit.
The batmobile does physics-defying stunts, Dick Grayson gets the childish lines and does his laundry with a mopstick, the Riddler and Two-Face have no depth beyond being an obligation to the narrative, and run amok as a duo of cackling hyenas. After Burton “reinvented” Batman in 1989 it seemed as if the world was primed and ready to never see an ode to the Adam West era of Batman again. Luckily, Schumacher’s commitment to tone and style really enhances the enjoyment of a film with so many issues throughout. It might not fit into that mold that Burton created, but it re-uses that campy, silly mold from a few decades prior. Which is really the most important thing for me whenever I go back and re-watch this film. I think for a film that is so intent on not taking itself seriously, neither should I. It’s pretty evident that when a GCPD officer squeals, “It’s boiling acid!”, we know what type of film Schumacher is serving up. Or if that doesn’t do it for you, the shot of Batman’s butt in his suit really sets the tone for the entire runtime to follow. For every serious Batman film like Batman Begins, it’s always a great palette cleanser to get something as wildly absurd as Batman Forever. It doesn’t reach for the tears and self-serious attitude, it just wants to take a beloved character and make him silly again. Which, at this point I’m not tired of, and I’ll probably never be, and why I’ll probably end up continuously loving this Batman film forever.