Joel Schumacher, R.I.P.

After battling Cancer for a year, film director Joel Schumacher passed away this week at the age of 80. It should be noted that nobody has anything bad to say about him as a person or filmmaker, except for his work on 2 Batman movies in the 1990s, but those films did not destroy his career - people in Hollywood liked working with him; he wasn't a tyrant or a creeper-predator; the working atmosphere was professional, yet easygoing. Studio executives liked how he got big-budget blockbusters completed on time, which might explain how the Batman film franchise fell onto his lap after Tim Burton was bought out after Batman Returns had underperformed, yet he would be credited as a producer for a 3rd Batman film that has none of his fingerprints, yet mimicked his wavelength. 

Barbara Ling's art direction/production designs are the real stars of these two movies. The Gotham City designed by Anton Furst and preserved by Bo Welch in Batman Returns is infused with loud splashes of neon lights & colors that are reminiscent of 90's Batman comic book covers, particularly the painted Shadow of The Bat covers by Brian Stelfreeze

I'll admit I don't like a lot of the casting choices in Batman Forever. In the title role, Val Kilmer looks the part, but I think he would've been more interesting as Two-Face; as Bruce Wayne/Batman, he's serviceable, but bland - he can't put to use any of the acting quirks that made him popular in Real Genius, Top Gun or The Doors. It doesn't help that in most of his scenes, he has to try playing off equally bland Nicole Kidman and Chris O'Donnell, each turning in their worst performances; O'Donnell is miscast - too old to play a newly-orphaned minor who becomes a Ward of the state, with a wealthy bachelor looking the same age as him appointed his legal guardian, plus he tries too hard to make Dick Grayson look cool, making him obnoxious and nebulous (why was he winking at Alfred?), or, as Kevin Smith observed, "He looks like a gay hustler!" Kidman fares worse. HornyAF "psychiatrist", Dr. Chase Meridian. Essentially Vicki Vale in all but name only, all of her scenes are boring, though she looks fantastic. I think her character was inspired by Dr. Shondra Kingsolving, who appeared in the Knightfall/Knightquest storyline, was Batman's love-interest at the time, plus healed him of his paralysis after getting injured by Bane. I don't know if Schumacher might have wanted Halle Berry to play Chase, because Berry was at the height of her popularity around that time and would probably have been more interesting, but wasn't available, whereas Kidman was, so they changed the character's name to "Chase Meridian". This is just speculation on my part, because Chase only exists in this film. Regardless, I only liked her in this image that was used as a large movie poster that appeared on subway platforms:

   It's like we're in her apartment..

Forever was Jim Carrey's movie. His performance was too similar to his work in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, so it was kinda rote, but when Carrey is on, his performance "Carrey-s" every movie he's in, which is handy when the script is weak and  the supporting cast is made up of jobbing actors (he really keeps Sonic The Hedgehog jumping), plus timing is everything - Batman Forever dominated the summer of 1995.

And I can't really talk about the success of Batman Forever without mentioning the pop soundtrack, bookended by 2 songs in particular - U2's Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me and Seal's Kiss From A Rose - the music videos for both songs were played in heavy rotation on MTV and radio stations throughout that summer and became 90's pop smash singles. Another successful element of Schumacher movies is that there was usually tie-in soundtrack. Even Batman and Robin had a successful album, frontline by The Smashing Pumpkins' The End Is The Beginning Is The End:

The success of Forever put Batman and Robin on the fast track for a 1997 release, but Schumacher, reflecting on this decision in 2007 on a DVD documentary, felt the rushed production schedule didn't account for the audience feeling saturated by the marketing of Forever, so the 4th film was going to suffer because the demand wasn't quite there and it could've benefited from a 1998 release. I guess they liked the script they had..there are hints that Schumacher had more pressing concerns.

Val Kilmer had bailed out, so they needed a new leading man. George Clooney was trendy from his work on ER and From Dusk Till Dawn with Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez, plus he had signed on to play The Green Hornet in a film that was still in development, so that meant he would be interested in playing a superhero movie, so he ditched the Green Hornet in favor of the batsuit. His performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman felt like he was still playing Dr. Doug Ross from ER as Batman, but he has more personality than Kilmer. Chris O'Donnell is still stuck in a thankless role as a block-headed Dick Grayson, but his scenes don't drag the film down. Alicia Silverstone has even less to do as a new character, Barbara Wilson, who becomes Batgirl because she's Alfred's niece and he somehow, someway, anticipated her discovering the Batcave and made her a costume months in advance. And that's it.

 I like how they were drawn in the 

 Bruce Timm style for tie-in kids'

 books. This was from a sticker

 album book.

There's more comedy than usual. According to urban legend, the late Dennis O'Neil, the writer most credited with depicting Batman as a serious Pulp Action/Adventure-Detective after the 1966 Adam West Batman TV series played him mostly for laughs, attended a screening of Batman and Robin with other employees from DC Comics, and allegedly screamed in horror at the scene where Clooney, in Bat-costume, whips out the Bat-credit card:

   "Don't leave home without it."

Heh, heh, heh... 

23 Years Later...

    "Don't leave home without it."

...I'm sure Denny would've signed up for one if he was still around..he had a sense of humor. In retrospect, I find his Batman stories to be pretty jolly!

This film also had added pressure from marketing/licensing executives, who wanted the movie to be more "Toyetic", a term Schumacher had never heard before in his life. The order from the men in suits was clear: at every opportunity, this film was going to be a toy commercial. Lots of costume changes and vehicles, here, but that doesn't stop the toy designers from coming up with more for their product line...

  "The average kid owns 10       Batman action figures!"

My favorite performance in this is Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mister Freeze. Yes, I said it! 

              "Everybody chill!"

I like how they tried incorporating the pathos of the "Heart of Ice" Mister Freeze that was introduced in Batman: The Animated Series, but they still want him to act like a stand-up comic. Those contradictions make him interesting...even more like an apropos Batman villain than before because, like Batman, he is also a genius who uses gadgets & vehicles and has a sense of humor, but also like Batman he's acting in a state of bereavement because his wife Nora is lost, but there's a chance he can bring her back, which means he's still in the mood to deliver cheesey icebreakers..and his sense of humor had better stay healthy, judging from how successful efforts at reviving Nora Fries sometimes end with an ironic punchline...

           You're as cold as ice...

Batman and Robin underperformed on its opening weekend at the box office, but it made money. The studio wanted Schumacher to do a 3rd Batman film - what would've been the 5th movie in the franchise. For a long time, the title was believed to be Batman Triumphant. The screenwriter for this film, Mark Protosevich, claims this is incorrect; the title of this film would've been Batman Unchained:

   I like "Triumphant" better, largely

   because someone went to the

   trouble of designing this logo.

Few people have seen or read the completed screenplay, but those who have claim the plot was darker, more ambitious in complexity than any Batman film before it. It seems to me like it was inspired by the Arkham Asylum graphic novel, but also by a handful of episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, because the main villains were going to be The Scarecrow & Harley Quinn. The plot also features an extended "nightmare" sequence that would've featured cameos from all the Batman villains featured in the last 4 movies, which means Jack Nicholson, Danny Devito, Michelle Pfeifer, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Uma Thurman, Arnold Schwarzenegger - they'd all be back. It was supposed to be a finale to the 90's Batman movies and a chance at redemption for Schumacher, who was very aware of the negative reviews. It would've most-likely been filmed in late-1998 then released either in December 1999 or Summer 2000, which would've put it in competition with the first film in the X-Men film franchise. That would've been...interesting. And it's still 5 years until Christopher Nolan reboots the series with Batman Begins, so there's room to breathe.

Instead, Schumacher bailed, claiming years later that he didn't have the enthusiasm, but more likely he didn't want to try and compete for the affection of people on internet message boards. He had a comeback with films like Tigerland and Phone Booth, plus a very lavish, yet poorly cast adaptation of the musical version of The Phantom of The Opera, but those 2 Batman movies became the movies of his career, the ones that will be synonymous with him...Forever.

And honestly, they're not bad. Oh, they're not the greatest Batman movies ever made, but there are worse superhero movies you could see on a weekend afternoon. They're light popcorn Batman movies. Plus, that car can drive up walls! It was fabulous!

         Joel Schumacher, R.I.P.