Forgot to mention that I always watch Batman on LD. Great pressing, with the original Dolby SR which has a great low end dynamic presence. Though all the video versions aren't as dark as the theatrical film.
Batman Forever
I always take a lot of flack for this, but I still love this movie. Call it leftover childhood nostalgia or something but I can't help but enjoy this the 5,000th time around. I know it has many problems and I know it gets too campy in all the wrong places. But it is still to date the only Batman film to include the escapist adventure element of the character. The studio meddling with the super long original cut of the film did not help matters, but the really big problem with the film came in a last-minute meddling with the final film and dropping some crucial subplot scenes. Then they re-ordered the opening structure of the film and made things very discombobulated. Read the original novelization or a earlier script if you can find it, and you get a much better idea of what the original intent was.
Like the first film, there is a lot of subtext going on here. And again like the first film, it is impossible to get all of it due to not being given the whole picture. Kilmer's performance goes beyond Keaton in the psychologically damaged and tortured department. He deserved a straight Batman story that did not delve into the campier aspects. And his main appearances as Batman here are probably the most iconic we'll ever get for live-action (save for the stupid nipples).
The dialogue is occasionally witty and pointed, but unfortunately not all the time. Jim Carrey is too Jim Carrey as the Riddler, and lacks the panache and restraint that Frank Gorshin brought to the role on the TV series. Robin Williams would have brought a much more chilling and intense portrayal in Burton's proposed version, much as Tim Curry would have as the Joker in 1989. (Two of the all-time missed casting opportunities IMO, but these would have been "R" rated ;) Tommy Lee Jones is wasted as Two-Face, but I think the character was devolved that way to eventually just be a silly watered down version of Jack's Joker. Robin still feel shoehorned in to a degree, but at least the dynamic works by lifting the idea of an older Dick Grayson from the Animated series.
I still think the Bruce/Batman relationship with a psychologist is a brilliantly twisted idea, but that too goes nowhere in the film. The design changes bring in some fresh vitality, but lack the presence of Burton's films because the Forever sets are primarily mattes, models and digital imaging. The score however is fantastic. It works semi in-tandem with the motifs that Elfman setup all the while going for that big Batman fanfare.
The initial idea seems to have been a meeting of Bruce's tortured soul with the fantasy and adventure of Batman. What happened was that the studio wanted a more commercialized venture and here and there little changes became big changes. The scenes in the film bang together if you really look at them, and there is a noticeable patchwork effect if you really pay close enough attention. The original cut was rumored to be in the neighborhood of 2.5-3 hours. The film a stands was cobbled together by a editor at the last minute to have the closest thing to a summer popcorn movie for 1995.
But it isn't bad. Just full of missed opportunities.
3.5 balls out of 4 stupid Bat-asses.
I last watched this film on projected DVD in a sound suite. With amps and the like, the DTS 5.1 track was incredible. However, it sounded a bit too focused to my ears and not quite how I remembered the film sounding. I stumbled across this review from the Widescreen Review of the Laserdisc:
Both versions of the soundtrack are a blast and you had better be braced into your seat when things get revved up and the 25Hz deep bass kicks in at reference level. The use of the discrete 5.1 palette is wonderful with energized directional and motion effects throughout the soundfield. But the Dolby Surround® version delivers an even fuller bass soundfield experience, with the discrete better articulated.
I've always felt that the Special Editions of the Batman films (ported to Blu-ray) had been tweaked and didn't fully resemble the original presentations. The first film never felt right to me until the LD. I actually have a copy of the Forever LD, and decided to give it a try.
This Dolby Surround track has some of the most natural bass I've ever encountered on a film. Though I still lack an AC3 demodulator, it crushes the DVD 5.1 mixes (even DTS!) from sheer dynamic range alone. Every channel is well balanced with tremendous natural bass and my subwoofer sounding like it's being fed a huge LFE. All this from a 2.0 matrix! The rear surround is actually split as well so there is rear separation just like a 5.1 mix, but just a tiny bit muddy. This is like being in the theaters of old during the 90's era of sound system wars.
And now...oh crap it's time for Batman & Robin. W H Y ?
