Batman Forever (1997, VHS)

Batman had been a popular comic book character for decades so it wasn t surprising when Tim Burton made Batman in 1989 and followed it with Batman Returns in 1992. The studio hadn t been completely happy with the direction Burton went in the second movie, so a new director, Joel Schumacher was hired. That was just the beginning of the changes made for Batman Forever, the third Batman movie. Harvey Dent, the former district attorney who became a criminal after acid was thrown on half of his face had a plan to kill Batman. Harvey started going by the name of Two-Face when he started his...

The era of the Tim Burton Batman ended after the first two movies. Burton s outlook on Batman brought a renewed interest in the character especially when he brought him back to his dark roots. But along the way Burton s world also included the twisted and the macabre, something that seemed out of place for the Dark Knight at times. Parents responded negatively to the films because it was too dark. I think Warner Bros. thought along the same lines after Batman Returns and, with Burton s departure, decided to approach the franchise differently. What they planned was to make the next film more...

The answer: almost always. Maybe there's something about the medium of comic books that doesn't translate well to the big screen. How, then, do we explain the successes of the comic book movies that DO work? Like "Superman," the first two "Batman" movies, the more recent "X-Men"...all of them worked well for a few reasons: 1) They were well written by people who cared about the characters. 2) They were directed by skillful directors who had both a visual flair for the extraordinary world of superheroes and were determined to make us feel something for the characters, both heroes and villains..

The third Batman movie marks the first real break in continuity. There s a different director, different Batman, different design, and different style. Whereas the first two are dark with an eye towards realism, this one is more like a newsstand comic book with more vibrant colors and more explosive action. In some ways this works well, but I preferred the more realistic approach which is why the Burton/Keaton movies are my favorites of the 4. Sure, comic book stylings in a movie can be fun, but isn t the point of a live-action adaptation to portray the drawings in a more realistic way? I...