Cue #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut.īatman and the Thrill of the Chase (Meridian) Perhaps the rumored director's cut of Batman Forever achieves a better balance between these light and dark elements, but the jury is still out as to whether that cut will ever be released from the WarnerMedia vault. Even after deciding to veer in a campier direction, Schumacher reportedly envisioned Forever as being a darker and more psychologically intense film than what the theatrical cut actually delivers. This despite the fact that Keaton's Bruce was a haunted shell of a man all too burdened by that loss.Īccording to the 2005 documentary Shadow of the Bat, the flashbacks are a relic of an earlier incarnation of the project, a time when Keaton was still attached and Schumacher toyed with the idea of adapting Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One as a Batman '89 prequel. Forever would have us believe Bruce has lost touch with his inner Dark Knight and needs to be reminded of why he dons the cape and cowl every night.
In Forever, Bruce is plagued by nightmares of his parents' murders, their subsequent funeral and the giant bat that inspired his costumed identity. Kilmer is caught in the middle of that uneasy clash between old and new, particularly when it comes to Bruce Wayne's character arc. Batman & Robin may be an objectively worse movie in many respects, but at least it's more honest about what it's trying to be (in other words, a flashy, feature-length toy commercial). Traces of Burton and composer Danny Elfman's Gothic fairy tale sensibilities still remain, particularly when it comes to the flashback scenes and locales like Arkham Asylum.
More From The Quest for the Perfect Batman Actor In day 3 of our recurring look back at the Batman movie actors, we examine why Kilmer perhaps deserves more credit than he's been given for bringing a little levity back into Bruce Wayne's life. Forever was a film that attempted to both maintain continuity with the previous Burton movies and forge a new, more commercial path forward for the franchise. Even with all their on-set disagreements, the late director Joel Schumacher often spoke very highly of Kilmer's take on the Dark Knight.
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