Having learned nothing from his mistakes in
the previous BATMAN movie, director JOEL
SCHUMACHER turned out another tedious film
that killed the franchise for several years. Poor
GEORGE CLOONEY's still doing his best
to try and live this one down.
3 comments:
These Batman movies are filled with the excesses of the time, overripe production instead of sound scripts and bombast over mystery and atmosphere. They are more homages to the old TV show than the comics. I mostly remember Michael Gough's pained expressions through most of the movie, he was suffering and so were we.
Rip Off
It's an interesting film by virtue of the insight it affords into the culture of the film industry that spawned it. What is fairly safe to infer, is that there was lots and lots of cocaine around at production meets, screenings and generally circulating the amongst studio types who oversaw it. And while that would be facetious in most contexts, here it's a serious attempt to try and reconcile the smeared faeces of a film that made it to the screen. I don't know much about Schumacher or the extent of his culpability here, I think he probably missed out on a career in minor production dance theatre, where the long hours and arduous work load, benefit from access to dependable stimulants, and perhaps a handy cushion to bite on.
I don't really like any of the bat flicks from this era, 'cept for ...Returns and that's a marginal for me. The Adam West one is a much more successful enterprise in terms of representing the feel of the comic and as a parody of the broader genre.
I'd agree with that, Rip. And the fact that they seemed to be following the pattern of the TV shows. The Schumacher movies were missed opportunities.
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I think the 1989 Batman movie is the best of that run, DSE, but I don't think the '66 one represented the feel of the comic at the time. Batman in the comics had just had a 'new look' and the stories were more detective orientated. However, the comics did seem to start reflecting the TV show to some degree, but I don't think they were quite as extreme.
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