Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997 (Blu-ray)

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After that is "Batman: The Villains," featuring interviews with actor Danny DeVito, executive producer Michael E. Uslan, director Tim Burton, stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, and many more. Then "Batman: The Heroes," with background information on the Penguin, Catwoman, and Max Shreck characters. The Max Shreck character in particular (played by Walken) was interesting to look into deeper. One juicy tidbit we find out is that not only does Walken unnerve people in the movies, but initially Burton didn't want to cast Walken because he was afraid him!

The "Beyond Batman" segment has a myriad of features within it, most of which you'll get the gist of from their titles: "Gotham City Revisited: The production design of Batman Returns"; "Sleek, Sexy and Sinister: The costumes of Batman Returns"; "Making up the Penguin"; "Assembling the Arctic Army"; Bats, Mattes and Dark Nights: The Visual Effects of Batman Returns"; and finally "Inside the Elfman Studios: The Music of Batman Returns." Wrapping up this slew of bonus items is a "Face to Face" music video by Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Josh's film rating for "Batman Returns": 7/10

BATMAN FOREVER
Reviewed by John J. Puccio

In 1995 Joel Schumacher ("Falling Down," "A Time to Kill," "The Client," "The Phantom of the Opera") took over the directing chores from Tim Burton, and Val Kilmer assumed the cape from Michael Keaton. "Batman Forever" took on a decidedly different tone, less dark and gloomy than Burton's movies, lighter, more action-oriented, and more "family-friendly," as they say; yet one may miss Burton's playfully macabre humor. Batman's original creator, Bob Kane, once said that Kilmer was his favorite Batman, the actor taking the role quite seriously, perhaps more seriously than Schumacher took the movie.

One of the beauties of Burton's first "Batman" film was its focus. It had only one villain, The Joker, for Batman to fight and a minor love interest with Vicki Vale. Then, as the series continued, the movies involved ever more characters: "Batman Returns" had The Penguin, Catwoman, and Max Shreck. And "Batman Forever" takes things a step further with Two-Face, The Riddler, Robin, and Dr. Chase Meridian. The sheer numbers are too much for the plot to handle and muddle the story line's forward momentum.

"Batman Forever" is louder and gaudier than Burton's films, so be prepared. Schumacher is very big on colored lights, and everything in the film seems lit with neon. Let's just say the director leaves no doubt that this is a comic-book adventure in the most "comic" sense.

Interesting, Kilmer's gestures and vocal inflections mimic those of Keaton, and I believe he said somewhere that it was on purpose, to give the character a continuity with the actor who came before him. Fair enough. Kilmer is quite good in the part, seemingly the only person in the movie who was taking it seriously. Which is pretty hard to do considering the preposterous caricatures of the villains.

Tommy Lee Jones cackles his way through the part of Harvey Dent, the once noble Gotham District Attorney now facially scarred and turned to the Dark Side as Two-Face. Regrettably, this fine actor does little else but cackle, and he's upstaged at every turn by the wild shenanigans of Jim Carrey, mugging it up as Dr. Edward Nygma (E. Nygma), alias The Riddler. Two-face has but a single goal in life--to kill Batman--but Nygma is a mad scientist bent on controlling the minds of everyone in the world using television set-top boxes. Together, these cartoon baddies chart Batman's demise and their own world domination. While poor Jones struggles to continue chortling, Carrey does his usual "Dumb & Dumber"-"Ace Ventura" schtick, and their act gets tired fast.

Add to this mix Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, Kidman another fine performer thrown away in the name of silly entertainment, and Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson, Robin the Batboy. About the only person who emerges unscathed is Michael Gough, reprising his role as Alfred, the faithful butler.

"Batman Forever" never reaches the depths of the ridiculous that the next of Schumacher's "Batman" films, "Batman & Robin," reached, but it's not in Burton's league, either. Even the Batmobile looks sillier than ever and should have been called the Clownmobile.

The fact is, Kilmer and Gough seem to be in an entirely different movie from the one Schumacher and the rest of the cast make. They play it straighter than everyone else and rescue the story from its own absurdity. The result is a film that could have been better, that Kilmer undoubtedly wanted to be better, but that the studio and the director insisted be something less. It's still OK, but it's nothing special.

Extras:
Like the other movies in this Blu-ray set, "Batman Forever" contains all of the extras found in the previous two-disc Special Edition. That means we get an audio commentary by the director, Joel Schumacher, followed by a series of other items, documentaries and featurettes.

These other items include "Riddler Me This: Why is Batman Forever," a behind-the-scenes affair; "Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight, Pt. 5: Reinventing a Hero," about re-energizing the "Batman" franchise; "Out of the Shadows," detailing some of the production design; "The Many Faces of Gotham City," on costumes and makeup; "Knight Moves: The Stunts of Batman Forever"; "Imaging Forever: The Visual Effects of Batman Forever"; and "Scoring Forever: The Music of Batman Forever."

In addition, we get a series of seven deleted scenes; a music video, "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal; a few brief comments on the heroes and villains of the piece; and a theatrical trailer.

John's film rating for "Batman Forever": 5/10

BATMAN & ROBIN
Reviewed by John J. Puccio

Holy breastplates, boys and girls! Are those nipples on the Batsuit?

Tim Burton resurrected the "Batman" movie franchise in 1989 after the corny TV series and movie of the 1960s had just about done it in. Burton had gone to the graphic novels of the Dark Knight, instilling his "Batman" films with an edgy, noirish tone that made fans happy and turned non-fans into believers. But then the three sequels that followed got progressively more campy, culminating in director Joel Schumacher's 1997 release "Batman & Robin," which effectively derailed the "Batman" express until Christopher Nolan went back to square one and started all over again to repair the damage.

What had started out with Burton as an attempt to inject some realism into the "Batman" project turned into a Las Vegas stage show with Schumacher. This was a shame and probably not entirely Schumacher's fault, as he had already done and would continue to do better things. But the series started to go south with his directing of "Batman Forever," and they reached rock bottom with "Batman & Robin."

Here's the thing: "Batman & Robin" has practically no story to it, just a succession of gaudy set pieces, most of them unrelated to anything coming before or after them, that generate about as much intensity as a circus sideshow. The movie plays at best like a carnival fun ride but without the thrills. It's just bright flashing lights covering a glut of glitzy scenery, props, costumes, and special effects. The movie begins to sink under its own weight during the opening titles and never recovers.

George Clooney takes over from Val Kilmer and Michael Keaton as the new Batman, but top billing goes to Arnold Schwarzenegger as the villainous Mr. Freeze. Neither Clooney nor Schwarzenegger make the slightest impression. Clooney, who can usually be so charming on screen, is oddly nondescript, so laid back he nearly falls off the screen. He looks good, to be sure, but he's dreadfully miscast as a superhero. Think of asking a happy-go-lucky Cary Grant to play the part.

Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, overplays his role at every turn, hamming it up unconscionably. To be fair, the director undoubtedly told all the performers to play their parts as broadly as possible. Schumacher admits on the audio commentary that he was going for a purely comic-book effect, with comic-book characters, comic-book colors, comic-book camera angles, and comic-book dialogue. He was obviously emphasizing the word "comic" in all of this, although the result is more like theater of the absurd.

The plot is too preposterous to describe, and it develops not even the minutest shred of credibility. A scientist, Dr. Victor Fries, alias Mr. Freeze, finds himself beset by a tragic accident that renders him unable to endure heat, so he must maintain his body temperature at zero degrees Fahrenheit at all times. Meanwhile he keeps his dying wife in a cylinder of liquid while he tries to revive her through a procedure requiring a load of diamonds (don't ask), which he must steal. He accomplishes the thefts by freezing people into blocks of ice with a special flash-freeze gun. Simultaneously, another scientist, Dr. Pamela Isley (Uma Thurman), has a dreadful accident of her own that turns her from a nerdy research assistant into a sexy snake with the voice of a Mae West; she calls her new self Poison Ivy, and her lips are venomous. Her deal is wanting to destroy all animal life on the planet and start everything over. Needless to say, she and Freeze team up as a sort of Adam and Evil.

Batman's young friend Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), alias Robin, assists him (Batman and Dick must never have sounded too good). O'Donnell is one of the few actors in the movie who seems to fit his role and acts accordingly. Barbara Wilson (Alicia Silverstone), alias Batgirl, shows up as Alfred the butler's niece, a spirited young lady about Robin's age with a penchant for adventure. Unfortunately, Ms. Silverstone appears completely lost in the part, totally mystified by the whole movie. The solitary actor who is able to overcome the odds is Michael Gough, reprising his role as Alfred Pennyworth, a mainstay as always and the only person to bring a touch of humanity to the proceedings.

"Batman & Robin" is so lightweight it's in danger of flying off the screen on bat wings, yet there's no fun or excitement anywhere in it. It's all spectacle and no heart, with an overreliance not only on visual effects but on silly one-liners: "That's why Superman works alone," "The iceman cometh," "It's a hockey team from hell." Moreover, not even the special effects are convincing, most of the sets looking as phony as the plastic icicles we see hanging from the rafters. It looks as though Schumacher filmed every scene inside a cheap amusement park. The only shots I found at all intriguing were the matte paintings of Gotham City and a few of its buildings and roadways. That accounts for about a minute and a half of the movie's two-hour running time.

I can't imagine how much worse the "Batman" motion-picture series could have gotten if Christopher Nolan hadn't stepped in and decided to out-noir Burton. If Schumacher had tried to make "Batman Forever more family friendly, he made "Batman & Robin" positively prepubescent friendly. Schumacher's intention appears to have been to make something so awful, so corny, so campy, so preposterously bad, that audiences would simply laugh at it. Sorry; it doesn't work. Bad is bad.

Extras:
Things begin on "Batman & Robin" with the compulsory director's commentary, Mr. Schumacher sounding about as enthusiastic toward the affair as I would be; meaning, hardly. I found most of his remarks confined to the "I remember this scene being very difficult to shoot" variety, but at least he has the good sense to concede that he meant "Batman & Robin" as pure comic-book escapism.

Next, we find "Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight, Part 6: Batman Unbound." It's a twenty-seven-minute, behind-the-scenes documentary in which the actors and filmmakers are more candid than one usually finds in these things. For instance, Chris O'Donnell tells us that working on "Batman & Robin" was like "making a toy commercial." Apparently, studio brass wanted a movie that would sell toy action figures more than they wanted anything else. You'll also find out as much here as you ever wanted to know about nipples and codpieces.

Following the main documentary there is a gallery of featurettes called "Beyond Batman," whose titles are self-explanatory: "Bigger, Bolder, Brighter: The Production Design of Batman & Robin," ten minutes; "Maximum Overdrive: The Vehicles of Batman & Robin," ten minutes; "Dressed to Thrill: The Costumes of Batman & Robin," twelve minutes; "Frozen Freaks and Femme Fatales: The Makeup of Batman & Robin," nine minutes; and "Freeze Frame: The Visual Effects of Batman & Robin," nine minutes. These sections are not quite so frank as the main documentary, though; for example, director Schumacher says, "Overall, I thought every set was perfect for the film." OK, maybe he was being sarcastic, I don't know.

Lastly, we have an additional scene, "Alfred's Lost Love," that lasts less than a minute, and four music videos: "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" by the Smashing Pumpkins, five minutes; "Foolish Games" by Jewel, four minutes; "Gotham City" by R. Kelly, five minutes; and "Look into My Eyes" by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, five minutes.

John's film rating for "Batman & Robin": 3/10

Video for the Set:
Although Warner Bros. use dual-layer BD50s and VC-1 encodes to reproduce all four films in 1080p high definition, there is enough variation in the visual qualities of the movies to make differences quite noticeable. The earliest film, "Batman," comes off worst, although it isn't really that bad except in comparison with the others. There is a modicum of print grain in the darker scenes, and detail and delineation can run the course between sharp and polished on the one hand and dull, soft, and veiled on the other. Part of the problem is that Burton probably intended his film to look misty and dark, and it's certainly that, with a dull sheen over many of the sequences. But in brighter shots, the picture is crystal clear.

By the time the second film, "Batman Returns," rolled around, Burton must have either had a change of heart or better equipment and film stock to work with because the whole movie is far crisper in appearance. Definition is considerably sharper than in "Batman," with stronger colors shining through, despite the noirish tone.

Oddly, the picture quality of the third movie, "Batman Forever," reverts back to that of the first movie. Rather than being clear and precise, it's soft and misty. Yet Schumacher turns this around yet again, as least somewhat, in "Batman & Robin." Despite the fourth movie's overall darkness and extravagance of colors, things come out a little better than in the previous film, with sharper definition and a tad less haze. Still, there's a slightly washed-out look to some of the action scenes, which seem purposely shrouded in a thin layer of smoke or fog.

Audio for the Set:
On all four films, WB audio engineers provide both lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and regular, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. Naturally, I listened in TrueHD, which improves, at least technically, from film to film. With "Batman" the audio is somewhat rough and edgy, with relatively little information in the surround channels beyond some musical ambience enhancement. Bass is also a mite restricted, and dynamic impact can vary from one action scene to the next. The sound can roar when it wants to, but it's a bit coarse and hard in the process.

Three years later, the use of multichannel audio had advanced, and "Batman Returns" shows the benefits of more pinpoint surround activity. Gunfire and explosions fly far and wide, with various planes, trains, and automobiles (plus an assortment of bats) following suit. There's a deeper and more sustained bass than on the first "Batman" film, too, and better dynamic contrasts.

With "Batman Forever," director Schumacher pulled out all the stops, making his soundtrack louder, more dynamic, and more robust than the previous two. It actually gets to be too much, and dialogue sometimes suffers, muffled behind the rafter-shaking bass and boomeranging bullets. Then, in Schumacher's "Batman & Robin" the sound is almost ear-splitting, even when you turn it down. There are good directional effects, to be sure, with the noises of thunder, motorcycles, running water, and freezing ice coming from all sides of the listening area, but the sound is so unrelenting in its ceaseless attacks on our eardrums that much of what we hear just seems unnecessary.

Parting Thoughts:
Obviously, the film values vary for the four movies in the set. I gave an 8/10 to the first "Batman" film, Josh gave a 7/10 to "Batman Returns," and then I gave a 5/10 to "Batman Forever." So far, so good. Too bad this series had to end with "Batman & Robin," which I gave a 3/10. OK, if you insist on viewing "Batman & Robin" only as high camp, you can add a few more points. In any case, the four-disc package is fun in high-def picture and sound, and given the movies involved, heck, three out of four ain't bad.