STAR RATING: ***** Unmissable **** Very Good *** Okay ** You Can't Go Out For A Meal Instead * Avoid At All Costs
Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman) has a new nemesis in the shape of Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones) a homicidal psychopath who was once a noble lawyer, only for his face and mind to be hideously deformed after a substance was thrown over him in a courtroom. But he's soon to be joined by another: The Riddler (Jim Carrey) who was a former scientist at Wayne Enterprises and had his ideas rejected by those in power. Whilst dealing with all of this, he entertains a romance with the beautiful psychologist Dr Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) and takes a boy acrobat under his wing whose family were murdered in a hesit by Two-Face, who will come to be known as Robin, the fateful sidekick...
In my Batman Begins review, I stated how it was 'Batman for a new generation.' Yet ten years ago I suppose you could say the same thing was happening to the Batman franchise. It was a whole new Batman, with a lighter, sillier, more family friendly appeal to it, with a new actor playing Batman in the shape of Val Kilmer and a new hack director in the shape of Joel Schumacher, after Tim Burton had left to pursue greater things such as The Nightmare Before Christmas (although he does take over producing duties here.) I suppose it is all really a question of whether you prefer the dark or the light versions of Batman. But I know which camp I'm settled in.
There is a lot of light and flashy effects in this one, but it is completely empty. The story is uninvolving, the characters naff and the acting poor. For starters, there's the impossibly wooden O' Donnell, who wouldn't go on to improve in any of his future projects and is at his worst here, and also in one scene zooms down a road in the Batmobile (which he's souped up!) to which a flock of girls crowd round it, which I think played a part in kick-starting the whole vacuous 'chav' craze, as well as Batman's subliminal messaging at the beginning with the line 'it's the car, right, chicks dig the car', when in fact ten years later, a whole string of Brian Harvey-alikes would be 'digging' the car. In the villain roles, Carrey can either make you laugh with his manic performances or he can severely get on your nerves, and that's definitely the case here and Jones can play a great villain and is trying his best here, but it's all just wasted on him. Kidman is very sexy as the love interest, but doesn't manage to contribute anything other than that. As Batman, I suppose Kilmer doesn't do anything Keaton didn't do but, like I said, I'll stay a Keaton man...
I suppose a lot of it really depends on whether you're a dark Batman fan or a light Batman fan and I suppose Returns might just hold a bit of sentimental value for me, but, all the same, hats off to this, my personal least favourite of the series. **
Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman) has a new nemesis in the shape of Two Face (Tommy Lee Jones) a homicidal psychopath who was once a noble lawyer, only for his face and mind to be hideously deformed after a substance was thrown over him in a courtroom. But he's soon to be joined by another: The Riddler (Jim Carrey) who was a former scientist at Wayne Enterprises and had his ideas rejected by those in power. Whilst dealing with all of this, he entertains a romance with the beautiful psychologist Dr Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) and takes a boy acrobat under his wing whose family were murdered in a hesit by Two-Face, who will come to be known as Robin, the fateful sidekick...
In my Batman Begins review, I stated how it was 'Batman for a new generation.' Yet ten years ago I suppose you could say the same thing was happening to the Batman franchise. It was a whole new Batman, with a lighter, sillier, more family friendly appeal to it, with a new actor playing Batman in the shape of Val Kilmer and a new hack director in the shape of Joel Schumacher, after Tim Burton had left to pursue greater things such as The Nightmare Before Christmas (although he does take over producing duties here.) I suppose it is all really a question of whether you prefer the dark or the light versions of Batman. But I know which camp I'm settled in.
There is a lot of light and flashy effects in this one, but it is completely empty. The story is uninvolving, the characters naff and the acting poor. For starters, there's the impossibly wooden O' Donnell, who wouldn't go on to improve in any of his future projects and is at his worst here, and also in one scene zooms down a road in the Batmobile (which he's souped up!) to which a flock of girls crowd round it, which I think played a part in kick-starting the whole vacuous 'chav' craze, as well as Batman's subliminal messaging at the beginning with the line 'it's the car, right, chicks dig the car', when in fact ten years later, a whole string of Brian Harvey-alikes would be 'digging' the car. In the villain roles, Carrey can either make you laugh with his manic performances or he can severely get on your nerves, and that's definitely the case here and Jones can play a great villain and is trying his best here, but it's all just wasted on him. Kidman is very sexy as the love interest, but doesn't manage to contribute anything other than that. As Batman, I suppose Kilmer doesn't do anything Keaton didn't do but, like I said, I'll stay a Keaton man...
I suppose a lot of it really depends on whether you're a dark Batman fan or a light Batman fan and I suppose Returns might just hold a bit of sentimental value for me, but, all the same, hats off to this, my personal least favourite of the series. **