ALL SCI-FI

[The Spike]

A different direction brings differing results.

Batman takes on a new side kick as he fights to keep Gotham City out of the clutches of Two-Face and The Riddler.

"No thanks, I'll get drive-thru"

Thus these be the first words out of Val Kilmer's incarnation of Batman and thus setting the standard for what Joel Schumacher's two Batman movies would be like.

Gone is the dark undertone from Tim Burton's visions, and the tight action sequences that marked Burton's debut out as a genuine genre piece of work. In their place comes sexy campery and ropey action set pieces.

The casting of both Val Kilmer as Batman and Chris O'Donnell as Robin is a big mistake, Kilmer easily being the most boring actor to don the suit out of all of them, whilst O'Donnell simply can't act outside of Robin's cartoonery bravado.

Nicole Kidman looks positively gorgeous as Chase Meridian, but that's all that is brought to the party. It's a waste of the very talented Kidman's ability, and a waste of the audience's time.

It's not all bad though. A comic book adaptation is only as good as its villains, and here we get a perfectly cast Jim Carrey as The Riddler, and a wildly over the top Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face.

Carrey steals every scene he is in, and it's almost too much, but as maniacal and exuberant as it is, it is the film's highlight and actually the film's saving grace. Tommy Lee Jones was reportedly unhappy from having his thunder stolen in the movie by Carrey.

The script does work enough to make the story accessible to all ages, and there are enough crash bangs and wallops to entertain in that brain-left-at-the-door kind of way.

This was the biggest hit of 1995, so the paying public lapped it up and paved the way for another Schumacher film in the franchise. But with all that star power wasted, and nipples on the rubber suits, it's hard to see now why it was so popular back then. 5/10
_________________
The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Bud Brewster]

To paraphrase Burt Ward from the old series:

"Gosh, Spikeman! Is there anything you don't know?"

"Yes, Buddin. Several things, in fact . . . "
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

__________________________________

I'm wondering if I could maybe enjoy some of the earlier Batman movies now, after a few decades of pondering what they aren't (serious and intelligent), so that I might appreciate what they are (imaginative, but too far over the top).
__________________________________

_____________ Batman Forever (1995) - trailer


__________
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

ALIEN Designer H. R. Giger’s Insane Unused Batmobile Concept Brought to Life in 3=D Model

https://www.slashfilm.com/batmobile-concept-hr-giger/

Posted on Thursday, May 16th, 2019 by Ben Pearson



A fun piece of trivia is making the rounds again, and since we’ve never written about it at /Film, now’s as good a time as any to share it. H. R. Giger, one of the designers of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic ALIEN, was hired to create some Batmobile concept art for director Joel Schumacher‘s 1995 film Batman Forever – and Giger’s design is just as odd as you’d expect from the man whose mind birthed the Xenomorph. Take a closer look below:



As you can see from the top left corner, Giger took his inspiration from a pair of scissors; I suppose he envisioned Batman literally cutting through crime in Gotham City. It’s a horrifying mixture of mechanical tubes and phallic imagery, very clearly from the same mind as the man behind Jodorowsky’s unmade version of Dune and Scott’s ALIEN.

Designer Leon Gor took Giger’s original concept art and rendered it as a 3-D model:



Gor’s LinkedIn page says he worked as a vehicle modeler for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment for two months in 2012, where he “modeled an alternate unused H. R. Giger Batmobile design seen in the Batmobile Documentary on The Dark Knight Rises DVD/Blu-Ray.” Here’s the trailer for that doc, in case you’re interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCAWje_-FmI

But here’s the strange part: we watched the documentary, and Gor’s 3-D models don’t appear in it. And if that doc came out in 2012, why does this image have a 2018 copyright mark on it? We’ve reached out to Gor and will update this piece if we’re able to get any clarification.

Seeing images like this resurface five years after Giger’s death are a reminder that there’s never been anyone else like him. Honestly, can you imagine Val Kilmer‘s Batman cruising through the streets of Gotham City in this beast? Or Kilmer saying the line “Chicks dig the car” about this ridiculous monstrosity?

In this 2015 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Batman Forever‘s production designer Barbara Ling talked about those early days of working with Giger:

We had early discussions with Giger about the Batmobile. He had these insane, fabulous, weird scribbles that were very like ALIEN. It was exciting that this strange mind briefly touched upon us, but it didn’t work out. We hired this fabulous team of builders, this young team who had never done a movie before, Trans-FX. From our drawings, we went in to doing little 3-D clay and shaping that. It’s amazing how much the design of that morphs. As it becomes more 3-D, you go back in and keep redesigning. Drawing a car is one thing, but it doesn’t ever really look like that. Once you 3-D that, it’s like “Oh my God. That fender looks gigantic.” TFX said, “We’ll build everything from scratch. We won’t try to work this onto a Ford chassis.” And you couldn’t have.

You can see the actual Batman Forever Batmobile on display near the 2:00 mark of this video I made visiting the Warner Bros. Studio Tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sspBnI58ciY

And if all that’s not enough for you, this Russian blog has images of a completely different 3-D model of Giger’s art.

http://old.gothic.ru/art/giger/batman.html
_________________
____________
Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.