Batman Forever (Special Edition) (DVD)

BATMAN FOREVER

This film was a new side to the Batman franchise with new director Joel Schumacher trying to make the film more like the Batman and Robin comic strip and not as dark as the first two were.
Michael Keaton did not return to the role of Batman and this was taken over by Val Kilmer who was always the choice if Michael did not take the part again. As Joel wanted a fresh look he wanted to introduce Robin in the film ...
...a bank vault and knowing Batman will come sets a trap for him, he puts a security guard in the vault bound and gagged and as Batman fights off two faces thugs Two face gets in a helicopter, Batman gets into the vault to rescue the guard only to find the door slammed shut on them both. Two faces helicopter smashes and then carries the vault outside where two face shouts out that inside is boiling acid that he is going to kill Batman with and shower ... more

BATMAN FOREVER

This film was a new side to the Batman franchise with new director Joel Schumacher trying to make the film more like the Batman and Robin comic strip and not as dark as the first two were.
Michael Keaton did not return to the role of Batman and this was taken over by Val Kilmer who was always the choice if Michael did not take the part again. As Joel wanted a fresh look he wanted to introduce Robin in the film and chose actor Chris O'Donnell to play the part as he was at the right age and looked the part.
As for the choice of the villains in this film Joel chose Jim Carrey to play the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones to play Harvey Two Face.
Joel always knew who he wanted to play these parts and all of the above actors were his first and only choice.
Nicole Kidman was cast as Dr. Chase Meridian as Bruce Waynes/Batmans love interest.

I shall give you a brief outline of the film…

This starts with Harvey Two Face breaking into a bank vault and knowing Batman will come sets a trap for him, he puts a security guard in the vault bound and gagged and as Batman fights off two faces thugs Two face gets in a helicopter, Batman gets into the vault to rescue the guard only to find the door slammed shut on them both. Two faces helicopter smashes and then carries the vault outside where two face shouts out that inside is boiling acid that he is going to kill Batman with and shower over the streets of Gotham, Batman quickly had a plan to escape from this but two face gets away after setting the helicopter on a collison course with the Statue of Liberty, two face parachutes out, but batman can't save the helicopter crashing into the statue.
At Wayne enterprises an inventor named Edward Nigma has a design to manipulate brainwaves and puts the idea to Bruce who rejects the idea. Edward is furious and later that night knocks out his supervisor and tests the invention on him. Edward becomes more knowledgable every time he does this. To prevent his supervisor talking he kills him and manipulates the TV cameras so it looks like suicide. A riddle is left on the scene…
Meanwhile Bruce meets Dr. Chase meridian who Bruce has a meeting with. He invites her to the main circus in town. The Graysons are performing artists there.
Edward meanwhile has created a suit for himself and sends out a riddle to Bruce Wayne.
The riddler is born..
I shall not tell you any more plot lines to the film but it is a welcome edition to the batman franchise.

The disks I am reviewing is the region 4 two disk special edition which is also compatable with region 2.
The following disks are DTS and Dolby digital sound, dual layered, English and Italian languages, English and Italian subtitles, and is PG rated.
The film is on for 121 minutes.

Disk 1 Contains :

Batman Forever
This film is available with a detailed commentary with director Joel Schumacher who tells you his thoughts behind the making of this film, his choices for the roles, and wanting a new vision for the batman franchise.

Disk 2 contains :

Riddle me this, why is Batman forever ? - a detailed look at the making and behind the scenes of this film, a TV special from 1995

Shadows of the Bat part 5 - reinventing a hero.
This is a look at how new producer to the role Joel Schumacher brought a new look to the Batman franchise and tells you why he wanted this. It also gives in depth looks at the actors and how their characters were created for their roles in this film and the significance of the addition of Robin.

Additional scenes - this shows you the scenes that were cut from the film for mainly time purposes and is worth a good look at.

Kiss from a rose music video by Seal - the entire music video from this popular singer.

The Heroes and villains profile gallery - Just like the first two Batman films this shows you the main characters of Batman Forever and taking you into their background of each character.

Beyond Batman documentary gallery - this gives you a lot of documentarys to go through, Out of the shadows the production design of Batman Forever, the many faces of Gotham City, "Knight moves" the stunts of Batman Forever, "Imaging Forever" the visual effects of Batman Forever, "Scoring Forever" the music of Batman Forever.
All of the above documentarys are detailed and are on for about 10-15 minutes each.

I enjoyed this film but not as much as the first two, I felt that it had gone too near the series from the sixties with such a lighthearted feel about it.
All the same it gives you good villains very well created and that I had remembered from the comics and it was good to see them in film especially two face who was one of my favourite characters.
I didn't really have any favourite bits in this film or at least nothing that really stood out for me, it had a good story though.
I enjoyed the music from U2 during the film and was a shame that this was left out from the special features.

The special features were a hit for me once again, a lot of effort has gone into making these batman special editions and a lot of credit should go into this.
I am enjoying the cinematic stories of the bat very much and only now have the last instalment to see.
If you watch the film more than once then try the commentary by Joel Schumacher, I found this very insightfull and tells you a lot about this film.
Also the design of the cover and inlay design was very good, a nice shiny box with the batsign covered with the riddlers question mark on the front, on the inside box itself the same on the front but on the back pictures from the film, special features index and the basics like PG rated, how long it's on for etc.
I would say that this is worth a good look at and if you are a fan of the batman films then it is worth getting.
 

...less