I have a few issues with Bob's praise and criticisms, of both Burton and Schumaucher films.
First off... deviating from the source material...
THAT IS OKAY! When will fans ever accept that, yes, it is more than okay to deviate from the source material to make a better film. The source material is not the end-all, be-all of a superhero story. If it was, we'd never have gotten Heath Ledger's Joker. Hell, even Marvel's Avengers, which Bob practically joygasmsed over, streamlines the complicated comic book origins of Thor (he's not Donald Blake, the doctor, anymore) and, last I checked, Wasp and Ant-Man were part of the original Avengers, not Black Widow and Hawkeye. Hell, Captain America himself wasn't in the original Avengers until a few issues later... So who cares if it's true to the source material if what they did was so very GOOD?
Secondly, Bob hand-waves aesthetics as rather unimportant to a movie... yet the aesthetics of a movie very much are an essential part of the core experience. There's a reason the very LOOK of Burton's Gotham City is so atmospheric, otherworldly, and memorable, and there's a reason why Schumaucher's disco-ball, neon-glow look for his movies is so garish, cartoony, and impractically campy. They set the TONE of a film, and the TONE of a film can be a very clear indicator of a person's enjoyment of it. You could dress Batman up in a bright pink outfit and make Gotham a city of rainbows and candy canes, keeping the story and characters the same, but the tone of the film will be entirely different. It's the same reason music, costumes, and lighting are so important in conveying a film's mood and tone to an audience. You can't just hand-wave that away, since the very look of the film is indicative of the tonal qualities the film possesses.
Thirdly, I'm surprised Bob just sort of ignored the true aspect of the "stunt casting" the Schumaucher films did. Let's be honest; Jack Nicholson was a big-name actor for the 1989 movies... but he was not just cast because he was a big-name. He was legitimately the best man for the role of that Joker at the time, and you won't find many people disagreeing. His Joker was SO good that it made people feel that Batman was overshadowed (I disagree... I agree with Keaton's philosophy that Batman was always a creature of shadows and actions, existing as the boogey-man of the criminal underworld). Same goes for DeVito's Penguin, and Michelle Pfeiffer was exceptional. You lose yourself in those early villains; DeVito, Pfeiffer, even Nicholson, largely disappear and their villains take over. But Jim Carrey's Riddler is totally just Jim Carrey the whole time, and Tommy Lee Jones's Two-Face had zero actual personality at all... both of which were far more cartoony than the ACTUAL cartoon versions airing on TV at the time (what irony).
Lastly, for all Burton's flaws in the original films (mainly their pacing), they existed as something the Schumaucher films were largely NOT. They were visually stunning, highly imaginative, and catastrophically bold. Batman Forever (and Batman & Robin) were so safe and market-created that I'm surprised Bob is so receptive of them after he did TWO videos talking about how The Amazing Spider-man represents the worst of Hollywood. The Burton films, at the very least, pushed the envelope so far, and when you remember that, prior to 1989's Batman, the only image people had of Batman in live-action was the campy Adam West series, and those films basically took what was a Looney Tunes cartoon series and spun it into a dark, psychologically disturbing look at the caped crusader and his world. There does not exist a single movie before or sense that has so vividly and dramatically and successfully reimagined its superhero like that.
Schumaucher's films were ones I may have been entertained with as a child, but in retrospect, they're hammy, childish, immature, product-driven, and, well, vapid and soulless. There is very little depth to them. They're like Twinkies. And I grew to resent them over time for all their many condescending and utterly juvenile approaches to the Batman mythos.
And, no Bob, I don't care that Schumaucher is gay. I'm bisexual. The fact that he's gay and gave Batman butt-shots and rubber nipples isn't the sole reason I hate his films... but they certainly didn't help the movies any either.
), but after we rented this movie in glorious VHS (!), I simply fell asleep while watching it. And also, feeling immensely dissapointed by Jim Carrey, I seriously liked Ace Ventura 2 back in the day.
