Hot Toys Announce Batman Returns License

[TheFiend]

For the most part, The only series with a concise canon or in film universe is Lord of The Rings in my opinion.

That sounds about right.


All others suffer from real problem if you're trying to come up with a concise canon.

Star Wars
Alien films
Terminator
Friday the 13th

There are others....

 

[Maglor]

...which made complete sense in the days before "reboot" was really a thing in Hollywood. Had "Forever" happened today instead of 1995? I think without a doubt it would have been labeled as a reboot of the franchise. Back then though? Rebooting a franchise and taking it in a different direction after 3 years wasn't heard of. Today? Sure. But back then, the MO was to label things as sequels... regardless of how distant they were from the original vision (Halloween 3 anyone?).

This is all opinion of course... but they will always be separate to me. Different director, different vision, different takes on Batman.

Sallah

And it would have been a very different movie. It would have clearly been a reboot, and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Instead, this movie was made at a time when, as you say "the MO was to label things as sequels". So we got a sequel that gave a new spin to the character and world. It's the same continuity, it was just given a flashy, hooker makeover.

Judi Dench had to be killed because she was having memory problems. I remember her saying this on tv. Look at the point in the film before the bad guy dressed as a police officer giving her speech about how they dress in with society.

I have no problem with her dying. She just doesn't belong in the movie in terms of continuity.

What got me fascinated before seeing Forever, was the U2 and Seal songs.

The U2 one sounds so horrible in this present day. Apart from the initial intro. I'm having scary 90s summer flashbacks right now. Can't believe thinking back I was doing cassette mixing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuy4828wpvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ateQQc-AgEM



Do feel slightly warm and fuzzy like I am right now going down memory lane?

I love all the similarities between B&R and 89/Returns.

Yeah, like the Batmobiles for instance. They're basically the same!

That's a perfect example. Schumacher's Batmobiles are clearly supposed to be high-on-crack-next-generation-updates to the original Burtonmobile.

 

[DiFabio]

The producer of Forever and B&R that worked with Schumacher said it best,


"Our Batman films were like Saturday Night live on Acid".


Neon, gay undertones, hyper crack addicted villains, huge cod pieces, nipples, casting based on sex appeal, ugh.

 

[RIDDICK]

Neon, gay undertones, hyper crack addicted villains, huge cod pieces, nipples.

 

[ASTRO13ZOMBIE]

 

[Khev]

One thing about revisiting the Burton and Schumacher flicks is how wonderfully QUIET the Burton films are during long stretches, particularly Batman 89. The Schumacher movies can barely seem to go five seconds without some damn saxophone (or group of saxophones) blaring nauseatingly through every scene.

 

[vodoun]

The producer of Forever and B&R that worked with Schumacher said it best,


"Our Batman films were like Saturday Night live on Acid".


Neon, gay undertones, hyper crack addicted villains, huge cod pieces, nipples, casting based on sex appeal, ugh.

No words. Just, LoL!

One thing about revisiting the Burton and Schumacher flicks is how wonderfully QUIET the Burton films are during long stretches, particularly Batman 89. The Schumacher movies can barely seem to go five seconds without some damn saxophone (or group of saxophones) blaring nauseatingly through every scene.

The overacting was what I found the most annoying. It was like watching 1966 in the present day but instead of lycra.

 

[DiFabio]

That's another key ingredient that differentiates the first two films from what Schumacher had done, Danny Elfman's composition and scoring.

 

[Indiana]

The thing that makes it hard for me to watch Batman Forever is Chris O'Donnell; nearly every scene with him is cringe worthy. Everything else I can enjoy from time to time. I do love how Two Face is defeated by the way.

 

[RIDDICK]

It was like watching 1966 in the present day.

 

[haytil]

Actually, it is completely different.

The Dark Knight trilogy (regardless if actors changed) is all one series because it is one complete vision from one director- Christopher Nolan. That is his version of Batman, in characters, set, acting, story, etc. When you have one main driving creative force behind all 3 films, separating one out would not be the same thing at all.

So are the old Superman movies not all part of the same series, because I don't like the later ones and they have different directors?

No.

The idea of "one complete vision from one director" guiding an entire series of movies is a very modern conception, which didn't happen in the 90s. You can't apply modern-day modes of thought, with respect to the medium, to something of that age.




Nobody's arguing that the Schumacher films aren't different in tone to the Burton films. But they're part of the same series, with the same continuity. It was always clear that that was the intent.

 

[DiFabio]

The idea of "one complete vision from one director" guiding an entire series of movies is a very modern conception, which didn't happen in the 90s. You can't apply modern-day modes of thought, with respect to the medium, to something of that age.

Sure you can, because that's what they did in 1994/1995.


Do you have the DVD/Blu Ray sets? Look at what the documentary is called for the Batman Forever feature. It's titled, Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight - Reinventing a Hero




re·in·vent (rn-vnt)
tr.v. re·in·vent·ed, re·in·vent·ing, re·in·vents
1. To make over completely:
2. To bring back into existence or use
Idiom:
reinvent the wheel
1. To do something again, from the beginning, especially in a needless or inefficient effort:





True, the term "reboot" wasn't there in 1995, it's a modern 2000s concept, but it was a reboot nonetheless. All Schumacher and Co. mentions is how radically different "their" Batman was. "Our film", "the first", "new", "fresh", etc. etc. It wasn't Warner Bros. giving the character a face lift here and there, no, it was a reinvention. That's why they brought Schumacher in and changed it from the ground up.

Most if not all the key components of the first two films are missing. The design is radically different. The directors changed. The actors changed. Different score. Different characterization. Different team. Alfred, Gordon, and a few dumb, throw away references shouldn't be ties that bind.

 

[Maglor]

You lost me a little bit with that post. Methinks you protest too much.

Why is this so important to you DiFabio?

 

[Ramatuelle]

The producer of Forever and B&R that worked with Schumacher said it best,

"Our Batman films were like Saturday Night live on Acid".

Neon, gay undertones, hyper crack addicted villains, huge cod pieces, nipples, casting based on sex appeal, ugh.

You know, Riddler's shoes just DON'T match his outfit thematically, I remember thinking the same thing while watching the movie. Sleek tights and then these clunky suede saddle shoes at the bottom, whose idea was that?!! I just expect more from a super-villain as, well.... prance-y as that one was, you know? Fashion-sense! Make it happen dude

 

[jye4ever]

You know, Riddler's shoes just DON'T match his outfit thematically, I remember thinking the same thing while watching the movie. Sleek tights and then these clunky suede saddle shoes at the bottom, whose idea was that?!! I just expect more from a super-villain as, well.... prance-y as that one was, you know? Fashion-sense! Make it happen dude

 

[DiFabio]

You lost me a little bit with that post. Methinks you protest too much.

Why is this so important to you DiFabio?

It's not important, there's just nothing to really discuss in here without pics of announced figures. Besides, you brought it up.

I guess the concept of the first two being tied to the Schumacher movies as some pseudo canon or "universe" is ludicrous to me. They're all fictional movies. Not novels, not historical documents, non-fictional. I don't get why there are folks out there that are so hell bent on the idea that it "all connects" or why they'd argue or try to make sense of it other wise. I mean, what is continuity, really? The Schumacher movies certainly don't abide by what came before it and it has more differences than it does connections.

The only point I've made is that they're sequels as far as sequential releases and marketed home video boxed sets go, that's all.

 

[Frank]

And yet another Iron Man-related release revealed for HKACG 2013...



Now I get that "Batman Returns" is over 20 years old and its fans will always be there, and there is something to be said of "striking while the iron is hot" with this Marvel stuff....

But THIS!?! Multiple Iron Mans again and again... Ok. But 2 Tony starks from one movie!?!? And one of them incredibly scene-specific to a sequence that it seems the majority of folks are stating they weren't even big fans of (and that made very little sense). This before showing anything from a line announced over a year and a half ago?

Sigh... I know patience is a virtue. But this is getting ridiculous.

Sallah

Well when IM3 goes and makes more money than the entire GDP of several third world countries combined despite cinematically defecating on the Mandarin, who could blame them for thinking that the world needs more RDJ than Walken needs cowbell?



I too wish things were different but alas. Once these babies start showing up, all the waiting will have made it that much sweeter.

 

[batfan08]

That's one thing I always hated about Forever: the costuming. Tommy Lee Jones and his tiger stripes, and Carrey's Riddler, who looked like he raided Richard Simmons' closet in the beginning, and Tom Jones' at the end. I think the things I hate most about Schumacher's films are the way they wasted their potential. Carrey as Riddler and Jones as Two-Face were both great choices, but they just went too over the top.

 

[DiFabio]

I never understood the white spandex thing he had at the end with that hair cut. What was the point of him looking like that?

 

[batfan08]

No clue. Then, of course, there was "brain drain" Riddler, who looked more like he was exposed to insta-super steroid herpes.