2. Michael Keaton Is Back As Batman In Tim Burton's 'Batman Forever'
Batman Returns is the best Batman film pre-Nolan. Fact. The gothic 1950's style Gotham City looks magnificent. Burton is cool and confident as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Danny Devito is a twisted monster, making what I always considered a slightly rubbish 'top tier villain' into a brilliant villain in the Penguin. Michelle Pfeiffer is great as the deranged, sexy, conflicted Selina Kyle / Catwoman. And the addition of Christopher Walken as the ruthless Max Shreck is the icing on the cake. It is a dark, nightmarish anti-Christmas Christmas movie, with a twisted love story to boot. So of course, because it was never going to help sell McDonalds Happy Meals, the studio decided to go in a radically different direction with Batman Forever. Now I consider the third film a bit of a guilty pleasure in the Batman franchise, but it by no means on the level of Batman or Batman Returns. It was the studio, not Tim Burton, who were responsible for his departure, choosing Joel Schumacher to make the franchise more accessible. And once Tim Burton was gone, so was Michael Keaton soon after. And we never got a worthy follow up to Batman Returns as a result. The plan Burton had goes something like this. Catwoman was off to do her own film. With Pfeiffer in the role, we might have had the first decent female superhero movie. In fact, have we had a decent female superhero movie yet...? Burton was going to bring back Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent, transforming him into Two Face, probably something closer to The Dark Knight rather than the off-screen tragedy that befell Tommy Lee Jones' version. Not only that but Robin Williams was rumoured for The Riddler. While Jim Carrey was fun, Wlliams' role in One Hour Photo showed that he could play a villain very well. Mix that up with Burton's darkness and we could have had something truly special. Oh and Robin, bumped from the first two films may have finally made the appearance. Somehow, I can't see Burton casting Chris O'Donnell in the role. So all in all, Batman would have likely have faced the same villains in either version. But with Burton at the helm and Keaton in the leading role, we could have had a Batman film that would have shown that third films in a franchise can be great. And maybe then we wouldn't have got Batman & Robin. On the other side, if we hadn't had that abomination, we may not have had Christopher Nolan's fantastic reboot. So maybe we had to suffer without Burton and Keaton to get Nolan and Christian Bale? That makes me feel a little better about what happened. But only just...