2. Schumacher Celebrates The Spirit Of Comic Book Movies
He may have gone over the top with the day-glo paint, the cheesy dialogue and the poorly choreographed fighting, but in both Batman & Robin and Batman Forever, Schumacher proved very much that he is committed to celebrating exactly what comics are about. He doesn't want to strip back the characters, making them human and abandoning the superhuman elements of the characters, or make them gritty for the sake of it - he clearly recognises that comics are fundamentally designed as a fantastical escape from the mundane limits of normal life. Who wants to see a superhuman become human, and normal? That would be an abomination, and while the novelty might be something, eventually we'd all get a bit sick of the seriousness and want something more fundamentally
comic. And while Schumacher made a lot of mistakes around the edges with Batman & Robin, his central core commitment to that comic book spirit, along with the lessons learned from those massive mistakes will mean Batman Triumphant emerges triumphant. Even more importantly, Schumacher is a big Batman fan, and the rumour that he would want to make Year One is just too good to resist. If he can bring something more artistic and more restrained into Batman Triumphant - and the potential casting of Nicholas Cage should go so way to helping that - then Year One (or a version of it) might come next. And that would be a big, big deal. And really, who else is there out there who could make a big screen Batman film? Indies are too indie, Burton has gone too weird, and few other big names would touch the nerdy franchise with a barge pole.