1. The Score
Now I'll be honest, if it was 1994 and I heard a new Batman film was going into production without Danny Elfman's iconic Batman score, I'd probably had been pretty angry. Why mess with perfection? Did not Elfman's score perfectly capture the essence of the Batman character? Is there any real reason to change it? Well, if that was the case and I has said that in 1994 then come June 16, 1995 I would have been eating a very big bucket of crow. I'm not saying Elliot Goldenthal's scores for Joel Schumacher's Batman films top the work Danny Elfman did but Goldenthal's work was still very successful and captured in a different way the essence of the Batman character.I think the reason why Elliot Goldenthal was so successful was because he didn't try and rock the boat. He must have figured that he couldn't possibly top Elfman and didn't want to try. What he ended up doing instead was kind of a variation on Elfman's own Batman theme from the Burton era. Here is Goldenthal's Batman theme from Batman Forever and Batman and Robin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pexxk6tMKLQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhWlEW4mZYk Here is Danny Elfman's Batman Theme from the Burton era: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgpmdqUEQRM You can call it copycatting, you can say it's a rip off, but you must admit that it's effective. Goldenthal stayed in familiar territory keeping the dramatic use of horns and percussion in grand sweeping fashions. The score has a very rich dramatic texture that mesmerizes the audience and lends a great deal of Gothic mythos to the Batman legacy. Whatever the case you must admit that Goldenthal's score is ten time better than this banal, repetitive forgettable, TV quality, score that Hans Zimmer made for Nolan's Batman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0wk88rjYS8 Here's hoping Superman fares a lot better. Or else come June 14, 2013 you will believe a man can fly... around the world depressed. So what do you think? Am I mad to think Joel Schumacher's Batman movies actually have strong points? Or is a unfairly railroaded director finally getting the respect he deserves? Please no death threats or bullying. I know Batman fans can be a tad temperamental but lets keep the comment section a safe place for ideas to be shared.