Batman: The Opposition

When I’m watching a movie, I like to look at more than just the fair looks of the faces on the screen. Nor do I consider much the explosions, car chases or the hot romances between the lead man and gal. In fact, I look for the writing, the emotion and the character development. And for the work involved in bringing the humanity of the character to screen. In fact, I have a list of actors, and actresses, I follow: I call them my “boys” and I usually love anything they do. And some are on the cast list for Batman: Christopher Walken (Max Schrek), Michelle Pfiffer (Catwoman), Val Kilmer (BF: Batman), Tommy Lee Jones (Schumacher’s Two-Face), George Clooney (B&R: Batman), Uma Thurman (Poison Ivy), Christian Bale (Nolan’s Batman), Michael Caine (Nolan’s Alfred), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Liam Neeson (Ras Al Guhl), Cilian Murphy (Scarecrow), Gary Oldman (Nolan’s Jim Gordon), Maggie Gyllenhal (The Dark Knight’s Rachel Dawes), the late Heath Ledger (Nolan’s Joker) and Aaron Eckhart (Nolan’s Two Face). As far as characters go for Superhero movies, I look not to the hero, but to his opposition to measure the believability of the characters. Tim Burton’s Batman features the first incarnation of the iconic character, The Joker. With the trademark purple suit, insane smile, green hair and pale face, Jack Nicholson’s menacing performance puts a ballistic foil to Michael Keatons cerebral Batman and Bruce Wayne, but the balance is a bit over the top and leans in The Joker’s favor. In fact, little development for Batman actually occurs, as the focus seems to be in arching in the development of The Joker from his alter-ego Jack Napier to his downfall at the hands of Batman. When this lack of development for both sides of the good and evil line tips the balance for the one side, the villain becomes less developed and loses his connection with the audience, creating a sort of “creature-of-the-week” feel which dehumanizes both the hero and the villain, tearing us out of the emotional connection we’re supposed to have with both sides. Oh yes; we’re supposed to be empathetic to the villain’s side. We’re supposed to feel for them; and because we should, the writers need to make something about them redeemable. However, for Burton’s Joker, and his alter-ego Jack Napier, there’s nothing to redeem him, so he’s 100% evil and not human, so we cannot connect and the realism is lost because the character strength leans toward the character less human. The Bestial characters don’t stop with Burton’s Joker; in fact, it continues during the Burton Era with The Penguin, portrayed with power by Danny DeVito. His alter-ego, Oswald Cobblepotts, was born deformed and was abandoned by his blue blood parents before the end of his childhood. Thus, his appearance is grotesque and his development even less human than his predecessor and in stark contrast to his co-villains, Max Shreck and Catwoman. Because of this grotesqueness of character, personality and design, there bears little for Batman to win overall. He simply has no redeeming features, nothing for Batman to compare to really. On the other hand, Catwoman seems to have it all, sympathy for her alter-ego Selina Kyle from the beginning of the film. She’s a hard-working assistant who’s boss thinks very little of her. In fact, he’s borderline abusive to her. However, when she figures out he’s hiding a terrible secret about his proposed project, he simply kills her, allowing her to be fed upon by Gotham City’s feral cat population, transforming her into Catwoman, destroying the mousy woman she was and empowering her to a more confidant woman: somebody I, as a woman, can relate to somewhat. Her introduction to both sides of the fence is absolutely delicious, Michelle Pfieffer And she might not fit into the “villain” category at all, at it seems that she switches sides and fights alongside Batman for a while, giving her eighth of nine lives to end the corruption that is brought to Gotham City by Max Shreck. And Christopher Walken’s Max Shreck, the first of two opponents to Batman’s alter ego Bruce Wayne, is human with nothing super about him. He’s just a man. However, he’s what Bruce might have turned into, had he refrained from becoming Batman. Whereas he is cold, cruel and homicidal, He has something the Burton’s Joker and the Penguin don’t, empathetic characteristics. It really only the one thing: he loves his son and would do anything to keep him safe, including surrendering to The Penguin toward the end. He’s well written, well performed and well done. And to the colorful characters of the Schumacher era, beginning with Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face Harvey Dent, Gotham’s former District Attorney, portrayed briefly in Tim Burton’s Batman by Billy Dee Williams (of Star Wars fame). In Batman Forever, Dent is deformed during a trial when someone threw boiling acid in his face. His mercurial moods as he fluctuates between his two sides leaves little room to connect emotionally because he’s either menacingly calm or insanely ballistic. His only goal is to kill Batman, with no human cause to back up his criminal enterprises and nothing to make him love-able, besides his portrayer, Tommy Lee Jones. Val Kilmer’s Batman is haunted and developed, a credit to Kilmer’s preparations, but Two-Face is just that: two zones. Not an appropriate foil at all. The second opponent to Bruce Wayne comes in the form of Jim Carrey’s The Riddler. His alter-ego, Edward Nygma, is a hard-working, but strange man who’s not-so-subtle attraction to Wayne causes him to obsess over pleasing him. And when Wayne shuts him down, he cracks. This leads to him stalking Wayne, leaving riddles wherever Wayne can be found; finally teaming up with Two Face in order to gain the capital to outshine him. Eventually, he does and becomes an intellectual powerhouse, calling himself The Riddler. And they become a deadly pair, with Two Face’s soullessness and The Riddler’s intellect, becoming nearly impossible to beat; which is why Batman needs Robin, in the end. His initial intellect is rivaled only by Bruce Wayne, but grows beyond the starting point. So that, in the end, it’s the Riddler that adds the last push in a unit capable of stopping both Bruce Wayne and Batman, due to the fact his fight is personal. **** Coming Soon: The Opposition Part II