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Holy Rusted Metal Batman!

Val Kilmer Says Batman Got “Too Cute”

by Jill Pantozzi | 4:23 pm, April 19th, 2012


We all have different preferences. Especially when it comes to Batman. You’ve got your Adam West lovers, Tim Burton fans, Joel Schumacher mostly haters, and Christopher Nolan devotees. And of course there’s many who like a mix of those as well but Val Kilmer, who donned the Batman costume in Batman Forever, knows exactly where things went wrong – his film. 

I freely admit I love ALL THE BATMANS. Perhaps not equally but I do have room in my life for both the serious and campy versions of the famous DC character. Unfortunately, the world doesn’t really agree with me and films like Batman Forever, as well as Batman & Robin, tend to be universally panned. So much so, another Batman movie wasn’t attempted for almost ten years. And when it was, it had a completely different look and tone.

Kilmer appeared at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) last weekend where he discussed his superhero past.

I think because of Tim Burton’s success on the first film and Nicholson being so amazing that they kind of got carried away with the idea of the bad guy being immune to rules somehow. In the original film the Joker gets the hell kicked out of him and thrown off the bell tower. He suffers, and that sort of went away. Things became cute. It’s entertaining, but I think what they’re doing with the Batman films now is more in the original spirit of the character.

It seems Kilmer is a pretty big fan of Nolan. He also said, “They are doing what I hoped we would do, but didn’t do.” And as for his costume in the film he had this to say:

“The suit takes an hour to get into, and you can’t do it by yourself, and then you can’t hear because there are really no earholes in it. Also you can’t turn your head and you can’t go to the bathroom by yourself. Plus, you fall over quite easily. It was like wearing a wetsuit that was several times tighter than one anyone else would wear, and then when you add the cape it’s almost psychedelic. Then I realized one day what wearing that suit was like. It was, ‘Oh! This is what being old feels like,’ the actor joked. “No one really listens to you any more. You can’t really talk or hear. You’re always falling over and someone has to help you go to the bathroom and get dressed.”

But don’t take that to mean his experience on Batman Forever was all bad. “The cast was pretty amazing, and we spent a lot of time hanging out,” said Kilmer. “So I got to know some pretty interesting people.”

(via Blastr)

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  • Anonymous

    I think I would have enjoyed Schumacher’s take on Batman more if it hadn’t felt so much like a parody of Burton’s films. Two-Face was a poor character choice for the tone he was setting. Add to that my disappointment that I would never see Billy Dee as Two-Face…
    That said, Carrey’s Riddler was great, and even bad Batman on film is better than no Batman on film. :D

  • Anonymous

    I always like Val, can’t recall his Batman performance off hand, but one of my favorite movies from the 90′s was The Saint, liked him in HEAT too.  More recently, while it wasn’t a stand out character, it was nice seeing him in Deja Vu.

  • Frodo Baggins

    Mmm… cute isn’t the word I would use. “Dumb,” that’s more like it.

  • http://www.thenerdybird.com/ Jill Pantozzi

    The Saint is one of my favorites!

  • http://twitter.com/tiinasol Tina (จีน่า)

    Hate me all you want but I loved Schumacher’s versions (as much as the others). Yes it’s campy, weird and I was just 5 when I first saw it but I thought Batman and Robin were the coolest thing ever.

  • http://twitter.com/birdieboots Kelsi D.

    Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. He and Robert Downey Jr. knocked it out of the park with that one. It’s one of my all-time favorite movies!

  • Simon Chui

    I think that, for a while, they couldn’t figure out whether Batman movies were meant to be for kids or for adults.  Tim Burton has a particular skill in making movies that somehow work for all ages; not an easy thing to do.  Of course, Nolan’s films are just dark and adult, and your adult fans and critics like them.

  • http://twitter.com/briecs Brianna Sheldon

    I loved him as Batman/Bruce Wayne, my favorite of the earlier Batmen (except Adam West, but Adam West in context). 

  • Anonymous

    I think things started to go a little wrong in Batman Returns. You have Selina Kyle’s compelling storyline and the start of something interesting with Penguin running for mayor, reconciling with his past…and then Tim Burton got carried away with his whimsy and we had rockets attached to penguins and giant ducks and so forth. But I would agree that the real cheese began with Batman Forever.
    Agree with above though. Even at their worst, all the Batman movies are the best

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R7GVNIKWG3S2UTHEQOMSZXT4M4 Anna B

    Let me come clean and say that I’m with you in liking all the Batmans. I enjoyed them all for various reasons, and perhaps some of those reasons were why fans hated those Batman films in the first place. I gotta say, though… I remember Val Kilmer had an “era” of sorts where everyone was casting him, but I could never really take him seriously.  He lost me (or maybe had me) at Top Gun, when he did that biting scene in the locker room. It was just so unintentionally funny that any movie Kilmer was in made me laugh.  I thought he was spoofing himself in the entire “The Saint” movie. This isn’t to say I hate him–just that I can’t take him seriously. In that sense, I thought the rest of the cast in his Batman movie were way goofier than he was, so I was actually sorta able to take him “seriously” there, and so maybe that’s why I didn’t hate the movie with a vengeance. I went into that movie thinking that it would be kind of a goofy blast, to which my expectations were met.

  • http://www.facebook.com/aarongabbard Aaron Gabbard

    Here ya go here is the video from the Panel http://blip.tv/comicbookjerk/val-kilmer-talks-batman-6096350

  • Anonymous

    Batman Forever is my favorite of the pre-Nolan Batman films.  Full stop.  Chris O’Donnell 4 Life.

  • Carmen Sandiego

     I really enjoyed him in The Saint and Tombstone.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_VK7U6RFTAUIPW2JR2NGPBP2IYA super

    something not to take seriously was val in top secret :)

  • http://twitter.com/MerkkuS Merkku Sovijärvi

    Always falling over and stuff? I want a gag reel! :D

  • http://twitter.com/urbansuburbia Marie

    I LOVE BATMAN FOREVER!

    By that I mean I find that movie highly entertaining.  In a related story, people have nicknamed my house Casa del Sharktopus, so it might just be me.

    I have no love for Batman & Robin though. Well, maybe some for Mr. Freeze.

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