Why Val Kilmer as Batman was peak 1990s, nipple suit and all

Why Val Kilmer as Batman was peak 1990s, nipple suit and all

The late star’s lone turn as the Caped Crusader was not the decade’s best movie, but it defined it like no other.

Val Kilmer Was a Perfect Batman

Fanboys recoiled, but the campy, colorful Batman Forever looks bolder than ever in a drab age for superhero movies—and the late actor's Caped Crusader was the ideal foil for manic villains Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones.

'Batman Eternally', directed by Joel Schumacher, featured the actor in the role of a blunt Batman surrounded by scenes of garish currents and absurd villains played by Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones Between June and July 1995, a pop extravaganza reached thousands of movie screens around the world. It seemed to incorporate what supporters and critics identified as the indifference that marked the sense of “the end of history” in that decade. It w…

In the too serious world of superhero films, Batman Forever is often regarded as an infamy. For us, it is a beautiful strangeness to which Val Kilmer has contributed magnificently.

There was a reason why Val Kilmer didn't return to the role of Batman after Batman Forever.