5 Batman Characters Ruined by the Movies

In a cinematic adaptation of a comic book property, accuracy isn’t everything. What truly matters is how well the film’s characters serve the story and the director’s vision of that story. When it comes to Batman, it’s a pretty even mix of characters that were comics-accurate and characters that were very different from the on-page renditions that inspired them. What follows are the ones that very much fall in that latter category. The qualifier here is that the respective film’s take on the character was both a far cry from the source material and not even effective within the context of the movie.

That means no Penguin in Batman Returns or Scarecrow in Batman Begins because, while they may not be comics-accurate enough for purists, they’re assets to the films that surround them. After all, who could argue that Danny DeVito’s Penguin wasn’t exactly what Tim Burton was going for? And who could argue that he didn’t make for one heck of an effective frightening adversary?

Two-Face in Batman Forever

This issue with Batman Forever‘s Two-Face lies in several places. For one, he’s written to be over-the-top. Two, Tommy Lee Jones takes that writing and makes it even more over-the-top than is really called for. He notoriously disliked Jim Carrey behind the scenes, and it’s quite clear that he was consistently trying to steal his frequent scene partner’s thunder. It doesn’t quite work, even if, on the whole, Batman Forever has aged well.

Instead of being the intelligent lawyer-turned-criminal-mastermind from the comics, Jones’ Two-Face is a bland, cackling adversary. He’s basically just the Joker again. And, considering he’s frequently standing next to Carrey’s Riddler, who has a bit more of an excuse to cackle, it’s all just too much of a single thing.

Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin

To be fair to Arnold Schwarzenegger, he understood the assignment when it came time to shoot Batman & Robin. The issue is just that the assignment was way off what it should have been.

In the comics, Mr. Freeze is nefarious. In the movie, he’s just a hulking pun-machine. Admittedly, they do incorporate the fact that love is his motive, but those one-liners are pure Schwarzenegger, and not at all Mr. Freeze. Schwarzenegger is a big reason why Schumacher’s second and final Bats film has midnight movie appeal, but his character is also further evidence as to just why it was a film series in need of a reboot.

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Bane in Batman & Robin

In the comics, Bane is an international criminal with far-above-average intelligence. In Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, he at one point growls out the words “Monkey work.” The Dark Knight Rises version of the character may not have been 100% comics accurate, but he never said “monkey work.”

The only thing Batman & Robin really gets right is the fact that Bane is big. But he’s also green and he also starts out as a scrawny serial killer turned guinea pig. Batman & Robin may be silly fun from time to time, but there’s not one Bane scene that remotely works.

Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

On one hand, the look of Batman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is spot-on when it comes to Frank Miller’s concept of the character in his iconic The Dark Knight Returns. But just about everything else is way off.

For one, the Batman played by Ben Affleck is pretty much the diametric opposite of a detective. If anything, he’s so fueled by anger he makes snap decisions based solely on that anger. But the biggest deviation is the fact that he actually brands people so then they can go to prison and swiftly get murdered. That has got to be the least Batman thing an on-screen Batman has ever done.

The Joker in Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad certainly has a fair claim to being the worst film to come out of the DCEU, and just as it’s not David Ayer’s fault, it’s not (entirely) Jared Leto’s, either. To the former point, it was very clearly tampered with at the studio level. To the latter? Leto’s take on the Joker may be absurdly over-the-top and all over the place, but he’s also given mere minutes to make an impression as the character.

When it comes to just how much his version differs from the source material, it basically comes down to the fact that Leto seems to be playing him as a fairly typical gangster type. Joker has committed any number of crimes, sure, but he’s more than a crime boss. Jack Nicholson’s Joker may have been pretty far from the comics, but Leto’s took things a step further.

What Batman characters do you think were ruined by movies? Let us know in the comments below!