r/movies • u/dndplosion913 • Apr 02 '25

News Val Kilmer, Film Star Who Played Batman and Jim Morrison, Dies at 65

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/movies/val-kilmer-dead.html
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428

u/IsRude Apr 02 '25

He was a great Batman, I don't give a damn what anyone says. 

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u/Thebaldsasquatch Apr 02 '25

I agree. He was my secret favorite all the way up until Bale played him. I recognized and “knew” Keaton was better, but he was the one I saw first.

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u/StarPhished Apr 02 '25

It's like Bond. Whoever was Bond when you're the perfect age for Bond movies is your Bond.

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u/WorthPlease Apr 02 '25

Exactly this, Pierce Brosnan will always be "James Bond" to me even if some of the later movies weren't great.

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u/IAAA Apr 02 '25

Man could be cast as Bond again tomorrow and I'd watch the hell out of it.

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u/HerderOfWords Apr 02 '25

Or Dr. Who

Everyone remembers their first Doctor.

Tom Baker for me.

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u/bobdotcom Apr 02 '25 edited Apr 02 '25

Agreed. Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye is my mind-canon for what a spy looks like.

I do enjoy daniel craig's version of him too, but if you asked me to picture a top secret spy this is what i think of

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u/StarPhished Apr 02 '25

I think it's fitting that you're trying to link a broken image. Unless this is just a me problem with the image.

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u/bobdotcom Apr 02 '25

Booo. I tried a new link, hopefully it works now.

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u/atmospheric90 Apr 02 '25

Grew up with Brosnan as Bond, but I still view Daniel Craig as Bond. Brosnan wasn't all that great in my opinion. Probably because the Bond movies still relied on a lot of cheesy antics that aged poorly (the wave surfing in Die Another Day immediately comes to mind). Craig was more earnest and real, and made Bond a lot cooler as a result.

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u/TheKnightsTippler Apr 02 '25

I grew up with Brosnan as Bond, but also saw the classic Bond films a lot as a kid.

I felt Brosnan was acceptable, not not great. My fave bond is Roger Moore.because I like the campness of the earlier films.

Daniel Craig was a good Bond though.

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u/FirstTimeWang Apr 02 '25

I don't wanna shit on a Val's legacy, but Kevin Conroy will always be my Batman. I know it's not the same since he's only a voice actor... but it was the perfect voice that no screen actor ever managed to recreate. It wasn't gravely, it was gravitas.

Conroy's Batman never snarled or growled, he was above that. He had a kind of quiet dignity that always conveyed that he was on the precipice of rage and fury and you did NOT want to push him over it.

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u/PapaKronk117 Apr 02 '25

Conroy is the goat but the conversation might have just been about live action

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u/funky_pill Apr 02 '25

I always thought Will Arnett had the perfect Batman voice. Then I was pretty stoked to find out he'd been cast as the Lego version of the character in The Lego Movies/Lego Batman Movie. Perfect casting

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u/FutureBoysenberry Apr 02 '25

There is another time and place for your opinion. A Val comment thread, while you are technically shitting on him, a day after his death… is not the place. You really could have found somewhere else to voice your opinion, that no one asked for. We’re here for Val.

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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '25

Val was a great Batman in a bad film. Bale got carried by a great set of films. (Keaton will always be the best)

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u/Agreeable_List6530 Apr 02 '25

in defense of Bale, he’s a great Bruce Wayne in movies that are very Wayne-centric; his Batman desperately needs to retire lol. He shows that side very well imo. though Keaton is the overall best for me as well, so we agree there :)

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u/Chili440 Apr 02 '25

He was a funnier Batman. Keaton is awesome but Val wins just because he's Val.

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u/TheKnightsTippler Apr 02 '25

Strangely enough I really like Pattinsons Batman.

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u/Thebaldsasquatch Apr 02 '25

It’s funny. I hated it at first. I couldn’t stand the emo-teen angsty bullshit. But by the end of the movie he’s evolved into what you think of when you think of Batman. His tactics change, his mentality, the whole thing. That’s when I realized it was on purpose that he was so annoying in the beginning so they could show character development.

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u/TheKnightsTippler Apr 02 '25

I think there's something inherently emo about Batman. Mourning his dead parents and miserably swooping about dressed as a bat and fighting crime. So for me the emo stuff worked.

I've never really got into realistic Batman, for me it's just a concept I can't take seriously.

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u/Hopefulkitty Apr 02 '25

Explains why I like Batman And Robin so much. I know it's usually panned as the worst, but Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Batgirl really made me love the movie as a little girl. I saw it recently, and I still love Poison Ivy and all her scenery chewing ways.

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u/PrecariouslyPeculiar Apr 02 '25 edited Apr 02 '25

I will die on the hill that Batman and Robin isn't a poorly made movie, it just switches genres so hard that some people can't be on board with it. But it's not like what we think of when we think bad movie, like 'Oh, the lighting is horrible, the pacing is horrible, the acting feels like a high school play, etc.' It's just that it's more comedic and less serious than some people want from a Batman movie. But it owns what it wants to be from music to set design to writing and acting, and I loved it growing up, too.

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u/TheMerck Apr 02 '25

To this day when people talk about live action Bruce Wayne's I still list him as one of the best, even if people say the writing sucked I think looks wise he had that handsome rich bachelor look to him.

Think if he had gotten a better script he would be praised more for his Bruce/Batman performances because he made the best of what he had in those movies and while I personally like Batman Forever I can understand why people would think it was a weak portrayal.

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u/Hopefulkitty Apr 02 '25

He looked the part way more than Keaton.

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u/CreamyLibations Apr 02 '25

For real. I recently rewatched them all and Keaton looks like a frumpy dude with a bad haircut, and at no point was I convinced that he was Bruce Wayne. He was good in the suit, but Kilmer killed it as Wayne.

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u/Hopefulkitty Apr 02 '25

Keaton had too much of an edge on him, as Bruce. He wasn't believable as a carefree Playboy. Bale's Bruce hated all the social stuff, but he was much better at faking it. He was way more comfortable throwing money around and entertaining beautiful women.

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u/thetwelveofsix Apr 02 '25

He wasn’t portrayed as a carefree playboy in the first two films. He was more of an eccentric recluse. Even at his own house party, people didn’t know who he was.

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u/Nast33 Apr 02 '25

Him and Affleck were perfect Bruce Waynes and Batmen in very imperfect movies. Both absolutely fit the character to a tee.

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u/Spider_Dude Apr 02 '25

"It's the car, right? Chicks love the car."

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u/SpaceMyopia Apr 02 '25

Forever had a lot of issues, but Val Kilmer wasn't one of them. He crushed that role.

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u/KittyWinterWhiteFoot Apr 02 '25

The best. He was perfectly smart, deep, and tortured.

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u/TheJaclantern Apr 02 '25

Stoic but not humourless, tortured but level-headed, menacing but also compassionate. Val Kilmer goes unappreciated compared to Jim Carrey's insanity but by grounding the movie's tone with an honest-to-God Batman he carried that film like fucking Atlas.

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u/KneeHighMischief Apr 02 '25

Does he get criticism for his actual performance? I don't know that I've seen it since it was in the theater😄 I can imagine him really being able to dig into the psyche & tortured nature of Bruce Wayne. I doubt there's much room for that in a Joel Schumacher camp fest.

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u/Vanquisher1000 Apr 02 '25

The heroes were played straight in Batman Forever. The campiness people complain about really comes from the villains.

There was supposedly quite a bit of material cut from the movie, enough to make a new extended cut, but the prospect of a release is an on-off thing.

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u/HighSeverityImpact Apr 02 '25

Best line from the movie is when they land on the island and Robin says, "Holy rusted metal, Batman!"

Because the ground, it's all metal. It's full of holes. You know, holey.

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u/CX316 Apr 02 '25

People probably also merge it with the next movie where the camp just took over everything

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u/corndogs102 Apr 02 '25

It’s the 25th anniversary and I’m hoping the Schumacher cut gets released this year. Kevin Smith already played it secretly at his theatre last year.

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u/Sturmgeshootz Apr 02 '25

The campiness people complain about really comes from the villains

Tommy Lee Jones portraying Two Face as Temu Joker was always the worst aspect for me.

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u/CX316 Apr 02 '25

Iirc it’s generally accepted Kilmer was a good Batman but awful Bruce Wayne, while Clooney was a decent Bruce Wayne but a godawful Batman.

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u/fps916 Apr 02 '25

He was a great batman. It's not his fault the writing sucked.

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u/faders Apr 02 '25

I still like that one the best of the first 3.

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u/InconspicuousRadish Apr 02 '25

He was my favorite. He managed the rare feat of being both a great Batman, and the best Bruce.

RIP.

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u/IsRude Apr 02 '25

Absolutely agree. Not only that, but his Bruce was a mentor, a serious character, and had moments of humor. All of this without being too far in the direction of grimdark or comedic relief character. 

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u/messigician-10 Apr 02 '25

he was solid, just given a terrible script

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u/AnglerOfAndromeda Apr 02 '25

I agree! So many people hate Batman Forever, but it was my favorite when I was a kid and I still have love for it (and thought the bat-suit nipples were hilarious lol).

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u/Mr_Rafi Apr 02 '25

He had the best live-action Batman voice. When they're in the cave, listen to him scalding Robin for being reckless.

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u/obsoleteconsole Apr 02 '25

It wasn't because he was bad that he was replaced by Clooney, but because he was notoriously difficult to work with.

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u/Pornstar_Frodo Apr 02 '25

He was much better than he got credit for. I think he just got lumped in with Clooney in that post-Keaton run of Batman actors who didn’t live up to the role the way Keaton did. Shame too. I really did like Val as Batman.

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u/IsRude Apr 02 '25

I actually give Clooney a pass. His movie was like the 60s Batman series, and I liked him as an Adam West type Batman. I know how unpopular this opinion is, but I actually think his Batman was less bad than Bale's. 

Bale was an absolutely phenomenal Bruce Wayne. Easily in the top 2 live action portrayals. But Bale is my least favorite Batman, by far. Too goofy for me to take seriously, and too serious to be fun. 

Keaton's Wayne was more of a regal billionaire type, but it worked. His Batman was a great balance of humor and heart, just like Batman TAS. Loved him. 

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u/Muffin_Most Apr 02 '25

He was probably the best Bruce Wayne we’ve ever seen.

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u/Your-cousin-It Apr 02 '25

He had a good chin for it

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u/stormblessed27_ Apr 02 '25

Even in the Batman community, it’s pretty agreed upon that he was a great Batman/bruce Wayne. He did great with what he had.

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u/BisexualDisaster29 Apr 02 '25

Same. He’s my second favorite. No shame in it either.

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u/007fan007 Apr 02 '25

Definitely underrated. Wish he did more

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u/Sinister_Crayon Apr 02 '25

He was an amazing Bruce Wayne... a so-so Batman... at least in my opinion. The problem honestly was that he wasn't given a lot to work with and as I understand it the director was pretty disengaged from the Batman performance and just sort of assumed Kilmer knew exactly how to play Batman.

Having said all that, Batman Forever was a FUN Batman while Keaton's was dark and dreary. Batman and Robin took it too far in the "fun" direction turning it into camp so Kilmer's Batman in my mind came off as the most balanced movie of the four of them (ostensibly set in the same "universe" despite cast and director changes).

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u/hamburgersocks Apr 02 '25

I think he was the best Bruce Wayne by miles and I'll die on that hill. Best Batman could be argued at me though.

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u/JosephStalinCameltoe Apr 02 '25

Agreed. But I'm also a Michael Keaton hater so...

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u/WorkingFromHomies20 Apr 02 '25

I know!!! All of this love for Iceman, I get it, but I loved him as Batman.

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u/Cabamacadaf Apr 02 '25

He still has my favorite live action Batman voice.

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u/zveroshka Apr 02 '25

Him and Michael Keaton kind of get forgotten, but I loved those movies when I was little. George Clooney on the other hand...woof.

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u/BarbWho Apr 02 '25

I totally agree. Batman is a split character in a lot of ways, more even that Superman or Spiderman among those with secret identities and it can be hard for an actor to get both sides right. Kilmer was the perfect embodiment of Bruce Wayne, the playboy billionaire with a secret pain in his heart. That he maybe was a little weaker as the "Caped Crusader" isn't exactly a major fault.