Villain origin stories in the Burton/Schumacher series

[The Laughing Fish]

The original Batman film franchise spent lots of time exploring what made the villains who they are, and had origin stories that wowed fans or divided them in terms of taste and opinion.

This will sound biased, but I still prefer Jack Napier's transformation into the Joker in B89. Eckhart loved to point how nuts he was, but once Jack drops into that chemical vat, he becomes more deranged beyond than anybody expected. I liked how Batman was indirectly responsible for the incident too, as fate in the film would have it that one had created the other.

What are your favourites?

[johnnygobbs]

My favourite origin story in the comics is probably Two-Face's/Harvey Dent's, but although Schumacher was very faithful to the origin, we only really got to see the change in a short, blink-and-you'll-miss-it TV news report.  Perhaps if Schumacher had used the same actor from Batman '89, Billy Dee Williams, or we'd seen a lot more of Tommy Lee Jones prior to becoming Two-Face, I would have got more a sense of the tragedy of his backstory.  But due to the decisions Schumacher made, we never got a chance to feel any sympathy for Dent/Two-Face prior to his decent into villainy.

Thus, I have chosen Catwoman/Selina Kyle as the best origin story within the Burton/Schumacher series.  Never mind the whole 'revived by cats/nine lives' conceit, this is the best origin story for me because we get a genuinely three-dimensional, compelling and sympathetic character at its core, facilitated by a superb, multi-faceted performance courtesy of Michelle Pfeiffer.  The character is constantly testing our sympathies, and unlike most comic-book movie villains, she feels like a real, and relatable, character with the type of problems many of us can understand and even empathise with.  She starts off as a meek, oppressed victim of chauvinist bullying, in this case taken to murderous extremes, and is thus transformed, following her near-death (I refuse to believe that she literally died, and I think the way Selina's defenestration and fall from Shreck's office is filmed, it is just about credible that she might have survived without the aid of magic stray cats), into a righteous feminist avenger, albeit one who is admittedly confused and occasionally plagued with doubts when her 'good' Selina persona threatens to take over her 'bad' Catwoman one.

As for the other origin stories, I do like how brilliantly set-up Jack Napier's transformation is, although I still maintain that the Joker is best portrayed as a mysterious, 'every-villain' character, with no fixed backstory, or alternatively, the pathetic would-be stand-up comedian who becomes the DC Rogue Gallery's most formidable and iconic super-villain.  There's something particularly creepy about an unassuming loser who ends up becoming such a terrible force to be reckoned with, which you don't really get with 'Jack Napier', as compelling as he is, bearing in mind that he's a nasty piece of work to begin with.

I also find the Penguin's backstory satisfyingly tragic and fascinating from a psychological perspective, particularly in terms of the nature versus nurture questions his monstrous psyche provokes, but I still have problems getting over how grotesque and unnecessarily crude this sewer-dwelling character is, and would have ideally preferred a more traditional take on the Penguin/Oswald Cobblepot that still retained some of the pathos Burton injected.

As for the rest, most of them are entertaining enough, particularly Jim Carrey's geek-turned-industrialist Ed Nygma/The Riddler, an origin I see was almost entirely copied by Iron Man 3, and a performance which has, for better or worse, seemed to have inspired Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor.  But Schumacher's heavy-handed touch never allows us to truly care about his pantomime-type villains, despite his fidelity to their comic-book/animated series origin stories (Mr Freeze in particular seems like a wasted opportunity done-in my wretched ice-puns and a overly campy-performance by Schwarzenegger, for which I blame Schumacher and his producers/writers, rather than The Governator himself).

[Edd Grayson]

In the movies, there's only one for me...


And, hear her roar! 

[Catwoman]

Well my vote will probably be the upset of the year but I do NOT pick Selina.

I pick Pam if only for how sexy she was in the scene (if I ever decide to give up men for good I could wean myself off them with a loop of that scene) and the instant gratification/retribution of her watching Woodrue die in pure agony from a poison kiss.

[Edd Grayson]

I wish Pam tried to poison me... and turned me into Bane. But with more brains.

[Catwoman]

I wish Pam tried to poison me... and turned me into Bane. But with more brains.

We should totally experiment.

[Edd Grayson]

I wish Pam tried to poison me... and turned me into Bane. But with more brains.

We should totally experiment.

Yes. 

[The Laughing Fish]

Well my vote will probably be the upset of the year but I do NOT pick Selina.

I pick Pam if only for how sexy she was in the scene (if I ever decide to give up men for good I could wean myself off them with a loop of that scene) and the instant gratification/retribution of her watching Woodrue die in pure agony from a poison kiss.

I think the idea behind Ivy's backstory is good and her revenge over Woodrue was definitely a turning point from being this weak, scared woman to becoming this deadly seductress. But between her and Selina, I much prefer Selina's backstory in BR. The theme of her becoming Catwoman was much more dramatic and was delivered by an exceptional performance by Michelle Pfeiffer. It helps that her chemistry with Keaton worked in what turned out to be a love story prematurely cut short before it even began.

[Edd Grayson]

You could say that all the villains, starting with Joker and finishing with Freeze, were at least somewhat tragic.

[OutRiddled]

Hard to choose between Joker and Catwoman.  I also like Penguin's and Riddler's origin stories.  Two-Face was done perfectly in BTAS, as was Mr Freeze.