Although Frank Gorshin was the first actor to play The Riddler in a live-action movie, having reprised the role originated from the ‘60s Batman TV series, until recently, the main cinematic Riddler had been Jim Carrey’s incarnation from 1995’s Batman Forever. That’s no longer the case, as Paul Dano brought a Zodiac Killer-inspired version of Riddler to life in The Batman. It’s been four weeks since the Matt Reeves-helmed movie opened to the public, and Carrey has shared his thoughts about this new take on the Batman supervillain.
The Batman has been a hit across the board, being met with primarily positive critical reception from critics and the general public, and sitting at over $677 million worldwide at the time of this writing. However, Jim Carrey is not among the people who’ve seen Robert Pattinson’s first outing as DC Comics’ Caped Crusader, though he is a fan of Paul Dano’s, telling Unilad:
I’ve not seen it. It’s a very dark version. I have mixed emotions about it. To each his own and all that. I love him as an actor, he’s a tremendous actor.
It sounds like Jim Carrey isn’t particularly interested in watching The Batman in theaters or with an HBO Max subscription when it hits the streaming service next month. On the one hand, I could understand Carrey not wanting see Paul Dano’s version of Riddler silly because he spent enough time performing his depiction of the character. In this case though, the actor simply isn’t enamored with The Batman’s dark tone. As he put it:
There’s a spot of worry in me over gaffer-taping people’s faces and encouraging people to do the same. Some sickos out there that might adopt that method. I do have a conscience about the things I choose. Robotnik has cartoon bombs and no-one gets hurt. I know there’s a place for it, and I don’t want to criticize it, but it’s not my kind of thing… it’s very well done, those movies are very well done.
Batman Forever and The Batman are certainly much different beasts tonally, with the former opting for a lighter and more humorous tone following Tim Burton’s gothic Batman movies, and the latter being a dreary noir detective story that sits in good company with David Fincher’s Seven. As far as their respective Riddlers go, Jim Carrey’s version was a flamboyant supervillain hellbent on absorbing knowledge, and Paul Dano’s version was a creepy serial killer targeting elite Gotham cities tied to corruption. They both left taunting clues for their cape and cowled foes, were named Edward and wore green-colored outfits, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end.
This isn’t the first time Jim Carrey has expressed concern about cinematic violence. Although he played Colonel Stars and Stripes in 2013’s Kick-Ass 2, he withdrew his support for the sequel a few months before it came out, saying that he did the movie before the Sandy Hook shooting and could no longer “support that level of violence.” For something like Sonic the Hedgehog and its upcoming sequel, on the other hand, Carrey sees the violence in those video game adaptations as being more cartoon-y, hence why he had no issue reprising Dr. Robotnik for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which comes out on April 8.
If Jim Carrey decides to watch The Batman and shares his thoughts about it with the public, we’ll pass them along. For now, CinemaBlend will continue to share updates on what’s next for Matt Reeves’ superhero franchise and other upcoming DC movies.
