Jim Carrey played a very comical Riddler in Batman Forever, and while it worked in the context of the movie, which took the "comic" part of comic book to heart, Paul Dano’s version of the villain in The Batman is a completely different take. From his look to the way he dispatches his victims, there could not be two polar opposites as the two big-screen iterations of The Riddler, and that is worrying to Carrey, as he feels the latest version of the character is too dark and real and could be copied by other people.
While Carrey is not suggesting that those who watch the movie are going to be brainwashed by The Batman’s villain, which ironically is exactly what his Riddler did to people in Batman Forever, Carrey told Unilad that he does have reservations about how life and imitate are in some disturbing ways. He said:
“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 [Paul Dano] as an actor, he’s a tremendous actor. I do worry. 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…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.”
While The Batman’s super creepy and disturbing take on a character that has previously been depicted as more of a mischief-maker than a cold-blooded murderer on screen, there are some who have expressed similar worries to Carrey, but as he says, each to their own. Just because it happens to be a Batman movie, no one said that it had to be family friendly.
Jim Carrey Is Currently Continuing His Villainous Renaissance as Robotnik in Sonic The Hedgehog 2
While Jim Carrey had a lull in his career in recent years, with some very low-key roles, some more dramatic roles and only a handful of big appearances, that all changed when he took on the role of Dr. Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog in 2020, a role that he is reprising in the sequel which premiered in the U.K. and Australia this week and will open in the U.S. next weekend.
His Sonic the Hedgehog 2 role sees Carrey returning to the manic kind of comedy that made his name in the early 1990s with movies like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask. His take on Robotnik was one of the highlights of a good first movie, and he doesn’t disappoint in the sequel, and in many ways it harks back to his version of the Riddler: a villain who has a sense of the ridiculous about him. With that in mind it is not hard to see why Carrey had a tough time connecting with Paul Dano’s Riddler, but both versions stand on their own merits and fans still have the option of watching either of them in their respective movies.