The Comeback of Michael Keaton

There are not too many movie stars in the world that have managed to stay on top throughout their whole careers. It’s a tough thing to manage in Hollywood. Equally so, it’s also probably just as hard to come back from a pseudo unclaimed retirement, as Michael Keaton seems to be doing these days. Maybe it is a little easier for a big movie star like Keaton who has relished as a leading man over the course of two or three decades. Either way, the guy has shown that he has more than nine lives when it comes to career longevity.

Not that Keaton’s career has died anytime in the past. More or less, it seems he has taken somewhat of a break in the past decade. This due probably from being exhausted over his more than successful career spanning since the 1980’s – the guy was definitely tired.

Many careers of actors’ can be analogized as a roller coaster effect with some successful works and some flops throughout, but this trend doesn’t seem to have happened to Michael Keaton. Can anyone think of a bad movie that he was in? It’s doubtful that many can and this says a lot to a film star who has been around for several decades. Yet even if there were some bad ones, the fact that Keaton was in them made them better than tolerable. Why is that?

His name has popped up several times over the past few months, mainly due to his new role as the villain in the 2013 Robocop reboot. Keaton takes over the coveted role that was once Hugh Laurie’s and many fans are excited. And although Keaton has seemed fairly quiet for a very long time, he has managed to stay busy.

From his hilarious role as the mobster, Johnny Dangerously – to his surprising turn in Tim Burton’s Batman – Keaton is a movie star that could pull off pretty much anything. He is an affable film star. A typical, next-door type guy that anyone could relate to while pulling off characters like, Bruce Wayne – Michael Keaton has seemed to have done it all. As said earlier with his “unclaimed retirement”; this is mentioned only because over the past decade Keaton has seemed to downgrade his acting talents with films like Herbie: Fully Loaded or, The Other Guys with Will Ferrell. He also did some voice work for Toy Story 3; not to say that this a downgrade because who gets to work for Pixar? The biggest point here is that Keaton took a break from taking over huge roles that clearly he could have done well in.

Roles that George Clooney or Tom Hanks seem to covet these days could have just as well gone to Michael Keaton, and he would have brought a different vibe to the role -which is something audiences forget that they are missing these days. Maybe it’s the old cliché of Hollywood magic that Keaton seems to bring to each character. Somewhere along the lines over the past several years, it seems we have lost a lot of this. It seems more these days that the classy legendary status of the term “movie star” is hard to find or come by; therefore it’s great to see one of the previous ones make a comeback or even a new one to pull it off.

To say the least, it will definitely be interesting to see where Keaton goes after Robocop and if it will motivate him to continue with bigger projects. The star has proven a lot of range with his acting abilities, as shown through his comedic and dramatic roles. Let’s see how he does in 2013, as I am sure audiences will be more than happy to see the guy back. I know I will be.