Batman Forever

A different direction brings differing results. Batman takes on a new side kick as he fights to keep Gotham City out of the clutches of Two-Face and The Riddler. "No thanks, I'll get drive-thru" Thus these be the first words out of Val Kilmer's incarnation of Batman and thus setting the standard for what Joel Schumacher's two Batman movies would be like. Gone is the dark undertone from Tim Burton's visions, and the tight action sequences that marked Burton's debut out as a genuine genre piece of work, in their place comes sexy campery and ropey action set pieces. The casting of both Val Kilmer as Batman and Chris O'Donnell as Robin is a big mistake, Kilmer easily being the most boring actor to don the suit out of all of them, whilst O'Donnell simply can't act outside of Robin's cartoonery bravado. Nicole Kidman looks positively gorgeous as Chase Meridian, but that's all that is brought to the party, it's a waste of the very talented Kidman's ability and a waste of the audience's time. It's not all bad though, a comic book adaptation is only as good as its villains, and here we get a perfectly cast Jim Carrey as The Riddler, and a wildly over the top Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face. Carrey steals every scene he is in, it's almost too much, but as maniacal and exuberant as it is, it is the film's highlight and actually the film's saving grace (Tommy Lee Jones was reportedly unhappy from having his thunder stolen in the movie by Carrey). The script does work enough to make the story accessible to all ages, and there are enough crash bangs and wallops to entertain in that brain left at the door kind of way. This was the biggest hit of 1995, so the paying public lapped it up and paved the way for another Schumacher film in the franchise, but with all that star power wasted, and nipples on the rubber suits, it's hard to see now why it was so popular back then. 5/10

There are some great things in _Batman Forever_. Val Kilmer I think cops a bit too much flak for his go in the cape & cowl, he's certainly no sort of definitive Batman but I thought he did a fine job. The city has a crazy cool design, the Batmobile is updated in a wholly original way, and that neon street gang is some of the coolest shit I've ever seen put to screen. But this a bad movie. Burton might not have had a 100% source-material-faithful interpretation of the character, but it took Joel Schumacher (who usually I'm a big fan of) to ruin _Batman_ altogether. _Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._