Batman Forever (1995)

Truth be told: this isn't horrible. 

It isn't very good either, but hey, that's how the cookie crumbles.

After Tim Burton only assumed a productional capacity, the directorial reins were handed over to Joel Schumacher. It's easy nowadays to bash the man's efforts, but he did make several good to decent films and he was trying to make something of this. Unfortunately, the studio smelled big bucks in advertising and toys, thus this one is a lot more kiddie than the previous outings. It would become full blown kiddiestuff with the next one, which explains why this one sometimes balances uncomfortably between adult and child. 

Anyway.

Again two villains for the price of one, by the way. Two-Face seems to be the major villain, as he gets introduced first, but as soon as you see Jim Carrey, you know he will become the main antagonist. Batman is played by Val Kilmer this time, who tries to emulate Michael Keaton and alas fails. But he did try, though. Edward Nygma is a Bruce Wayne fanboy, but gets denied his brainwave-influencing-television, so of course he immediately becomes evil. He teams up with Two-Face in order to (you guessed it) take over Gotham and Batman has to stop him. Meanwhile, Batman/Wayne has now sort of adopted Dick Grayson after his entire acrobat family was killed by Two-Face in a circus show and as one orphan with tragically murdered parents to another, they seem like a good fit. 

Shenanigans ensue. Standard plot devices, yadda yadda yadda.

The aesthetic of the film is completely different from the previous ones. Gone is the gothic atmosphere, welcome bright neon. To be frank, it feels refreshing (even though a lot of the matte shots look incredibly fake, even more so than before). But this film has a lot of problems, most in the story structure and setup. See, this already grows more akin to the campy tone of the 1960s Batman, which is fine. But some scenes try to go for full on dark tones and they stick out as a sore thumb. Just go for one or the other, you can't balance them both successfully. Or at least, Schumacher couldn't. The opening scene with Two-Face and the vault with boiling acid shows this. 

Heck, I just don't like most acting choices in this one.

See, Val Kilmer is an actor I really like. The dude can pull of cool stuff. Just watch 'Heat' or 'Willow' and you might agree. But here, he plays Bruce Wayne like a dead guy. His Batman is slightly better, but still lacking dark charisma. Chris O'Donnell is horrible as Robin. I just want to punch his face the entire time and I keep getting distracted by his massive earring. Robin is a whiny bitch. Nicole Kidman is totally wasted as the lusting-for-leather psychiatrist Chase Meridian. 

So, do the villains save this one?

How about: not really.

See, Tommy Lee Jones was a poor choice for Two-Face. He constantly hams it up to twelve and it is stupid, grating and ridiculous. Two-Face can be a complex character. Hell, look at how brilliant he is portrayed in 'Batman - The Animated Series'. Here, he just sniggers and snarls and does little else. And then there's Jim Carrey. Truth be told, he starts off okay and I can see why he could work as the Riddler. He does bring shades of Frank Gorshin to the part and that is wonderful to see. But then, there is a point where they just let him be Jim Carrey and it's no longer the Riddler. The most blatant of this is when he is busy destroying the Batcave, complete with cartoon soundeffects and a pointless crotchgrab. 

You wonder what you just read in that sentence? I always wonder if I just saw what I saw, and I have seen this film several times. 

This may sound bizarre to say, but this might be my least favourite Batman-adaptation of all. Yes, I even rate the universally maligned 'Batman & Robin' higher, because I just consider that a full length Adam West-like comedy. No way that one is played seriously. 

And it has Arnold Schwarzenegger spouting ice puns. Come on. 

Possibly the worst crime is that this one is just plain boring. It looks flashy, though.