Review of Batman Forever (1995) by Baurushan J — 18 Jul 2012

Before this movie was made, let's look at the first two batman movies. The first fllm was dark, edgy and was made more for adults than kids and it was certainly a success. It's sequel Batman returns was even darker and because of this, the audience could not stomach the even more brooding atmosphere.

Both movies were directed by the then-newcomer Tim Burton who before that had directed Beetlejuice, was booted of the rest of the franchise because Warner Bros. said that they wanted more successful criticism than the box office success.

So a new director was hired, Joel Schumacher who you may remember as the director of The Lost Boys and he gave us the threequel Batman Forever. The movie starts with The Masked Manhunter who is now played by Iceman from Top Gun is now struggling with his dreams of his parents' death as he encounters Two-Face who is driven insane after a gangster throws acid on half his face.

Meanwhile when psychologst Chase Meridian played by Nicole Kidman tries to seduce both Bruce Wayne and Batman, Wayne Enterprises employee Edward Nygma reacts badly to getting fired and and transforms into the super-intelligent Riddler by using his self-invented mind-energy device.

Teaming up with Two-Face to bring down Batman and drain the minds of Gotham City with his device, Batman gets some help from a circus performer Richard "Dick" Grayson to bring down the enemies after being orphaned by Two-Face.

The changing of the main actor playing Batman did bother me a bit and here's why. When Michael Keaton put on the Batman suit, he was threatening which is how Bruce Wayne should be and when Val Kilmer put on the Batsuit, it looked a bit off to me but that's not Joel Schumacher's fault due to the fact that Keaton said he would only return if TIm Burton was directing and yet he did not like the script for Batman Forever.

Jim Carrey owned as The Riddler and I don't think anyone else can top his performance; he's practically been playing the damn role his whole life. Whilst being over-the-top Jekyll-and-Hyde style, Tommy Lee Jones does a great job in playing Two-Face.

I also liked Chris O'Donnell as Robin; his story was perfect and his suit was badass not making him the typical dumbass needing saving all the time. Another problem people had with the movie is the title.

Well at the end Bruce Wayne says to The Riddler after he defeats him "I'm Bruce Wayne and Batman, not because I have to, it's because I choose to, I choose to be Batman forever. How anyone cannot understand that is beyond me? This movie is definitely successful and more kid-friendly which definitely what the studios wanted.

And it certainly is better than it's sequel. Batman Forever gets a 9.88/10.