Review of Batman Forever (1995) by Halfwelshman — 16 Feb 2012

Poor old Joel Schumacher - he'll be known for the rest of his life as "The man who killed Batman", though he earned that moniker in making Batman & Robin, not this installment. True, it's a very different take on the Dark Knight mythology from Tim Burton's previous brooding, Gothic adaptations - Schumacher adds a liberal dose of self-aware humour and in-jokes, and the whole film has a certain camp fun about it.

It's almost like Batman and Batman Returns was the franchise in its moody teenage years, and all of a sudden it's decided to cheer up and have a little fun. Schumacher hasn't completely dumped Burton's ideas on the wayside though, and most likely due to Burton staying on as producer, the film continues to delve into Bruce Wayne's tragic past and complex psychology.

These scenes could have been lifted directly out of either Batman or Batman Returns, and provide the film with a good emotional kick. Robin's origin story is also kept fairly dark and Burton-y, and the thematic parallels Schumacher and writer Akiva Goldsman draw between Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne are dramatically effective.

The casting for the film is a real mixed bag. Chris O'Donnell has the right rebellious attitude and confidence to play Robin, Nicole Kidman makes a feisty femme-fatale as sassy psychologist Chase Miridian, Michael Gough is reliable as always as Alfred, and Jim Carrey steals every scene he's in as a brilliantly batty Riddler.

However, Val Kilmer is completely miscast as Batman, and even clever cinematography and editing can't hide the fact that he can't handle the stunts - he just looks fat and slow. The real turkey of the cast is, disappointingly, Tommy Lee Jones, who turns Harvey Two-Face, one of the most interesting and complex of Batman's rogues gallery into a simplistic, camp pantomime villain.

We must also question some of the design changes in the film (nipples? why?) that are so jarringly different from Burton's mythos that they appear to not even belong on the same planet, never mind the same city.

Gotham appears to have evolved at an alarmingly rapid rate from a city of seedy slums and gothic cathedrals to a very East Asian-inspired neon metropolis. Well at least the taxes from the hard-working citizens of Gotham appear to have been put to good use.

Batman Forever is an incredibly uneven film. There are good performances (Carrey), bad performances (Kilmer) and ugly performances (Jones). Batman's back-story is further fleshed out in dark flashbacks, and the introduction of Robin is handled well, but there's also homo-erotic suiting-up montages and bat-nipples.

The film as a whole looks expensive, in a top-of-the-line fairground attraction sort of way, but it lacks finesse, and consistency in tone. It's clearly not the best Batman film, but Forever is also by-no-means the worst (audiences would have to wait another two years for the franchise-killer).