Batman Forever (1995)

“Riddle me this, riddle me that, who's afraid of the big, black bat?”

I was of two minds about reviewing this film. I'd already reviewed Batman and Batman Returns and often thought about reviewing Forever and Batman & Robin to complete the set. What kept putting me off is that I'm not a big fan of either film and struggled to find much motivation to rewatch them. I finally decided to review this one when I noticed that its 30th anniversary was approaching, although since then we had the tragic news of Val Kilmer's passing, which came five years after the death of director Joel Schumacher.

After the somewhat mixed reactions and sluggish box office of Batman Returns, Warner Bros was less than enthusiastic about making another Batman movie with Tim Burton. Sensing this early on, he decided to step back from directing, but stayed on as producer. With Burton gone, Michael Keaton also decided to bail on the franchise. This left the studio on the lookout not only for a new director, but a new Batman as well. They eventually settled on Kilmer, then fresh off stealing the show in Tombstone, and Schumacher.

While not the distinctive visualist that Burton is, Schumacher had a pretty respectable filmography and was currently enjoying a string of box office hits. The director of The Lost Boys and Falling Down making a Batman movie seemed like an inspired choice at the time. The Batman movies would quickly come to overshadow his entire career. His name eventually became a byword amongst movie fans for a bad director, which I've always felt was unfortunate and unfair since he made a lot of interesting movies before and after his time in Gotham. That's not to say his Batman movies are secretly good. They're both bad, there's no getting around that, but at least they're often bad in entertaining and fun ways. If I was given the choice of having to sit through Batman & Robin or Batman vs Superman I'll happily go for the one with the stupid ice puns and Coolio cameo.

Seriously, to call Schumacher's films of their time really undersells how aggressively 90s they are.

I can't think of many things more likely to cause sensory whiplash than going directly from Batman Returns to this film. The gothic aesthetic and retro fashions are gone, replaced with something that could best be described as rave-chic. Gotham City is now just one gigantic nightclub, and a rather tacky one at that, where even the street gangs dress up like they're really into glow sticks. I'll admit, though, that I do feel somewhat nostalgic for this pre-Nolan era when comic book movies could gloriously revel in their own exaggerated artificiality. That said, for all the OTT architecture on display, this movie doesn't look or feel very cinematic. Frankly, it just looks so cheap, like a low budget TV movie that lucked out and landed some A-list stars.

Kilmer was one of those actors that Hollywood really never seemed sure what to do with. He was leading man handsome which naturally meant he was offered a lot of conventional leading man roles, but those kind of roles clearly bored the hell out of him and he wasn't shy about showing it. It's no surprise then, that he bailed on this franchise after only one movie. Playing Batman in a 90s Batman film was a utterly thankless role for any actor. Sure, it came with a big pay day, but you often had little to do but stand around in a very uncomfortable costume and play second fiddle to bigger actors giving even bigger performances.

And I'm not just talking about Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones, both mugging it for all their worth as the Riddler and Two-Face. Nicole Kidman is vamping it out like wild as the underwritten love interest, a ridiculously glamorous criminal psychologist who is incredibly horny for Batman, but quickly gets over it after like two dates with Bruce Wayne, one of which ends in triple murder. Kilmer makes no attempt to compete with his overacting co-stars and just settles in to be the calm centre of this movie, the Iceman keeping his cool while everyone else is chomping down on the scenery.

After going solo for the last two movies, this one finally introduces Robin, played by quintessential 90s star Chris O'Donnell (Fried Green Tomatoes, Scent of a Woman, and The Three Musketeers). O'Donnell was one of those young up and coming actors who was everywhere for a while, but never managed to turn that initial demand into long term success. Despite being so prolific, he never really had a truly great film or even a great performance to his name. Once the teen heartthrob label rubbed off and the movie offers dried up, he made the move to TV, but again didn't find anything more memorable than just playing a Chris O'Donnell type on a forgettable NCIS spin-off.

The relationship between Bruce and Dick really should be the beating heart of the film, but is barely more than a casual acquaintance. Bruce welcomes him to his mansion, reprimands him for taking the Batmobile for a joyride, refuses to make him his sidekick, and then just relents when he shows up for the final fight in costume. There's no bonding, no training (Dick can already fight because we see him do laundry karate in a scene the filmmakers obviously thought would look badass rather than incredibly dumb) and he never does a damn thing as Robin except get caught and held prisoner. Why does Batman need Robin? What purpose does he serve? The movie has no answer because it has no interest in the questions. This movie has Robin because Batman has Robin and that is all there is to it.

One of the most frequent complaints about all these movies is they don't really have plots. Stuff happens, people do things, but none of it ever comes together to form a satisfying whole. The characters have motivations, thin as they are, but motivations alone do not make a story. Besides getting back at Bruce, the Riddler has no masterplan, no endgame the film is building towards. He creates a type of 3-D TV box that sucks on people's brains to make him smarter, although we never really see any demonstration of that increased intelligence. Gordon has the Bat-signal lit up towards the end, but it is unclear why since the Riddler doesn't seem to be doing anything except hijack the Bat-signal to make a Riddler-signal.

Notes and Quotes

-- Schumacher's original cut was reportedly longer and more serious. Several of the cut scenes ended up on the DVD and there have been efforts to get Schumacher's cut restored and released, but they haven't gotten very far. I suspect the whole Snyder Cut fiasco has just put off studios from ever listening to such movements ever again.

-- Val Kilmer and Michael Gough previously appeared together in Top Secret! (1984)

-- If this had come out a year later Carrey would've had billing over Kilmer and Jones.

-- Why does Bruce need to take in this man who is obviously in his early 20s?

-- Having multiple villains just makes the film too cluttered. It just about worked in Returns because Catwoman also filled the role of love interest and was morally ambiguous enough to work heroine or villain. The Riddler is the main; Two-Face is reduced to essentially being the Riddler's henchman.

-- One of the most consistent things about these Batman movies is they always have great songs on the soundtrack.

-- I love how even though loads of people had mobile phones by the mid-90s, Bruce keeps in touch with Alfred via a fancy Dick Tracy watch.

Robin: “Holey rusted metal, Batman!”
Batman: “Huh?”
Robin: “The ground, it's all metal. It's full of holes. You know, holey.”
Batman: “Oh.”

Alfred: “Can I persuade you to take a sandwich with you, sir?”
Batman: “I'll get drive-thru.”

The Riddler: “Your entrance was good. His was better. The difference: showmanship!”

Alfred: “I'm afraid Master Dick has... gone travelling.”
Bruce: “He ran away?”
Alfred: “Actually, he took the car.”
Bruce: "He boosted the Jag?”
Alfred: “Not the Jaguar. The other car.”
Bruce: “The Bentley?”
Alfred: “No, sir. The other car.”

Batman: "You trying to get under my cape, doctor?"
Chase: "A girl can't live by psychoses alone."

Batman: "It's the car, right? Chicks love the car."

This remains the best of Schumacher's Batman films, which really is the faintest of praise, but if you're in the right mood (or a little bit tipsy) it's a perfectly decent way to kill two hours of your day.

⭐⭐

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Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig

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