Batman Forever (1995)

Part of the blame for this movie lies with McDonalds.  The purveyor of plastic food and plastic toys was not happy with Batman Returns and its dark themes, struggling to find ways to market a tie-in with a movie that features a lecherous, fish-munching monster as its villain, not-so-subtle S&M themes and a plot to murder a few million people.  McDonalds absolutely refused to work with Warner Bros. on a tie-in with the next Batman film if Tim Burton remained as director.

In all honesty, though the film has become a cult favorite, I found Batman Returns to be indicative of both some of Tim Burton's excesses as well as a bad sign of where the series was going.  Though the Joker was deformed, he was a normal, if evil, person at the beginning.  While it was stylized, Batman had a lot in common with the film noir of the 1940s.  It had plenty of flaws, but Michael Keaton was not one of them, and Burton still hadn't had his ears filled without how brilliant he was.  It was sink or swim with the film, and he swam, making money for everyone involved.  

The success carried over to Batman Returns, which Burton didn't initially intend to make.  Since he had gone that far he agreed to conclude the proceedings with Batman Continues, which would feature one last turn by Keaton as Batman and finally let Billy Dee Williams play Two-Face.  Instead, Warner Bros. ultimately decided to part ways with Burton, thus losing Keaton in the process and, as replacement director Joel Schumacher wanted Tommy Lee Jones for the part of Two-Face, they had to buy out Billy Dee Williams's contract.  Part of the deal was to make the script less dark and a bit more kid-friendly, but without completely alienating the audience that had been anxiously awaiting a third return to Gotham. 

Two-Face (Jones) is terrorizing Gotham in an effort to draw out Batman (Val Kilmer) and kill him.  While dealing with Gotham's former attorney general's antics he also has keep up appearances as Bruce Wayne.  While touring his electronics division he is waylaid by Edward Nigma, a scientist who has discovered how to tap into brainwaves to create immersive television entertainment.  Concerned about the consequences, Wayne turns down Nigma's request for more funding, but that only enrages the scientist and makes him more determined.  He soon finds a side-effect of his device is that he can receive the thoughts of others, thus increasing his intelligence. 

Another new face in Gotham is Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman), a psychologist specializing in schizophrenia and multiple personalities.  She quickly becomes attracted to Batman, but is not so responsive when Wayne tries to woo her out of the suit.  To make matters even worse Wayne is now saddled with Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), a young man whose family was recently killed by Two-Face.  Grayson wants revenge, and his discovery of Wayne's secret seems a way to get it.  Meanwhile, Nigma, now calling himself the Riddler, has teamed with Two-Face to kill Batman and to get his "Box" on every television set in the U.S., so he can steal brainwaves across the country. 

Initially I was quite excited for this movie when it came out.  Joel Schumacher was a great visual director, having been the one behind The Lost Boys.  Kilmer was fresh off of playing Doc Holliday in Tombstone, and has both the looks and height that everyone initially said was missing in Keaton.  Tommy Lee Jones was quite popular at the time and, although I was never a big fan, Jim Carrey had that touch of lunacy that should have made the Riddler a unique character.  

At least Schumacher lived up to what I wanted when it came to the visuals.  Burton's version of Gotham was dark and heavily influenced by Art Deco and the spare neon of the 1940s.  Schumacher adds more of that neon without losing the Art Deco, and doubles down on the older automobiles where Burton typically used contemporary '80s vehicles in contrast of the setting.  Additional location filming was done, largely during daylight hours, allowing for a bit more flexibility when it came to car chases.  As for Kilmer, he looks good in the suit, and is a good enough actor to pull off the emotional depth that Schumacher and writers Lee and Janet Scott Batchler were going for in Wayne.  

That's about where anything good in this movie ends.  Supposedly the original version of the script, and much of the movie itself, had many of the scenes in a different order and concentrated on Bruce Wayne's continued coping with the trauma from his childhood but, by the final cut, which seemingly had a bunch of studio interference in the editing process, most of that was gone.  Even with it there is no getting around the fact that most of the dialogue in this is physically painful to listen to.  The first meeting between Batman and Chase Meridian is supposed to be sexually charged, but feels forced, and the horrid writing combined with the delivery of Kilmer and Kidman, who are two good actors knowing they are slumming at this point, makes it barely watchable.  Other times characters spout unneeded exposition, while one joke involving Robin's campy exaltations from the 1960s television show goes over like a BLT at a bar mitzvah.  

Worst of all Jim Carrey doesn't act like the Riddler.  He acts like Jim Carrey, and he constantly brings his obnoxious, unfunny ideas to his portrayal of the villain.  As seen recently in The Batman, the Riddler does not have to be a low-rent version of the Joker, but can be a dangerous and unique villain all on his own.  While Carrey may have played him in his own manner, that manner was the same in which he played every character in all of his movies prior to this, and it was barely funny then and even more excruciating now.  One would hope that Tommy Lee Jones would provide some balance in the villain category, especially since he hated Carrey and told him he couldn't sanction his buffoonery.  Unfortunately, Jones engages in the same buffoonery, removing any gravitas or sense of drama and, if dualism was supposed to be a theme here, any connection he has with Bruce Wayne. 

Robin doesn't come until later in the movie, and Chris O'Donnell is decent, being one of the few people in the movie not trying to be overtly sexy or jump around like a clown on meth.  Robin still adds nothing to the movie at all, nor do batsuits with nipples, which Schumacher tried to defend even after he had apologized for his Batman films prior to his death.  This movie is a particularly painful sort of awful to watch, and not in a way that ever portends for even viewing ironically.  It is just horrendous in its messy pacing and terrible dialogue, and the fact that Schumacher and company didn't learn from this, but doubled down on everything that made this a horrible film for the last one in the series. 

As for McDonalds, who knows what probably happened to all the cheap cups and merchandise left over after everyone saw this.  The movie may have been financially successful, but that was only because of the cast and the goodwill left over from the previous two.  Absolutely no one was proud of being in this and I can also say no one is happy for having had to view it. 

Batman Forever (1995)

Time: 121 minutes

Starring: Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Chris O'Donnell

Director: Joel Schumacher