Batman Forever

Review by Jason Gaston

Although I still consider it an entertaining movie in the Batman series, Batman Forever is where things for the live action movies began to go horribly and unspeakably wrong.

Batman's got problems. A former friend of Bruce Wayne and upstanding public official, Harvey Dent, has had a beaker of acid splashed in his face and has become warped and twisted. Now, with half of his face a horrible and disgusting scar, he is now criminal mastermind Two-Face and he wants revenge on Batman.

Er... for some reason.

On the other side of town, a brilliant inventor Edward Nygma from Waynetech Industries invents a machine that manipulates brain waves. Shut down by Bruce Wayne because of ethical dilemma, Nygma becomes obsessed with his former employer and adopts the guise of The Riddler to find out what makes Bruce Wayne tick and to make everything of Bruce Wayne's his own.

At the other end of town, trapeze artist, Dick Grayson's family is murdered in cold blood by Two-Face and, now orphaned, Dick Grayson is taken in by Bruce Wayne. There, Grayson discovers that Wayne is actually Batman and demands to be taken in as a sidekick. Robin is born.

Add on to that, Doctor Chase Meridian. She's hot for Batman and would do anything to figure out how to undo that codpiece. But, she's also in love with Bruce Wayne? What to do? What to do?

You can see signs of trouble with this movie. Under the misguided hand of Joel Schumacher, Gotham City goes from being dark, mysterious, and foreboding, to being a bright, happy, and festive place of bright colors and pop culture.

Michael Keaton has given up the rubber tights and passed the role onto Val Kilmer who, admittedly, does a decent job at the role. He isn't given a lot to do, but he does what he does well.

Chris O'Donnell won the coveted role of Robin and, if you ask me, I have no idea why. The kid is annoying in this movie. Yes, I know he's supposed to be some kind of a street punk, but couldn't they have toned him down a notch?

While we're on the subject, could someone tone Tommy Lee Jones down also? As Two-Face, Jones is supposed to be a heavy but he prances and dances around the sets like a super freak trying to out-Joker Nicholson.

With all of these problems, why does the movie work? Jim Carrey.

As the Riddler, Jim Carrey steals the show and, as a comedian in a comedic role, he succeeds brilliantly. Forget Robin, forget Two-Face, this should have been a Batman verses Riddler movie.

The movie is watchable and actually enjoyable, but it's painfully clear a disease of misdirection and mishandling was brewing under the surface that would come and bite bat-fans in their bat-butts in a couple of years.