Franchises: The First Batman Film Series. Batman Forever (1995)

While my Batman-obsessed cousin was still as much a fan then as he is now, by the time this flick rolled around, I had moved on. I hadn't seen either of the first two movies in a while and, save for brief glimpses on television, I wouldn't again until I rediscovered them in high school. I did know that they had made another Batman movie, though. How I could not have? That summer, advertisements for the movie were all over television and there was merchandizing up the yin-yang. The film also came out on June 16, two days before my birthday, so not only were my friends and family talking about it but I think they were also expecting me to get a lot of toys related to it or even see the movie on my birthday. I did neither. From the commercials I saw, I knew even at that young age that the movie just didn't appeal to my tastes. It wasn't just because I was out of Batman by that point but also because I could tell that this film was different from the two I was familiar with. I kind of knew who Tim Burton and Michael Keaton were at that point and, by looking at the advertisements, I could sense that this had nothing to do with them. I didn't see it in theaters nor did I see it on video or TV, save for very brief glimpses and those were enough to inform me that this wasn't the same Batman that I knew and had loved. My cousin told me a lot about it and he seemed to like it but I didn't think about it for a long time. When I got back into Batman in high school, even though I still loved the darker, earlier films and knew by that point that the latter two were not all that well liked, I had become curious to see them. I got the Batman Anthology DVD set as a gift the following Christmas and that was the first time I saw Batman Forever from beginning to end. Upon seeing it, my thoughts were basically, "That was okay." They're still very much the same now, even though upon viewing it again to do this review, I caught onto some other stuff below the surface. For the most part, it's a flashy, colorful popcorn movie and, to be fair, very much more like a live-action comic book in terms of what you normally think of when you hear the term than its predecessors. Nothing wrong with that at all but I personally still prefer a little more depth with these types of flicks, as we'll get into.

Even though Batman Returns made over $250 million, there was a big backlash from parents and merchandizing chains due to the dark, gloomy tone and the violence. As a result, Warner Bros. decided that they wanted Tim Burton to give up the director's chair to someone else for the next film... at least, that's typically how the story goes. Sometimes I've heard that Burton was interested in doing another one (he himself has even admitted that), while other times I've heard that he felt that the two he did were enough and decided to move on. Whatever the case, Burton took the role of producer (although I wonder if he had any real input into the film) while Joel Schumacher, best known for The Lost Boys as well as movies like D.C. Cab, St. Elmo's Fire, and Falling Down, took over direction. Schumacher, who has said many times that he's a big Batman fan, claimed that his initial idea was to do an adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One but Warner Bros. rejected it. If that's true, then I know why they rejected it: they probably didn't want a prequel and also because that would go down the dark path that they were trying to steer the series away from. Although, given what Schumacher ended up churning out with both this film and especially with Batman & Robin, you have to wonder if that movie would have been anything like Miller's dark, brooding comic if he had directed it. In any case, Schumacher definitely delivered what the studio wanted: a brighter, flashier, more family-friendly Batman movie. To his credit, he and the screenwriters did attempt to put some stuff beneath the surface, though I don't think it worked as well here as it did in the Burton films. And of course, Schumacher would also, consciously or not, inject some eyebrow-raising subtext into both this film and the following one.

After Tim Burton left, Michael Keaton bowed out as well, turning down a reported $15 million to stick around. He apparently didn't like the film's script much, either. After Keaton left, Schumacher chose Val Kilmer as the new Batman after seeing him in Tombstone. Interestingly, Bob Kane, the late creator of Batman, said that he felt that Kilmer did the best job as the character. I would never disrespect the creator of the character but I strongly disagree with that notion. I'm not that much of a fan of Kilmer as an actor. To be fair, he looks good in the Batman suit and I guess he does fit the comics' depiction of Bruce Wayne in terms of being a rugged, good-looking guy, which I think is what Kane was speaking of, but his acting is just wooden to me. He doesn't show much emotion in either his voice or facial expressions and he also doesn't seem to change his voice much between Bruce Wayne and Batman. As I said, he looks good in the suit and is very adept in the fight scenes (although a good portion of that could be a stuntman). I think the suit itself looks cool as well. It has elements of the suits from the Burton films in terms of its black color and a bit of the facial designs on the mask (in some shots, Kilmer does kind of look the way Keaton did in it) but it also has some differences, like a dark-colored utility belt instead of a bright yellow one as before, the design is more anatomical than even the suit from the first film, and the ears are much longer. At the climax of the movie after the Riddler destroys all of his regular suits, Batman is forced to wear a prototype Sonar Suit, which has a silver-black color to it and a distinct pattern on the inside of the ears. It does look cool, although I'm sure the only reason they incorporated it was so they could make toys out of it. Finally, it's interesting to me that everybody feels Batman & Robin is the one where nipples suddenly appeared on the suit because they actually appeared in this one first. Since the suit in this film is much darker, I guess people didn't notice them but they are there. They don't weird me out as they do most people but I do have to wonder what their purpose is. There is, however, a closeup of Batman's cod-piece when he's suiting up and, for no reason, when he's putting on the Sonar Suit before the climax, there's a shot of his butt. No comment.

Upon viewing the film again, I really wish that they had cast someone else to play the role because Bruce Wayne is given some interesting layers here and, with a better actor, those aspects could have been explored better. Unfortunately, as we'll see, the writing also needed more polishing and so did the filmmaking because they're not resolved in the best ways in the finished film. From the get go, this portrayal of Bruce Wayne is much different than how Michael Keaton played him. Instead of being a neurotic recluse who's awkward when it comes to dealing with people in his business and high society, here he's comfortable with his wealth. He's actively involved in Wayne Enterprises, entering the technology division early in the film to supervise the ongoing research. That does flesh Bruce out more since we never saw him do anything akin to running his company in the previous films and, save for his meeting with Max Shreck in Batman Returns, there was never any indication that he even held a position or took part in anything having to do with Gotham City except defending it as Batman. We also see the playboy side of Bruce in his dating Dr. Chase Meridian and taking her to public events that he attends, two other things we never saw before. In other words, we get both the public persona that Bruce puts on as well as the tortured soul beneath it all. So, this interpretation is more in line with that of the comics as well as the animated series, so I can't fault the film for that. And as I mentioned, Bruce's emotional torment is also given new layers here. We find out that he's been having nightmares about his parents' murder and that he's seeing pieces of it that never materialized before, which Dr. Meridian describes to him as repressed memories. One of the images he starts to see is this red book that his father often wrote in and, while it's not clarified in the final cut of the film, it's meant to be his father's diary and the last entry before the shooting was supposed to be about Bruce pestering them to go to the movies, which caused them to be in that alleyway where they were killed. This was meant to add a sense of guilt to Bruce in that, in the back of his mind, he's always blamed himself for the death of his parents. In these memories, we also see the moment where Bruce first got the inspiration to don the image of a bat when he ran away from his parents' funeral and fell through a hole in the ground into a cave where he saw a bat. This is something else we never got in the previous films and, like the dairy, it was more fleshed out in the first cut where, after Two-Face grazes him in the head with a bullet, Bruce temporarily forgets that he's Batman and Alfred takes him to a previously unseen level of the Batcave to jog his memory. Besides the Sonar Suit, his father's diary is also there, and then, Bruce meets up with the gigantic bat that inspired him years ago. The bat spreads its wings and Bruce does the same with his arms, leading to a shot showing us that they are one. It's a real shame that this stuff was cut from the film, especially the stuff with the diary. In the finished film, Bruce mentions the book and that his father wrote in it every day but, although we can surmise from that that it's a diary, the significance is never explained because we never see the specific entry I mentioned. All that's left of that is Bruce cryptically saying to himself, "I killed them." We never go any further. All we see of his memories is his grabbing the diary as a kid and dropping into the cave with the bat. So, what was his repressed memory? Was it just supposed to be his inspiration for why he took the form of a bat? Why would it be so important for him remember that? That diary entry was meant to remind him of the injustice of the world and, along with his meeting the giant bat again, why he had dedicated himself to fighting crime, something that he was starting to lose sight of throughout the film. In other words, his temporary amnesia was meant to lead to him being reborn as Batman, which I think would have been a cool idea.

That leads into something else, something that I think is inevitable when telling this kind of story but it's also something that I have conflicting emotions about. Bruce is beginning to grow weary of his dedication to crime-fighting and also of his dual persona, wondering which one he truly is. After meeting Dr. Chase Meridian, who is at first in love with Batman but grows to love Bruce instead, he decides to give up his war on crime and try to have a normal life with her, eventually telling her the truth. By the end of the film, after his battle against Two-Face and the Riddler is over and having accepted a partner in Dick Grayson as Robin, he's decided to be both Bruce Wayne and Batman. There are some issues I have with this revelation. One is how it's pulled off in the finished film: we don't get how he came to this conclusion in the actual movie. He just tells the Riddler, who had challenged him on whether Batman and Bruce Wayne could truly coexist, that he's both of them, "Not because I have to, but because I choose to." That aforementioned deleted sequence of his temporary amnesia, the diary, and the image of the bat would have really fleshed out how he came to this decision. The other issue I have is with the very concept itself. Don't get me wrong, I still find the idea of him being reborn as Batman and remembering why he chose this path in the first place to be an interesting way to go, but the problem comes if you put that in the movie with him declaring that he's now both Bruce Wayne and Batman. What they're getting at is that he's settled his issues with his duality but, while that may make for a more stable state of mind for the character and it certainly doesn't rob Gotham of its hero, it does rob the character of the internal conflict that I feel makes him both both fascinating and relatable. It takes some of the edge off of him. Some may argue that concept is why the film is called Batman Forever but I think that title would still make sense simply with that deleted section being included and that resolution of his duality being scrapped. In short, I like the idea of Bruce being reminded of exactly why and how he became Batman and why he must continue to be Batman but I'm not that big on him resolving his dual identity issue. Maybe other people don't have a problem with it but I just don't know.

I've never really liked the character of Robin. In fact, he's one of the reasons I don't care for the Adam West show. Those stupid, "Holy whatever, Batman!" lines just get on my nerves. Maybe I'm just cynical but I don't find them cute or funny, I just find them annoying. Also, I like Batman more as a lone, dark protector, a creature of the night, than as somebody with a kid sidekick. To be fair, though, Robin has been done well in other media. The interpretation in the animated series is probably my favorite, as well as the one in Teen Titans, and I also liked the idea in the comics of Robin eventually growing up and moving to another city to become his own hero, Nightwing. I guess it's not that I hate him but rather that I like him more when he's either a wisecracking teenager or a mature hero in his own right as he's been portrayed in modern times rather than as a kid sidekick as he used to be. Anyway, I it necessary to give my stance on Robin before going into this movie's version of him, which, I must admit, I kind of liked. Dick Grayson starts out as the youngest member of this circus acrobat family (incidentally, I thought the idea of their outfits being based on the original, classic Robin suit from the comics and the Adam West show was a nice touch) who, just like Bruce Wayne, is orphaned by an act of violence. I thought the moment where he looks through the open hatch in the ceiling and sees Bruce looking up at him while kneeling over his dead family was well done. I know that this generally is his origin in the comics but still, I thought it was portrayed fairly well here. I also didn't mind the way Chris O'Donnell played him on the whole either. I know some may find him to be obnoxious and insufferable (granted, he is that way for a lot of Batman & Robin), with how he rejects Bruce's offer to stay with him, calling it charity and that he only agreed to do so to keep from being detained any longer by the police, and also when he shoots down his initial advice, but I understood him. He's an angry young man, filled with the thirst for revenge, just like Bruce Wayne was after his parents' death. That's why Bruce takes him in: he understands him and also to keep him from going down that road of revenge. After a little persuasion, Dick agrees to stay with Bruce and Alfred but once he discovers that Bruce is Batman, he begs him to train him to be his partner so he can eventually find Two-Face and kill him. Bruce, however, warns him against taking a human life. Now, we would probably call Bruce a hypocrite here because, as we know, he wantonly killed the Joker at the end of the first movie. However, Bruce beats us to that. First, he tells Dick, "Killing Harvey won't make the pain go away. It'll make it worse." Then later on in the Batcave, Bruce tells him, "Then it will happen this way. You make the kill, but your pain doesn't die with Harvey, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another, until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you don't know why." So Bruce, after killing the Joker, as well as after the events of Batman Returns, has experienced that very fact that killing the person who has caused you pain doesn't get rid of it. He also makes it clear to Dick that he knows what the young man is going through and is trying to help him avoid the same life of torture that he's had. I thought that was a good way to go with the Robin story and also to make it clear why Bruce needs to remember the real reason why he first became Batman.

Unfortunately, that whole notion is botched by the end of the film. When Dick finally becomes Robin and teams up with Batman, he tells him, "I can't promise I won't kill Harvey." Batman, however, says, "A man's got to go his own way." Some may not like that but I just see it as Batman simply letting Robin make his own choice and hoping that he will make the right one. And, lo and behold, Robin, at the very moment that he could let Two-Face fall to his death, decides to save the criminal and have him spend the rest of his life in prison. So, he makes the right decision. Granted, it gets him captured, but still, he's learned from Batman's mistakes and, as a result, has the potential to be a more pure crime-fighter than his partner. And what happens at the end of the movie? Batman kills Two-Face. Now before you say anything, I know, I know: he's killed criminals before in this continuity. In fact, I'll do you one better. In Batman Returns, he stopped Catwoman from killing Max Shreck even though he'd killed some of the Penguin's men in that movie, which does make him look like a hypocrite. So, why am I bringing it up here? Because of what I said above. Bruce seemed to have learned the consequences of killing the one who has caused you pain and for the entire movie, he's been warning Dick not to follow that same path. But this act of causing Two-Face to fall to his death just makes that whole subplot meaningless, like the only reason he was trying to talk Dick down is because he wanted to kill Two-Face the whole time. I'm surprised that Robin didn't chew him out big time after that. Now, you could argue that Batman is still a damaged person but remember, by the end of this movie, he's said that he's both Bruce Wayne and Batman because he chooses to be so, that he's cleared his mind of that question of duality that's plagued him. That makes for a more disturbing reason as to why he killed criminals in the other movies. At least before, we could make the excuse that he's a mentally unstable man. If this is what settling his duality issues has led to, then he should have stayed confused about his identity! I know I'm going on and on about this but, in my opinion, Schumacher and the screenwriters really dropped the ball on that score.

Now that I've got that out of my system, I can comment on the other aspects of Robin. Again, I thought O'Donnell played him well. When he's not angry and thirsty for revenge, he's quite likable. As cheesy as it is, I like that little bit where he's washing clothes with Alfred and the section where he takes the Batmobile for a ride. He also proves he can fight well in that scene when saving that girl from those gang members. As I said, he's completely determined to be Bruce's sidekick. He saves his life and even though Bruce reprimands him, Dick still doesn't get mad at him, telling him that he's not going to let this go. He's absolutely furious when Bruce suddenly declares that he's giving up being Batman, feeling that he's doing it just to keep him from killing Two-Face (which is, indeed, part of the reason). With that, he takes his circus outfit and leaves, but comes back to Bruce's aid after Two-Face and Riddler have damaged Wayne Manor and nearly destroyed the Batcave. That's when he fully becomes Robin and Batman's partner, showing that he is loyal. And, like I said, he does spare Two-Face's life later on. The only problem I have with Robin in this flick is that, after doing so, he simply becomes another person that Batman has to rescue. They could have at least had him fight some thugs before being captured because we do know that he can fight. In fact, other than beating up Two-Face a little bit, he doesn't do anything once he actually becomes Robin. Finally, I have to comment on Robin's outfit. Just like they did with the Batman suit in the first movie, I think they knew they couldn't go with the suit as it had been portrayed in the comics; in fact, that outfit (with no pants, just green briefs) would have been even more embarrassing than it would have been had they gone with the traditional Batman suit (a body suit with underwear over it). I thought the Robin outfit in this film was fine, with the dark purple torso that has an R stamped on it, dark green arms and legs, black gloves, a black cape with a yellow underside, and a black face mask. It was much more in line with how the Batman suit looked in this continuity.

I really, really like Nicole Kidman. She's both incredibly beautiful and very talented as an actor. However, her role of Dr. Chase Meridian in this film is very "meh". She's a psychiatrist who arrives in Gotham to review the tragic case of Harvey Dent but she makes it clear from the get go that she's also very interested in Batman and not just from a psychological standpoint. She has the hots for him so much that she goes as far as to use the Bat Signal just so she can get him alone in order to try to seduce him. She says it's because she's always had a thing for men with a dark side. At the same time, she starts to see Bruce Wayne, first as a patient and then later as a romantic interest. Now that is an interesting bit of subplot, that she falls in love with both Bruce Wayne and Batman, not knowing that they are the same man. In fact, when Batman comes to her apartment after she tells him to, she realizes that she likes Bruce more and that she wishes he were him! Again, very interesting. At the same time, Bruce is attracted to her because of her complete understanding of the human mind. Also, of all the women that have entered and exited his life, she's the one who's the most capable of accepting and loving both identities, whereas Vicki Vale loved Bruce but was frightened and disturbed by the presence of Batman and Selina Kyle understood his issue of duality but her own demons kept them from being together. Very interesting stuff. Unfortunately, they don't do much with it. It's not because of Kidman, though. She does fine, pulling off an American accent very well and it also doesn't hurt that this was during a period where she was extremely lovely. But, there are two flaws with the character. One, by the climax, she just becomes another damsel in distress that Batman must rescue. Second, she and Bruce don't get together at the end. Now, I'm not saying that they should have (I don't like the idea of Batman being tied down by marriage), it's just that they don't give a good reason why nothing becomes of their relationship. She has a thing for both identities, knows that Bruce is Batman (she had decided that she likes Bruce more but still), and also knows that the two identities are no longer in conflict. So why don't they get together? Is it because she decides she no longer wants to be involved with men with dark sides? That's kind of weak to me. Is it because of the clichéd reason that the hero can't have someone in his life because they would be in danger if his enemies found out the truth? Okay, the Riddler and Two-Face were the only ones who knew of the truth and one is dead and the other is now a babbling lunatic in Arkham Asylum. Plus, the way they discovered his identity was pure randomness as well, so I doubt that would happen again. I'm nitpicking but when something is not resolved in a satisfying way or at least explained away, it irks me.

The worst aspects of either of the Schumacher Batman films to me are the villains. They took some classic characters, got some really good actors to play them, and then spoiled them due to poor direction and characterization. Let's start with Two-Face, played by Tommy Lee Jones. As I said in my review of Batman, I would have been interested to see what Billy Dee Williams would have done with the character, particularly the black-and-white concept that Burton had talked about exploring with him. But, when Burton left the series, Schumacher (and, no doubt, the studio due to Jones' much higher marquee value) decided to recast the role. In fact, they went as far as to retcon Williams' portrayal of Harvey Dent in Batman by showing footage of Jones as the character before he became Two-Face. I would be a little irritated at that but then, when I think about, Dent going from an African-American to a Caucasian when he got scarred by acid would probably have been more offensive. Also, Eartha Kitt became Catwoman in the Adam West show after she had been played by two white women beforehand, so I guess race-change just happens in the comic book world. Now, let's get to the other side of the issue. Before I say anything, I want it to be known that I do think Tommy Lee Jones is a great actor. You don't get the prolific career he's had without having a load of talent. In addition, he's also got a great charisma and screen presence to him. He's a cool cat and was a good choice to play Two-Face. In fact, when you first see him at the beginning of the movie, he looks very menacing as he stands in the shadows and asks his hostage if he's a gambling man. It's promising. And then, the real performance steps forward and it's not good. I'm going to be tough on this because Two-Face is probably my favorite Batman villain next to the Joker. Moreover, I find him to be one of the most fascinating, tragic bad guys in any media, with the interpretation in the animated series (I know I keep going back to that but it really is an awesome cartoon) being what made me a fan of the character. Needless to say, when I finally saw this movie and saw what Schumacher and company had done to him, I was not happy.

Two-Face's motivation in this movie is simple: he feels Batman failed to save his life by pulling him out of the way of the acid that was thrown at him too late and blames him for his scarring and the emergence of his split-personality. As a result, his singular objective is to kill Batman. Simple, but good enough to hang a movie on. Also, he's the one who kills Dick Grayson's family, setting in motion the origin of Robin. Again, while not exactly true to the comics, good enough for the movie. The problem is the direction Schumacher gave Jones with which to play the character. I think Schumacher wanted to do the Joker and was jealous that Burton beat him to it, so he decided to make Two-Face that way. All he does is laugh and chew the scenery like crazy. He has some incredibly bad and ridiculous lines, such as this little gem at the beginning: "One man is born a hero, his brother a coward. Babies starve, politicians grow fat. Holy men are martyred, and junkies grow legion. Why? Why, why, why, why, why? Luck! Blind, stupid, simple, doo-dah, clueless, luck!" See how that line started out fine and then just derailed? On top of that, Two-Face does some stupid, over the top crying and whining whenever something doesn't go his way, like when he accidentally blows up a van of his goons instead of the Batmobile in one sequence or when he reads that Batman survived his deathtrap. It's embarrassing. I've heard that Jones is kind of ashamed of his performance here and I really don't blame him. In short, Two-Face is not the Joker, Joel Schumacher! Besides the actual performance, the meat of the characterization is just off. Two-Face is usually portrayed as a multifaceted, tortured character who uses his two-headed coin to decide whether he's going to do good or evil. They do nothing with the split-personality concept here. Two-Face constantly refers to himself in the plural with terms like, "us" and, "we," as if acknowledging a split personality, but watching this movie, he's clearly not torn about what he's doing. Heck, during the attack on Wayne Manor, since the Riddler has told him not to kill Bruce Wayne, he sits down and keeps flipping his coin until he gets the result he wants and then tries to shoot Wayne. That's not what Two-Face does. Once his coin is flipped, he sticks to whatever side it landed on. I'm probably sounding like a whiny fanboy but I just don't like what they did to such a great, fascinating villain. On top of everything else, Two-Face just looks ridiculous. I don't care that Rick Baker did the makeup, it looks like purple clay was slapped all over the left side of his face and his hair. Also, what's with that suit, with those bright yellow and purple tiger-stripe and leopard-spot patterns? He has another suit which is a bit better, with a much darker color on the bad side and a leather-feeling to it, but it still isn't the best. There's another version of that suit which seems to have sparkling green, yellow, and purple highlights ,which really clash with its otherwise black look. To sum up things up, I feel that Two-Face was a huge missed opportunity in this film, with a great actor whose performance was spoiled by bad direction and characterization. I just thank God that The Dark Knight gave Two-Face a much better live-action interpretation.

The other villain is Jim Carrey as Edward Nygma, aka the Riddler. As far as Batman's rogue gallery goes, my thoughts on the Riddler have always been, "Eh, he's okay." Not one of my favorites but he's fine. As for Jim Carrey, he's an actor who's kind of hit and miss for me. Sometimes I think he's funny, while other times I find him to be insufferably annoying. Here, I'm going to have to learn more to the latter. He really gets on my nerves for the most part in this film. I guess they were tying to go for the over the top, Frank Gorshin performance in the Adam West show but I think James Rolfe said it best when, in his review on the Batman movies, he described it as Jim Carrey doing the same old shtick he always does because that's exactly how I feel. All I see is Ace Ventura dressed up as the Riddler, like he knocked out the real Riddler and stole his costume. Now, I do find the Ace Ventura movies to be funny in a stupid, over the top way, but that's not what I want in a Batman movie. Besides the annoying performance, I find it hard to accept Carrey as having a brilliant intellect. I don't believe that he's someone who can invent a device that can beam images into a person's brain as well as fill his own with their smarts. That's his plan, by the way: to suck out everyone's intelligence so he can be the most intelligent creature on Earth. He starts out smart enough to build the device but discovers by accident and dumb luck its ability to increase his own intelligence and decides to use it to make himself smarter. That doesn't feel like a brilliant technician to me. Plus, he's obsessed with Bruce Wayne from the get go. When he's a technician at Wayne Enterprises, we see that he's basically a stalker, having collected a bunch of articles and information on Wayne and desperately wanting his approval. Once his invention is rejected by him, he turns against him and decides to show him up by making his device the most popular item in Gotham as well as proving he's smarter than him by sending him riddles. Once he discovers that Bruce Wayne is Batman, he proposes an important question: can the two identities coexist? Like Two-Face, great stuff but the performance and characterization make it impossible for me to get invested or take it seriously. I will say, though, that the Riddler's constantly changing wardrobe is fun, going from the traditional green suit and hat to the familiar skin-tight, question mark-covered suit that Gorshin wore, a sparkly white and green version of it, and a green jacket with neon-lit question marks. I liked wondering what he was going to wear next. Although I don't get why, in the scene where he's hosting that party, his hair is suddenly brown instead of red-orange like it is throughout the rest of the movie. What, did he dye his hair just for that party?

In order to get the money necessary to market his device, the Riddler teams up with Two-Face to get his help in robbing banks and jewelry stores and, in turn, offers to help him discover Batman's true identity. Again, interesting concept: Two-Face wants Batman, the Riddler wants Bruce Wayne, so it works out for the both of them when they discover the truth. Even smarter is when the Riddler convinces Two-Face not to kill him right away so they can savor his emotional torture and eventual death. It makes for a good setup to the climax where they put Batman to the test of having to choose between his two identities. But now, I have to talk about the relationship between the Riddler and Two-Face. Their interactions seem a little... gay. I know that Joel Schumacher himself is gay and I am not a homophobe by any means, but the way the two villains act when they're around each other is just weird. There's that moment where they rob a jewelry store and are driving away wearing some of the jewels. Okay, that's probably just supposed to be flamboyance and I could see the Riddler and this version of Two-Face doing that, so I normally would let that slide. However, there's the scene where the Riddler shows Two-Face that he's discovered Batman's identity and the way they touch each other and act, especially when the Riddler puts his leg out and says, "Oh, stop!" is just questionable to me. But that moment when they're outside of Wayne Manor and grab hold of each other while saying, "Happy Halloween!" just takes the biscuit for me. All of that, plus the simple way they act and move, just spell brokeback for me. And, let's not forget the Riddler's obsession with Bruce Wayne, first admiring and loving him to a ridiculous extent and then trying to ruin his life after being rebuffed, just like a stalker would. Don't think I need to say anything else.

Michael Gough once again reprises his role as the ever faithful Alfred, this time acting as a voice of encouragement and wisdom for both Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. He befriends the shattered young Dick when he first arrive and after he tells him how he got the nickname Robin, by saving his brother by flying in like a Robin, Alfred assures him that he is still a hero. Furthermore, when he asks Alfred to throw away his old circus uniform, Alfred instead decides to put it away for now, citing, "Broken wings mend in time. One day, Robin will fly again. I promise." After Dick discovers that Bruce Wayne is Batman and, despite Bruce's reluctance to accept a crime-fighting partner, Alfred encourages and guides him on the proper course of action, even aiding him in saving Batman's life when he falls into Two-Face's trap after Edward Nygma's business party, although he does seem to be a bit reluctant about this course of action. Despite that, though, he soon makes firm his stance about the young man to his master. When Bruce angrily admonishes Dick in the Batcave for putting himself in danger, Dick ignores Bruce and tells Alfred to put his Robin suit by the Batman suits where it belongs. As Alfred proceeds to do so, Bruce says, "And you're encouraging him." Alfred responds, "Young men with a mind for revenge need little encouragement. They need guidance. You, above all, should know the consequences of the life you choose." Ultimately, as we learn, Alfred is the one who created the ultimate suit that Dick wears when he actually becomes Robin, encouraging him to the end. (I'm guessing that means he created the Batman suit as well. Alfred must be quite a wizard in creating body armor and elaborate costumes.) There's also a moment where Alfred seems disturbed by Bruce's new newly arisen personal demons, particularly when he murmurs to himself, "I killed them." As was shown in the previous film, Alfred continues to help his master in his detective ways, aiding him in cracking the Riddler's puzzles by pointing him in the right direction. And finally, as usual, Alfred has some great dry wit and delivery. After helping him crack the pattern in the riddles, he says, "You really are quite bright, despite what people say." I really like the scene where Alfred, speaking to Bruce over his watch with a small video screen on it, tries to tell him that Dick took the Batmobile without being explicit so as not to tip off Chase. "He took the car." "He boosted the Jag?" "Not the Jaguar. The other car." "The Bentley?" "No, sir, the other car." Gough is just great in that bit and in the movie overall, despite its questionable quality.

Also returning is the reliable Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon. He has just a bit more to do here than he did in the previous film but, once again, he's rather underused. That said though, there are some new interesting aspects of the character here. One is that that not only do he and the rest of the police department now recognize Batman as Gotham's protector but, as shown at the beginning of the film, they actively work with him in certain situations, rather than calling on him as a last result as in Batman Returns. Also, Gordon seems to really know Bruce Wayne, even calling him by his first name, and is the one who decides to have Dick Grayson stay with him. This is a complete 180 from his not even interacting with Bruce at all as in the previous films, going back to the typical portrayal of Gordon both being friendly with Bruce and well working with his alter ego. One random character that I have to mention is Drew Barrymore as Sugar, one of Two-Face's two female assistants (with the other being Spice, played by Debi Mazar) who represent his good and bad sides. She really does nothing in the film other than trick Bruce into entering the chamber housing an advanced version of the Riddler's Box, allowing him to discover that he's Batman. It's just odd to me that they would put a pretty big person like her into such a nothing role. Other notable actors in small roles are Rene Auberjonois as Dr. Burton (has to be a reference to Tim Burton), the head of Arkham Asylum, and Ed Begley Jr. as Fred Stickley, the hot-headed supervisor of Edward Nygma at Wayne Enterprises. He does not like Nygma at all, personally terminating his project. However, he becomes the first unwitting test subject of the Box and, after Nygma discovers the side effects of the device, he kills Stickley and makes it look like suicide.

When I say that the darkness left the series with Tim Burton, I mean that both in terms of tone and visuals. This film is very literally the polar opposite of its predecessors in terms of look. Gotham City was given a complete makeover by Schumacher and his production designer Barbara Ling, trying to go for a more literal comic book translation. They turned Gotham a very bright, colorful city, albeit one still riddled with crime. There are lights everywhere, with bright red, green, and blue colors, lots of spotlights, and quite a few statues as well, some of which even have buildings built into them. And while we're on the subject of statues, Gotham must be New York in actuality since the flipping Statue of Liberty is out in the harbor. I've heard some call it the Lady Gotham but it's the Statue of Liberty, make no mistake, which is so random. The parts of the city that are meant to be alleyways where gangs hang out are still very brightly lit, especially considering that the gangs here like dressing up in glow-paint with neon all over their clothing and even glowing graffiti on the wall. The buildings themselves are so interconnected with gangways, elevated highways, and catwalks that you sometimes can't figure out where the bottom level of the city is. Not only does the city have a feeling of Las Vegas on steroids at night but during the day, it still has a sense of heightened reality to it. When Bruce Wayne is talking to Edward Nygma at Wayne Enterprises and notices the Bat Signal in the sky out the window, the sky has a very reddish quality to it, enhancing the feeling of late afternoon, and when Bruce goes to meet Dr. Meridian for the first time, the afternoon light still feels very bright and otherworldly. The Bat Signal itself looks much more stylized in terms of its look as well and the interiors of the sets are also very colorful. The circus is downright beautiful with its bright red and gold color scheme, the gold-painted guy banging on the big drum, the deep blue walls, the spotlights, and the Grayson family's classic Robin outfits. Add to that the very classic, old-fashioned way the ringmaster dresses and you have a scene right out of a 1940's comic book. Another knockout of a set is the place where Nygma has a business party to unveil his latest invention. The main part is an enormous ballroom with a huge, wide fountain in the middle, red lighting on the walls, and, as is common in this film, constantly moving spotlights that keep light patterns dancing around the set (in this case, the patterns are spirals, which are very Burton-esque). The scene that follows, where Batman pursues Two-Face and falls down this long tube, is brightly lit in red-purple coloring and so is the underground area beneath it.

The villains' hideouts are designed around them. Two-Face's hideout is split right down the middle, one side being normal and painted in white with a warm feeling to it with furniture and candles you'd expect to see in a department store, while the other has a dark, Gothic look with purple paint-scheme and bathed in red light. The establishing shot of it shows us how it reflects Two-Face himself by panning down to him and lining him up perfectly with the carved face on the wall behind him as the well as the split look of the whole place. His two female assistants, Sugar and Spice, stay on their respective sides and the dining table is also split like the set, with a normal, crystal-carve left side and a dark, Gothic-designed right side, with even the food served on either side corresponding to it. As for the Riddler, not only does he have his own hideouts but, when he works at Wayne Enterprises as Edward Nygma, he takes over his space of the research department. When Bruce Wayne enters the department to inspect everybody's progress, you may notice that it's a fairly straightforward, long room with everybody working at normal desks, typing away at computers... and there's Nygma's, which is a crazy, cluttered workspace with an orange-red, mad scientist-type sparking device, lots of material on Wayne, and little Riddler-like figures here and there. The space is fenced in metal, shelf-like walls, isolating him from everyone else. Later in the night when he tests the Box on Fred Stickley, he takes over the space even more by bathing it in the green light that comes from his device. Before he establishes his new identity, we get to see where Nygma lives, which is in a rundown, mish-mash of an apartment that's much like his workspace, with more random elements of what he would become, the most obvious being an animatronic Riddler model and more of those little dolls. After he becomes the Riddler, he takes up residence in this enormous, island fortress which is fundamentally a giant version of his Box that sucks in the thoughts of Gotham's citizens and transfers them into his own head. The whole place is bathed in the color green, from the outside due to the lights coming from the green-colored fins on either side of the building's peak and on the inside as well. Like in the business party, there are spotlights moving around all over the place, this time projecting the images of question marks, as well as neon green ones on the floor. The Riddler has the big, main chair that he sits on with two statues on either side of him and there's a bunch of green, Tesla coil-like devices in the background like what you would see in a classic, Frankenstein-style movie. Underneath that main room, there's a long shaft leading to sharp rocks in a shallow pool of water as well as a system of some metal beams that criss-cross everywher. There's another room with a grid-like structure made of metal and a room where the Riddler and Two-Face use a full-size version of Battleship to try to destroy Batman and Robin. In short, the Riddler's hideout is insane, just like the man himself.

The Batcave this time around is bathed in a cool-feeling, blue light, completely different from the natural, dark lighting of the first film and the glowing, almost black-light feel of the second. The main section is a big platform with a rotating turntable in the middle that rises up to reveal the Batmobile and there's also a big room where the various suits and gadgets are stored. We also see some new sections to it, such as a large canal leading to the sea where the Batboat is stored and another tunnel that leads to the outside, going through the heart of the cliff that Wayne Manor sits on. This is used to launch the Batwing, which hangs in an elevated section of the same area as the Batboat, looking like a giant bat no less. We see some new ways to enter the Batcave as well. There's the actual entry in Wayne Manor, which is through a rotating wall in a closet that is kept locked and there's an elaborate tunnel that leads from Bruce Wayne's office to the cave, which he rides through in a capsule. (That must be one damn long tunnel, seeing as how we know that Wayne Manor is on the outskirts of the city.) Wayne Manor is actually the only location in the film that looks fairly normal: just a basic, big mansion with a wide interior. We find out that Bruce Wayne apparently has a thing for collecting classic cars and motorcycles since his garage is full of them and, as Dick comments, it feels more like a museum. When Bruce has flashbacks back to the night his parents were murdered and the days following, everything is very dreamlike and surreal, bathed in a deep, blue light. The images of Jack Napier firing on his parents from the dark is made a little atmospheric with the swirling fog combined with the lighting and the locations and camerawork that you see in these scenes add to the mood, particularly in the funeral scene where the camera is often tilted in a bizarre angle and the place just looks dark and unpleasant. The scene of young Bruce running through the pouring rain looks even more so. While I wouldn't say it's frightening or disturbing, it does enhance the nightmare-feeling that Bruce has at that moment. The banks and casinos that the Riddler and Two-Face rob have that very classic, 40's comic book feel to them I must say, especially the casinos with those colorful gambling machines in the background. Finally, there's Arkham Asylum, which pops up at the end of the movie and feels like the only location that is left over from the Burton films, with its Gothic exterior and classic, 40's movie-style interior, especially with the Riddler's padded cell and black and white prison garb. If nothing else, Joel Schumacher did succeed in making Batman Forever feel like a comic book come to life and, while I do prefer the dark, film noir-style that Tim Burton created, I'd be lying if I said the sets and colors in this film weren't impressive, beautiful eye-candy.

In keeping with the new tone of the film, the Batmobile was completely redesigned. It's funny because I was about to say that this car has a very H.R. Giger-like quality to it when I read that Giger was indeed originally hired to design the car but left due to creative differences. In any case, while the Burton Batmobile is still my favorite, the design of this one is pretty cool. It's basically an elongated version of the Batmissile shown in Batman Returns, with big rims on either side of the front and back that hold the tires (each of which glow a light blue and have the Bat Symbol on their side), long, backward-facing fin on the back rims and on the back of the hood (that latter of which can open up into a V-shape but is only shown briefly when Dick Grayson takes out for a joyride), and gill-like openings across the body which allow you to catch glimpses of the engine and the other mechanisms, with a blue glow emanating from with in it in many areas. As cool as it is, though, it's not used much in the film. The only action scene that it's used in is when Batman is ambushed in a back-street by Two-Face and his thugs and even then, the only gadget we see is a grappling hook that it fires up to the top of a building, enabling it to drive vertically up the wall to escape. Other than that and the ability to perform sharp skids and turns (with the Bat Symbols on the wheels remaining completely fixed, I might add, due to their design), it doesn't seem to have any weapons and doesn't get to do much before it's destroyed by the Riddler. We also see two new version's of Batman's other vehicles: a new Batboat that Robin pilots during the climax, which has the same type of look that the Batmobile had in the previous film but, like the Batmobile, doesn't get to do much before it's destroyed by the Riddler and Two-Face's live version of Battleship, and a new Batwing, which looks fundamentally the same as it did in the film save for the details of its body being heightened and ramped up. Like the Batboat, it's destroyed rather quickly but is shown to have an escape pod that can become a mini-submarine. Two-Face's thugs have their own vehicles but they appear to just be normal, albeit old-fashioned, cars and vans, although the guys do wear masks that mirror their boss' disfigured face.

Obviously, Batman has some new toys to play with here. For one, his grapple gun, which he now attaches to his wrist, is now more powerful than ever, able to break through and cut steel and rock and the various weapons he uses are much longer and more serrated than they ever were before. He has a taser-like weapon that he uses to stun one of Two-Face's goons at the beginning of the movie and the most notable addition to his actual suit is a fireproof mode for his cape than he can activate via a button on his utility belt. As shown when Two-Face tries to burn him alive, his cape becomes coated with a fire retardant that he wraps around himself as a shield from the flames. The Sonar Suit that he wears during the climax has a mask with built-in lenses that, when activated, slide over the eyeholes and create a sonar-generated image of his surroundings that he uses to see in extreme darkness or glare. As for the villains, Two-Face doesn't have any special gadgets except for guns and slimmed-down version of a bazooka, although his goons' otherwise normal Tommy guns have strange, red neon fixtures on the front of their ammo-holders. The Riddler, on the other hand, has quite a few gadgets, the most notable being the classic cane with a question mark-shaped handle. It has mechanisms within it that he uses to override various frequencies, which is how he manages to find the entrance to the Batcave as well as activate the Batmobile's large turntable so he can destroy it. He destroys most of the Batcave with some ridiculous-looking but actually pretty powerful green, bat-shaped little bouncy bombs with question marks on their backs. He also blows up the Batmobile with a bomb inside of a little green bag with a question mark on it as well. Of course, the Riddler also has his Box invention, which he uses to suck out the intelligence of Gotham's citizens while providing them with entertaining images. and he also creates an advanced, hologram-inducing version of it that enters people's minds which ultimately allows him to discover that Bruce Wayne is Batman.  And let's not forget the live version of Battleship that he and Two-Face use to activate the various mines around his fortress to destroy the Batboat, as well as a laser beam that the top of his fortress fires to destroy the Batwing. Two-Face's remaining thugs also seem to adopt his green-colored costume and become scuba-divers in an attempt to kill Robin after the Batboat is destroyed.

Not only do I give this movie props for its colorful production design and the large scope of the sets but I also have to say that the effects-work is very solid. There's still a lot of miniature-work in terms of the buildings and in some of the action scenes but I'm not entirely sure if there's that much CGI. I know that the effects company, Pacific Date Images, created a computer-generated Batman for the scenes that would have been far too dangerous and complicated for the stuntmen but it's used so well that, although I had an idea of the scenes it was used in, I couldn't pinpoint exactly where I thought I saw it. Obviously, though, the effects caused by the Riddler's Box as well as the shots of his fortress and some of Gotham City, I think, are CG. I must say, though, that I'm a little irritated that the film doesn't have a memorable opening credits sequence like the first two did. After the first few credits ("A Joel Schumacher Film," the stars' names, and the title) come up, the rest of the credits are just boringly placed in a bottom corner of the screen. In fact, speaking of the title, technically the film is just called Forever since all we see of the title is that word in front of the Bat Symbol. I know what it's meant to imply but still, I thought I'd point that out. Other than those minor quibbles, I thought the various types of effects were integrated very seamlessly amongst each other throughout the movie. Can't really say much more except the effects work in this film is very well done.

In keeping with the campier tone of the film, the action sequences this time around are much more colorful and are conceived in an old 40's serial, cliffhanger-style. Schumacher wastes no time in getting to the action either, as the film begins with Batman drving out to Gotham City to save a guard from Two-Face, who is using the poor man as bait to lure the Dark Knight into a deathtrap. Two-Face's guards attempt to kill Batman by shooting through an elevator car when it rises up but he manages to dodge the bullets and beat up the thugs. He shocks one with his taser-like weapon, causing the guy to spasm crazily while making silly noises that you'd expect to hear in a cartoon when someone is shocked, and when one thug comes at him with knives, Batman flings him into that guy who's shocked. He then tries to save the guard, whom Two-Face has tied up inside a large safe, but once he gets inside, the safe's door closes and locks. It's then clamped to a helicopter hovering outside of the building and, as Batman and the guard are suspended inside it, it begins to fill up with acid. Batman, however, uses the guard's hearing aid to pick the lock on the safe and open it. After getting the guard to safety by shooting his grappling hook into the side of the building and then tying the guard to the line (though I'm not sure how exactly that's supposed to be safe), Batman climbs up the chain dangling from the helicopter. Two-Face, in his rage to kill Batman, accidentally kills the helicopter pilot. While Batman climbs along the side of the helicopter, Two-Face tries his best to pilot it but, seeing as how they're heading for the Statue of Liberty (or Lady Gotham), they're both forced to bail out before the helicopter explodes against the statue's head

The next action setpiece is at the circus where Dick Grayson and his acrobatic family are introduced. Two-Face hijacks the circus and threatens to blow up the entire place with a large ball filled with TNT unless Gotham's social elite tells him Batman's secret identity. Bruce Wayne tries to tell Two-Face that he is Batman but the villain can't hear him over the loud commotion. Bruce then decides to take on Two-Face's thugs himself while the Graysons attempt to dispose of the bomb. Dick manages to get the bomb, carry it up to the roof, and throw it into the nearby river before it explodes. However, while that's going on, Two-Face kills the rest of Dick's family after deciding to do so by flipping his coin. Afterward, he and his thugs manage to escape, leaving Dick completely alone and devastated, setting in the subplot involving Robin. Not long after that, we get our next action scene, this time a small car chase involving the Batmobile and Two-Face's thugs. Two-Face lures the Batmobile into a dark, secluded street and, after trapping him from behind with his thugs driving their vehicles, attempts to blow it up with a bazooka. However, Batman manages to dodge the missile and it blows up one of the thug cars, causing the villain to whine melodramatically. Batman then drives off, with Two-Face in hot-pursuit, but he manages to get away by using the Batmobile's grappling hook to scale the side of a building after he becomes trapped in a dead end.

After some brief, silly glimpses of Two-Face and the Riddler's crime-wave throughout Gotham City, our next action sequence is when Dick Grayson, after discovering the Batcave, takes the Batmobile out for a cruise through Gotham. He ends up in a back-alley where some glowpaint and neon-covered muggers (again, I just don't get it) are assaulting a young woman. Dick manages to save her by fighting with the thugs and does succeed in beating up some of them, but he's then surrounded and trapped by them, with Batman arriving in time to finish them off. Next comes the scene where Bruce Wayne attends Edward Nygma's business party. After his secret identity is discovered by the inventor's machine, Two-Face and his men crash the party due to Two-Face's impatience towards Nygma taking his time on delivering Batman's true identity. Realizing what's going on, Bruce manages to escape the party and later, crashes through the skylight as Batman. He proceeds to beat up Two-Face's thugs and then chases him down several levels below the city. After sliding through that big, multi-colored tube, Batman is nearly burned by a large furnace that Two-Face activates but he uses his fireproof cape to protect himself. Two-Face, after screaming, "Why can't you just die?!", almost does succeed in killing Batman by burying him alive but Dick, dressed up in his circus outfit, manages to pull him out and save his life.

The climax of the movie begins when Two-Face and the Riddler break into Wayne Manor, where the Riddler tells Two-Face and his men not to kill anyone. While Two-Face's thugs ransack the mansion and fight with Bruce, the Riddler uses his cane to open the way into the Batcave and blows up various sections of it, including the Batmobile, with his little green, bat-shaped bombs, all the while acting completely ridiculous and silly (the baseball moment in particular is really goofy). Despite his promise not to kill Bruce, Two-Face, who is sitting down and watching the action, constantly flips his coin until it lands on the bad side and proceeds to try to shoot Bruce but only grazes his head, knocking him unconscious. Just as he's about to finish him off, the Riddler stops him and they proceed to leave while taking Chase hostage. After that, Batman and Robin finally team up and head out to stop the two villains. As they head towards the Riddler's fortress, the villains attempt to blow up the Batboat that Robin is piloting with mines in the water that they activate with the full-size version of Battleship that they play. After the boat is destroyed and the Batwing is shot down, Batman uses the mini-sub section of the aircraft to save Robin from the villains' scuba-diving henchmen. The two of them manage to get onto the man-made island that serves as the Riddler's fortress but are separated when the top of it rises with Robin standing on it. Robin engages Two-Face in a fight but when the villain is about to fall to his death, Robin shows him mercy and saves his life, which causes him to be taken prisoner. Batman, meanwhile, enters the fortress through a door at the base and uses his grappling gun to get to the top. There, the Riddler forces him to take part in a game where he will have to decide which identity he will serve by saving either Chase or Robin from falling to their deaths. Batman, however, distracts the Riddler with a riddle of his own and when he answers it correctly, Batman activates the sonar aspect of his cowl to destroy the brain wave-collecting device and saves Chase and Robin from plunging to their deaths. They're then held at gunpoint by Two-Face, whom Batman ultimately kills by tricking him into flipping his coin and, when he does, Batman then flings a bunch of coins up into the air. When Two-Face desperately tries to grab his, he loses his balance on the tricky scaffolding and falls to his death. The Riddler, whose mind is now destroyed by the reverse effects of the brain wave collector, is then taken to Arkham Asylum.

While Batman and Batman Returns had their share of bizarre, quirky moments that don't make any sense, Batman Forever (as well as the following film) has a lot of just plain campy, cheesy moments, most of which comes from the dialogue. The very first lines in the let you know exactly what you're in for. Alfred asks, "Can I persuade you to take a sandwich with you, sir?", to which Batman replies, "I'll get drive-thru." When Batman meets Chase Meridian on the rooftop and she comes onto him, he says, "It's the car, right? Chicks love the car." There are also some cheesy references to other aspects of the Batman mythology, such as when Dick Grayson is pestering Bruce about becoming his partner, saying, "I need a name. Batboy, Nightwing, I dunno." But the biggest and most eye-rolling one comes when Batman and Robin arrive at the Riddler's island fortress and Robin suddenly says, "Holey rusted metal, Batman!" Batman goes, "Huh?", to which Robin responds, "The ground, it's all metal. It's full of holes. You know, holey?" I don't know whether to laugh at that or groan at how cheesy that attempt to reference the Adam West show was. As I said earlier, the villains themselves, as well as their interactions with each other, are very ridiculous. I have to admit, though, that when Edward Nygma tests his Box on Fred Stickley and starts dancing around crazily while singing, "I'm sucking up your I.Q., vacuuming your cortex, feeding off your brain!", I do smirk. That image along with the music makes it funny. The Riddler himself has too many ridiculous lines to list but some of the non-homoerotic interactions between him and Two-Face are quite memorable. The one that comes to mind is when they're robbing a casino and the Riddler asks Two-Face to show him how to punch someone. When Two-Face succeeds in his demonstration, the Riddler attempts to follow suit, only to punch the guard with no effect and actually hurt his hand in the process. There's also the moment before that when they're robbing a jewelry store and the Riddler, while looking at a diamond through a handheld microscope, says, "Here's a good one." Two-Face proceeds to show him a much bigger diamond and comment, "Now, there is a good one." The Riddler destroying the Batcave is absolutely silly, with the stuff he says about introducing domestic animals into the wild while throwing the bat-bombs into various sections of the cave, as well as the cartoony sound effects and the baseball moment with the appropriate music. One line that I do think is kind of clever is when the Riddler and Two-Face are doing the Battleship thing and Two-Face says B12. The Riddler says, "Hit! And my favorite vitamin, I might add." Finally, I have to comment on the line the Riddler has when he says, "For if knowledge is power, than a God am I!" After that last, very deep part, he says, "Was that over the top? I can never tell." My reaction? Obviously, you can't!

It's interesting that Warner Bros. wanted Batman Forever to be much more family-friendly than its predecessor and yet, they allowed some sexually charged lines of dialogue and moments to remain in the movie. When Chase Meridian is fawning all over Batman, their lines have a less than subtle sexual undercurrent to them. Chase says, "I wish I could say that my interest in you was... purely professional," to which Batman responds, "You trying to get under my cape, doctor?" Later in the conversation, she presses the chest part of his suit, sighs sexually, and says, "Black rubber." Batman says, "Try firemen: less to take off." Batman tries to leave but Chase steps in front of him and says, "I don't mind the work." Then she says, "I'll bring the wine, you bring your scarred psyche," to which she lets her robe drop to reveal herself in lingerie. She says, "You like strong women. I've done my homework. Or do I need skin-tight vinyl and a whip?" That last part was obviously a reference to Catwoman but, my God, the image of smoking-hot Nicole Kidman in lingerie talking about dominatrix-type stuff? If you're not careful, you'll bust a nut on that! Let's not forget the scene much later in the film when Batman visits Chase at her apartment and all that's keeping the PG-13 rating is the bed cover she has wrapped around her body. I've already comment on how Two-Face and the Riddler seem to have a "special" relationship but the Riddler injects a lot of innuendos into his speech in general, like when he says, "Joygasm!" and "Spank me!" And you can't overlook when he grabs his crotch after the baseball moment in the Batcave. Batman Forever isn't quite as family-friendly as everyone probably thinks it is, although I think the reason it was overlooked was because it, along with the entire film, it was played lighter and more for laughs, as opposed to the dark, weird overtones that Tim Burton came up with, particularly in the second film.

Music-wise, Schumacher hired Elliot Goldenthal and specifically told him to compose all new music and not take any inspiration from Danny Elfman's scores for the first two films... and here's where I'm going to come across as an old stick in the mud. I don't mind Goldenthal creating his own music for the film, since I understand that no composer wants to simply repeat what another has done before him or her. And, moreover, Goldenthal is a great composer, having done scores for films like Alien 3, Pet Sematary, Heat, and Demolition Man among others. It's just that for me, Elfman's main title theme is so linked with Batman that when I watched this movie for the first time years later as a late teen, I was quite disappointed that they had dispensed with it. I wish Goldenthal had done what Christopher Young would later do for Spider-Man 3: keep the main theme from the previous films and construct his own score around it. I guess you could argue that Elfman's simultaneously dark and adventurous theme wouldn't fit with this particular interpretation of Batman and you might be right but I think they could have at least tried to modify it to make it fit (like how Elfman made the theme much darker and more doom-laden for Batman Returns). In any case, the new Batman theme that Goldenthal composed is much more heroic, with little, if any, of the dark touches from the earlier scores. Even when he slows it down to create that kind of feeling, I still don't find it to be that dark. That said, it's not a bad piece of music and, like I mentioned, it fits well with this more heroic vision of Batman. But, I still just can't help but remain nostalgic for the Elfman theme. As for the rest of the score, it does fit well with the tone of the film (even the names of the actual tracks, like Gotham City Boogie, The Perils of Gotham, and The Pull of Regret, fit it). There's ridiculous and cartoony music played for the Riddler, soft, dark music for the dramatic scenes like when Bruce is remembering the death of his parents, overly sexy music for the stuff involving Chase, and really jazzy music for the action scenes, kind of like the score Michael Giacchino would create for The Incredibles. I'm also fairly certain that Goldenthal reused a track from his own score for Alien 3 in the scene where Dick Grayson saves that girl from those gang members. So, again, it is good music... when I'm listening to it. I think that's my other big problem with the score for this film. When I actually listen to it, I enjoy it, but afterward when I try to pick out specific cues and themes, I have a hard time doing so and it all just kind of blurs together for me. Maybe it's just because I'm much more familiar with Elfman's scores but I can pick out specific cues from them; here, not so much.

Like the first film with all of the Prince songs, Batman Forever produced a separate soundtrack album of songs from popular artists at the time in addition to an album for the score. It was just as popular as the Prince album for the first film but, with one exception, I can't remember any of the songs featured in it. It's also hard for me to point out which songs I did hear because, of the fourteen on the soundtrack, only five are actually in the movie. I think a song by U2 called Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me was in the film, as well as some songs by Brandy and The Flaming Lips. The song I do know is, of course, Kiss from a Rose by Seal, although only a small section of it plays over the final part of the ending credits. I know some people who really don't like that song but I personally think it's kind of cool and quite calming with its sound and lyrics. The music video that Joel Schumacher himself directed for it is bland, though: it's just Seal singing in front of the Bat Signal, interspersed with clips from the film. Not very original

In closing, I want to make it clear that I don't hate Batman Forever; in fact, I don't feel one way or the other about it. It is flashy and colorful, with lots of great eye-candy, stunts, and production design (it's obvious that the money is there on the screen) and I do appreciate that the screenwriters did try to have some things going on beneath the surface, which is a vital component for Batman. However, I feel that Val Kilmer is a poor substitute for Michael Keaton, this Batman's morals are even more disturbing than Keaton's interpretation, the characterizations of Two-Face and the Riddler are too silly and cartoony, and the score by Elliot Goldenthal, while working in the moment, isn't very memorable. And on top of all that, I personally prefer the darkness and subtlty of the Burton films. However, this film did serve its purpose well in making Batman more family friendly, seeing as how it was the sixth highest grossing movie of 1995 worldwide and the second highest grossing in America. It is, at the end of the day, simply meant to be a hyperactive, colorful comic book flick and, even though the way it's done here isn't exactly my thing, on that score, it works just fine.