Batman Forever (1995)



Director : Joel Schumacher


Batman : Val Kilmer
Robin : Chris O'Donnell


This movie had a lot going for it going in to it : Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell and Drew Barrymore to start with. The movie opens with Batman and Two-Face fighting it out. Flames, explosions and Batman barely escapes.

Jim Carrey plays Ed Nygma who works for Bruce Wayne. When Bruce doesn't immediately OK Ed's brain wave project, Ed loses it, but he will show Bruce Wayne that his project will work.

Bruce goes to a circus with Gotham's finest and Dick Grayson is a trapeze artist. Two-Face shows up and threatens to blow up the audience unless Batman appears. In the melee that follows Dick Grayson's family is killed in a fall from the trapeze and Bruce Wayne takes him home. Bruce thinks back to when his parents were killed.

Meanwhile Ed Nygma thinks up the name he is going to take on : The Riddler. The Riddler goes over and visits Two-Face. The two soon join forces and go on a crime spree. The Riddler is soon trying to take over the hearts and minds of the populace with his brain wave TX device.

Dick discovers the Batmobile and takes it for a ride. He gets himself in to a little trouble and Batman appears to save the day. Dick is still in pain because of what Two-face did to his family. He wants in. Batman gets in to a fight with Two-Face's men. When Batman gets in to some trouble Robin shows up and gets him out of it.

Batman and Robin then go off and fight Two-Face and the Riddler. Batman ends up saving Robin and his girlfriend (Nicole Kidman).

The overall tone of the movie is cartoonish and kind of goofy. Jim Carrey is good in own kind of movie, but to try to combine a serious superhero movie with a goofy comedy just didn't work. It's too bad because Batman and Robin were as serious as can be. It's not a bad movie, but it could have been much better.