_Batman Forever_ represents a major changing of the guard for a once dark, quirky franchise. In the wake of Tim Burton and Michael Keaton's departures, a new actor dons the spandex, two new villains are raided from the pantry, a new blonde bombshell arrives to escalate romantic tensions and a new ally is drafted for combat duty.

I don't understand the pressing urge to connect this film with the two preceding efforts, given their striking (and immediate) differences, but evidently some backstage emphasis was drawn, because great pains are taken to remind us that this is indeed the same character who tossed the Joker from a skyscraper and batted eyelashes with Catwoman a few years prior. No matter how little Val Kilmer may resemble Michael Keaton or how few visual consistencies this rendition of Gotham City may share with the one seen in _Batman Returns_. It's a drastically different beast in a tonal sense, as well; brighter and poppier, with more interest in flashy set pieces and less in creepy, twisted origin stories. Paired with a big-time movie soundtrack (could you imagine U2 crooning over the Penguin's parade of explosive rubber ducks?), the new model does everything in its power to redirect Burton's gothic weirdness back toward the friendlier, wackier day-glow Batman action of old. All this while still vehemently insisting it's a direct successor.

Unsurprisingly, the end result is an ugly clash of styles and half-shaped ideas. Nothing has purpose or reason. Reality is casually disregarded in the race to capture the next big idea. Characters thrash about, in colorful wardrobe, with limited personality and subtext. Tommy Lee Jones is the worst offender in this respect, giddily dancing around the frame like a brainless wannabe Joker (two of his nonsensical master plans involve an acid-drenched bank vault, suspended from a helicopter, and a rocket launcher in a baby carriage), but he has no shortage of competition. Jones and his cackling criminal partner, an early-stardom Jim Carrey, push hard to over-act one another in each and every shared scene. No wonder they loathed each other off-screen. Kilmer's rendition of Batman / Bruce Wayne, meanwhile, lands somewhere between sterile and confused, while Chris O'Donnell's Robin struggles to justify his own existence and Nicole Kidman's meddling sexpot psychologist waves her tail like an animal in heat.

Who was this made for, really? Did they actually enjoy it? And how did it merit a follow-up? Even the Batmobile has lost its coolness factor.

A different direction brings differing results.

Batman takes on a new side kick as he fights to keep Gotham City out of the clutches of Two-Face and The Riddler.

"No thanks, I'll get drive-thru"

Thus these be the first words out of Val Kilmer's incarnation of Batman and thus setting the standard for what Joel Schumacher's two Batman movies would be like. Gone is the dark undertone from Tim Burton's visions, and the tight action sequences that marked Burton's debut out as a genuine genre piece of work, in their place comes sexy campery and ropey action set pieces. The casting of both Val Kilmer as Batman and Chris O'Donnell as Robin is a big mistake, Kilmer easily being the most boring actor to don the suit out of all of them, whilst O'Donnell simply can't act outside of Robin's cartoonery bravado. Nicole Kidman looks positively gorgeous as Chase Meridian, but that's all that is brought to the party, it's a waste of the very talented Kidman's ability and a waste of the audience's time.

It's not all bad though, a comic book adaptation is only as good as its villains, and here we get a perfectly cast Jim Carrey as The Riddler, and a wildly over the top Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face. Carrey steals every scene he is in, it's almost too much, but as maniacal and exuberant as it is, it is the film's highlight and actually the film's saving grace (Tommy Lee Jones was reportedly unhappy from having his thunder stolen in the movie by Carrey). The script does work enough to make the story accessible to all ages, and there are enough crash bangs and wallops to entertain in that brain left at the door kind of way.

This was the biggest hit of 1995, so the paying public lapped it up and paved the way for another Schumacher film in the franchise, but with all that star power wasted, and nipples on the rubber suits, it's hard to see now why it was so popular back then. 5/10

There are some great **things** in _Batman Forever_. Val Kilmer I think cops a bit too much flak for his go in the cape & cowl, he's certainly no sort of definitive Batman but I thought he did a fine job. The city has a crazy cool design, the Batmobile is updated in a wholly original way, and that neon street gang is some of the coolest shit I've ever seen put to screen. But this a **bad** movie. Burton might not have had a 100% source-material-faithful interpretation of the character, but it took Joel Schumacher (who usually I'm a big fan of) to ruin _Batman_ altogether.

_Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._

I absolutely hate Val Kilmer as Batman. Out of everybody that's played batman, he's the worse I've ever seen. Otherwise the movie wasn't that bad considering.