Batman Forever (DVD)

Abandoning the darker vision created by Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher takes over the Batman series, and brings with him a host of new villains as well as a new actor in the lead role. Batman finds himself in a spot of trouble when the maniacal Riddler teams up with a District Attorney who has vowed revenge after an accident in court left him partially disfigured. Both villains have their own calling card. Two Faced (formerly known as Harvey Dent) flips his coin when facing a dilemma, whilst The Riddler creates a labyrinth of trouble using clever riddle's that Batman has to solve. Meanwhile, both Batman and his alter-ego Bruce Wayne become involved ...  Read the complete review

Batman Forever (1995) This installment of the Batman films is a stark contrast to the previous two. A different combination of director and lead actor, and a colour change for the 'Dark' Knight led to this film not receiving such great reviews. The Plot Gotham City's new threat comes from a couple of maniacs hell bent on destruction and revenge. 'Two-Face' is a former D.A. Harvey Dent, wrongly mad at Batman for his disfiguration. The Riddler is a scientist spurned by his employer Bruce Wayne. Together, they plan to unleash a device capable of stealing brain matter from all of Gotham, including Batman, in the hope of finding out his true identity. ...  Read the complete review

There are so many reasons to hate the third installment of the modern Batman films, it's truly bewildering. But you can boil the whole sorry saga down to this: the first two films, directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton, rescued the comic character from his camp 60s Adam West stereotype and turned him into a shadowy vigilante avenger more akin to his original character in the comics of Bob Kane. Batman Forever, for reasons best known to director Joel Schumacher, then proceeded to stick the camp back in with a vengance. Booted off the franchise following comparatively disappointing box-office for Batman Returns, Tim Burton retains an Executive ...  Read the complete review

The Batman Franchise went through three distinct phases: in the beginning was the dark and edgy creation pieced together by the Michael Keaton-Tim Burton axis. By the end of the line there was the farcical and shallow campery of George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman as we went for animated cartoon played by real live people, although they exhibited slightly less animation and depth than their two dimensional forebears. In between was a frankly weird period when we had the well chiselled features of Val Kilmer, the gaudy imaginings of Joel Schumacher, the never quite believable vampery of Nicole Kidman and the arrival of Robin. Things were ...  Read the complete review

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room Batman Forever is a film that I loved as a kid, and that very much embodies most of its appeal - it pales considerably when faced with Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton's iterations, but it's also a lot more fun and less self-serious than the dark Burton versions, and it does have an impressive visual style, even if it's a lot more flamboyant than we're used to and therefore may turn people off. I still maintain that it's quite an underrated film, although certainly no masterpiece. Batman Forever sees Batman aka Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer, who was quite notorious for being difficult to work ...  Read the complete review