After the very dark and violent Batman Returns (1992) caused many to complain about how not kid friendly the film was, Warner Brothers demanded that their next Batman film be a much more lighthearted and family friendly take on the character. This led to quite a few major changes. One was that Tim Burton would no longer be the director (though he would receive a producer credit), but instead Joel Schumacher would take his place. Another was that Michael Keaton would step down as Batman, due to not agreeing with the direction the series was going in. Another was that Robin (who Tim Burton always refused to use) would finally emerge on Batman's sidekick in these films.
Though Joel Schumacher took the reins from Tim Burton, he refused to do it unless Burton gave him his blessing. Schumacher would later state, "I would never do it unless it was OK with Tim. He’s always been a gentleman to me. Tim and I had lunch and he said, 'Fine. I’m finished Joel, so fine.' That having been done, it was a very exciting prospect. I grew up on Batman comics. I was going to get to make a Batman movie." About using Val Kilmer as Batman/ Bruce Wayne Schumacher would state, "I was with my friends watching Tombstone. It’s a terrific movie, and Val gave a really scene-stealing performance. When they were all kind of walking down the street together. I said to one of my friends, 'God, he’d make a great Batman, wouldn’t he?' thinking that could never transpire."
Jim Carrey was picked to play The Riddler after the role was offered to Robin Williams, who seemed disinterested. Schumacher felt that Jim Carrey would be perfect for the role. In a 1995 interview Jim Carrey would state, "I tried not to do a Frank Gorshin [who played the character in the 60's TV show], because he was so strong in it...He was The Riddler. I didn't try to outdo him or anything like that. I approached this like me. What I would do, where I would go. I just did The Riddler like when Elvis went to Vegas."
The other villain Two-Face would be played by Tommy Lee Jones (Mel Gibson was one actor considered before him). Having previously been in films like Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) and The Fugitive (1993), Jones was a high-profile actor. When approached with the role he had no idea who Two-Face was. However, his young son was a Batman fan and knew this character. Because of this Jones' son talked him into doing this role. However, Harvey Dent (Two-Face's real name) had been previously played by Billy Dee Williams in Batman(1989). Unfortunately, Williams took this small role with the understanding that he would be the main villain of a later movie in the series. Only two actors would return from the Burton films Michael Gough as Alfred and Pat Hingle as Commissioner Gordon.
To introduce Robin, Schumacher and writers Lee Batchler, Janet Scott Batchler, Akiva Goldsman made his origin very similar to the comic book character's first story in 1940. However, they wanted the character to be older and more of a young adult than a smaller kid. For this role such young actors as Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, Alan Cumming, Matt Damon, and Leonardo DiCaprio (none of whom were yet the big stars they would become) were considered. However, the role ended up going to Chris O'Donnell. At this time O'Donnell was best known for acting alongside Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman (1992). About being offered the role Donnell stated in a 1995 interview, "I was definitely worried. In the TV series Robin was definitely geeky. But when I read the script and realized what they were doing with the part, I didn't have any hesitation." This version of Robin had a bit more of a rebellious tough guy edge to him.
In this movie, former district attorney Harvey Dent blames Batman for the accident that scared his face. Now going by the name Two-Face the new villain seeks revenge upon Batman. Meanwhile when Bruce Wayne rejects an invention by Edward Nygma, Nygma now going by The Riddler seeks revenge on Wayne. Circus acrobat Dick Grayson joins in Batman's fight after Two-Face kills his family. In doing so Dick becomes Batman's sidekick Robin the Boy Wonder.
Joel Schumacher's Barman movies are often said to simply be campy and silly, while taking away all the seriousness that Tim Burton's Batman films had. While his next Batman movie, Batman and Robin (1997) would be sheer campiness and silliness, Batman Forever has some very serious scenes. This is especially true as this film tells us Robin's origin story. Robin's origin story is actually the highlight of this movie. It is done so well, and we deeply feel the tragedy of his family's death. We also deeply feel his need to get revenge on Two-Face. This is truly the heart of the movie and gives us a strong emotional connection. However, it is not the only reason we have an emotional connection to this film. This movie explores the duality of our main hero being both Batman and Bruce Wayne in a way that the Burton movies hadn't. This is not only shown in how both Batman and Bruce have their own villain. It is also shown in the romance and how impossible it is for Batman to also have a normal love life. In fact, the character's emotional arc completely revolves around him trying to deal with living two separate lives. The movie also does a great job of connecting both Batman and Robin's emotional arcs. As Dick loses his parents in a way very similar to how Bruce lost his parents, Bruce has to give his young ward guidance, so that Dick doesn't end up too much like him. Meanwhile after seeing Dick's parents die, Bruce finds himself reliving his parents' death in an incredibly painful way. All this makes for a great exploration of these characters.
The action scenes may not be the best of the franchise but are still a lot of fun with some great visuals. Some of the visuals may be a little dated but never embarrassingly so.
As much as this movie does right, it really suffers from a major flaw. This flaw is called Two-Face. This version of Two-Face is so incredibly over the top, that he comes off too much as a villain you would expect to see in a slapstick comedy rather than a superhero movie. As such it is hard to take him seriously as a villain. While there is no problem with having a supervillain with a comedic and over the top side, he needs to come off as a real threat. He simply doesn't here. Part of that is also due to that Two-Face simply does not seem very smart here. Not only this but Tommy Lee Jones (usually a great actor) hams it up to an extent that simply becomes embarrassing to watch. The scenes where he is fully hamming it up with Jim Carrey as The Riddler are simply embarrassing to watch.
Speaking of Jim Carrey as The Riddler, he honestly works better than Two-Face. While some of the over-the-top humor with this character falls completely flat (a lot of the humor in this movie falls flat though), Jim Carrey is able to bring enough menace to the character to make him feel like a real threat underneath all the all the silliness.
However, looking at the villains of this film, it is interesting to note that this where this movie greatly differs from Tim Burton's movies. Tim Burton's films often seemed more interested in exploring the villain's stories that Batman's personal drama. This film takes the exact opposite approach. The dramatic focus is on Batman and Robin. The villains are just pure villains here and we never really feel like we know who they are as people. Yet we get a deeper delve into who are heroes are than we ever got in the Burton movies.
Though Bruce's love interest (played by Nicole Kidman) does allow for some good drama, as a character she is very underdeveloped.
Watching this movie be sure to keep a lookout for Drew Barrymore as one of Two-Face's two girlfriends.
Joel Schumacher would say " It was not expected to be the success it was. Nobody really wanted another Batman movie. I had to go all over the world and try to sell it to distributors. That was new. I’d never had to do anything like that. For the merchandising, not a lot of people signed on. The ones that did, Hasbro and Walmart and a lot of the people who did hold their nose and jump, cleaned up" Despite any hesitations on anyone's part this movie was a major box office success. The film grossed $52.8 million at the Box Office on its open weekend alone. With this it smashed the world record for the highest grossing opening weekend surpassing Jurassic Park (1993). However, two years later The Lost World: Jurassic Park would replace Batman Forever grossing $72.1 million in its opening weekend. Critics were mixed but mostly positive towards the movie and the film was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Sound at the Oscars (though it won none of those awards).
Though this film has a very weak villain in Two-Face and has humor that mostly falls flat, this movie does a great job at exploring who Batman and Robin are as characters, creating a strong emotional connection. This and some well-done action scenes make this a very underrated superhero movie.
Resources Used
https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/68179/batman-forever#articles-reviews?articleId=153078
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/batman-forever-story-behind-surprise-802804/#!
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