Of the first 4 Batman movies "Batman Forever" is the only one I haven't seen, I loved the two Tim Burton Batman films, I even enjoyed "Batman & Robin" on first viewing although it hasn't held up very well.
shareI enjoy it, as it came out when I was 14.
But it's definitely not good.
You either like Jim Carey or you don't. He's doing Peak Carey here. It's a lot. Val Kilmer as Batman sounds like a great idea but it didn't really work. You're not gonna get a Tombstone/The Doors tour de force performance here. The best bits are all the Robin stuff. Lot of really terrific set designs.
shareI really think that Val Kilmer was a decent and perhaps, underappreciated Batman. I don't know if he was necessarily as good as Michael Keaton but he was definitely a step above George Clooney. I wish that Kilmer had gotten at least one more movie under his belt (even if it was Batman & Robin) to fully get the hang of the role. In Forever, I don't know if he was yet, fully sure on how to play the role since he was in the shadow of what Michael Keaton did. And you also had Joel Schumacher trying to make the tone lighter to appease Warner Bros. and parents who were upset over Batman Returns while still maintaining some of the dark psychology of the Tim Burton movies.
shareIt was never considered especially ‘bad’, it was just a notable step down from the Burton films and pandered to a younger audience in the hopes of making more money (which is always a terrible idea). It was full of stunt casting and opened with that (U2?) song, so everyone went to see it.
Its success is why Schumacher was given the next one (with famously dire consequences).
I’d actually like to watch it again, it’s been decades, but even on release I remember finding it too childish and Batman seemed to solve every problem with his Grapple Bathook on a piece of string 🤷🏻♂️
With Batman Forever, there's still at least a kernel of a good movie and I could sense that Joel Schumacher really tried to make a good movie in spite of the limitations or parameters that were imposed on him by Warner Bros. With Batman & Robin, it was like the studio got greedy and just told Schumacher that what they felt "worked" in Forever should be turned up to level 11 such as the campiness and the quips. In effect, they wanted a dumbed down, almost beat for beat rehash of Forever since they didn't want to take any more "chances" after the Batman Returns controversy in 1992.
shareI was 13 when this came out and really enjoyed it then. It didn't age well. Of the Schumacher movies, its the better. As an old guy, Jim Carey reall grinds my gears in this.
Idk if and why people would say this is a bad movie. Stylistically it's a very cool and unique film.
shareI too haven't seen it, so I will never know what I am missing. But not seeing it ever is part of the way I choose movies. It nearly guarantees me the possibility of watching the films that most appeal to me. You might like Batman Forever though. Keaton might be the best Bruce Wayne for me because he acts so well, but Kilmer looks the part and acts in a different way, and nails the part.
shareI like this film, I like it a LOT! It's not great cinema, but it's great fun in a camp and cheesy sort of way, and IMHO Jim Carrey is weirdly brilliant even though he's so over the top he's about to go into orbit.
It's a wild, colorful, intense, weird, film that's both goofy and serious, and it's still hard to believe that they let Schumacher get away with that level of Camp.
Batman Forever is actually my second favorite of the first four films following the 1989 one. I really don't like Batman Returns too much (I among other things, thought that it was way too dark and mean-spirited) and with Batman & Robin, it just felt like a case of "we don't really care anymore", let's just make some money and go home.
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