Sad I was when I realized what had happened to the Batman franchise. The first two movies had been dark and serious with fairly good plots and incredible acting. But, when Joel Schumacher took over, things went awry. Gotham was turned from a shadowy city to a colorful one, neon colors and all. The Batmobile was transformed into a glowing hunk of metal that bobbed as it drove. Batman himself was changed into a somewhat cheesy costume and he was given Robin to aid him. When I first saw the original Batman, I asked how can this be without Robin. Now I know.   Batman doesn't need help by a teenager; it just adds extra dollars to the film which could be used to get a director that knows what he's doing. Furthermore, The Riddler was played by Jim Carrey who, though doing a good job, was a little too kooky for Batman films. Two-Face was a second-rate villain and nothing like in the comics. In the comics, he switches back and forth from compassionate Harvey Dent to deadly Two-Face; in Batman Forever, the entire time he is crazy and hardly interesting. Nicole Kidman is pretty stupid (she throws herself all over Batman).

What's just as bad is that they don't do the same kind of character development they did in the first two. Two-Face is there from the start, The Riddler's emergence is less than satisfying, and all-in-all we don't get the same feel that made the Batman movies so good. If I were too have written the plot, it would have been something like this: Harvey Dent is turned into Two-Face and the rest of the movie he is trying to kill the mob boss that did this to him. They should have saved The Riddler for another movie.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.