Forever? Oh, I hope not.
Leave it to the suits at Warner Brothers to decid the phenomenally successful formula of their BATMAN franchise must be dramatically changed. Although the third film did squeak by the second financially, the story-telling and overall production suffered tremendously. The most disastrous change was losing Tim Burton as director, replacing him with Joel Schumacher. Long gone is the timeless Gotham, a major character in the first two films. Now Gotham is a cheesier modern city where fedora's have been replaced by baseball caps. Industrial shadow has been replaced by bright neon colors with occasional glimpses of gothic statues. Schumacher's vision put the film focus back on the hero whereas its predecessors focused on the villains. This results in a sufficient Riddler (cast to type Jim Carrey) and a boring appearance as Two-face (Tommy Lee Jones taking a role played by Billy Dee Williams in the first BATfilm). Another exchange came in Val Kilmer's replacement of Michael Keaton. This was not a loss as Kilmer's new take on the Lighter Knight worked better with the comic themed script. Overall, the story is extremely plot and character heavy: adding two new villains with two henchwomen, a love interest (beautiful Nicole Kidman) and a partner in Robin (Chris O'Donnell in a fun turn). This film has none of the psycho-interest of the first 2 films and the screenplay leaves nothing to the imagination. Every though comes out of someone's mouth. The DVD release has no extra features with the exception of the dreaded 'production notes'. It has a standard video transfer that will test the color spectrum in this new look for the franchise. The audio transfer is good. Not as interesting, artistic or aggressive as either of the Burton films, the mindless BATMAN FOREVER left me with one thought:

The Bat-Signal is not a beeper.

The thing that really makes me mad though is taking a Great Actor, Tommy Lee Jones, Cast him as a Great Character, Two-Face, and Making him perform him like he was the Joker and under-develop him to the point that he plays second fiddle, no pun intended, to JIM CARREY! CURSE YOU SHUMACHER!

If the film had centered around Two-Face and Bruce's guilt for not being fast enough to help him, it would have been great! But that is almost an after thought in the actual film. Blaming Two-Face for the Death of Robin's parents sets him up to be a "Robin" villain, Something more suitable for Riddler or the Penguin.

All this ranting aside, Tommy is the only Main Character who is actually convincing in the film. It's too bad he wasn't able to work with Tim Burton and Michael Keaton on a film that was worthwhile.

Elliot Goldenthal Wrote the music but it pales in comparison with Elfman's work on the first two films.

I was hoping there would be deleted scenes on the DVD but there aren't any. Most of Tommy's Scenes are in the movie, but some juicier moments were cut. Oh well.

The third installment in the "Batman" series. Here the Caped Crusader must once again contend with two strange-looking, personality-impaired villains. First, there's maniacal ex-DA Harvey Two-Face, so named because half his countenance has been horribly disfigured by acid. Then there's the wise-cracking, hyperactive Riddler, whose alter-ego Edward Nygma is a nerdy, highly disgruntled ex-employee of Bruce Wayne. Together, these two masterminds plan to conquer the world with a device that not only mesmerizes users with 3-D television images, but also transports the viewer's thoughts into the Riddler's mind.Batman also has to contend with two other new people in his life. One is lovely psychiatrist Chase Meridian, who has fallen in love with Batman AND Bruce Wayne. Then there's Dick Grayson, a young, orphaned acrobat who desperately wants to become Batman's crime-fighting sidekick in order to get revenge on the man responsible for his parents' death: Harvey Two-Face.(7/10)

"Not as dark as its predecessor but still a great visual feast"
-- Stefan Birgir Stefansson, SBS.IS

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