Batman Forever (1995)
By the mid-1990s, the Batman franchise was one of the most commercially powerful properties in Hollywood. Tim Burton's 1989 original had proved that a superhero film could be taken seriously as a piece of cinema, and its 1992 follow-up Batman Returns pushed the gothic, expressionist aesthetic even further, to the point where Warner Bros. grew nervous about its darker edges. The studio wanted something broader, brighter, and more toyetic (the merchandising ambitions were, by all accounts, a significant factor in the creative direction). Enter Joel Schumacher, a director whose career had oscillated between tightly wound thrillers like Falling Down and glossy, crowd-pleasing entertainments like The Client. Schumacher was handed a considerable budget, reportedly in the region of $100 million, and tasked with steering Gotham City toward a younger, more commercially accessible audience. The result was a production that looked and felt like a deliberate reset: neon signage replacing shadow, primary colours replacing gloom, and a tone that owed rather more to the 1966 Adam West television series than to anything Burton had attempted. Whether that was the right call is, of course, a matter of some debate, and one this site has indirectly circled before in our look at the franchise's next chapter, Batman & Robin (1997).
The film places Bruce Wayne against two antagonists: Harvey Dent, the former Gotham district attorney disfigured and fractured into the coin-flipping Two-Face, and Edward Nygma, a disgruntled former employee of Wayne Enterprises who reinvents himself as the puzzle-obsessed Riddler. A romance with forensic psychologist Chase Meridian adds a further strand, as does the arrival of a young circus acrobat named Dick Grayson, whose own family tragedy sets him on the path toward becoming Robin. It is, in other words, a great deal of plot to fit into just over two hours. Val Kilmer stepped into the role vacated by Michael Keaton, and he brought a quieter, more interior quality to Bruce Wayne than the material perhaps required. Tommy Lee Jones took on Two-Face fresh from his Oscar-winning turn in The Fugitive, leaning hard into the theatrical excess the role seemed to demand. Jim Carrey, then at the absolute peak of his box-office pull following Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and The Mask (1994), was handed the Riddler and treated it as an invitation to perform at maximum volume throughout. Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell as Dick Grayson, and a briefly glimpsed Jon Favreau round out a cast that, on paper at least, looks rather starrier than the finished film might suggest it needed to be.
Elliot Goldenthal provided a score that leaned into grand orchestral bombast, and the soundtrack, which featured contributions from U2, Seal, and a number of other prominent acts, was itself a sizeable commercial enterprise. The film opened to strong numbers, grossing well over $300 million worldwide, which at the time made it one of the higher-earning entries in the franchise. Critical reception was polished but unremarkable, with most reviewers landing somewhere in the territory of mild approval rather than genuine enthusiasm. It remains, for many people who grew up with it in the 1990s, a film of considerable nostalgic weight, even where its structural wobbles are freely acknowledged.
Joel Schumacher’s 1995 outing, Batman Forever, is a bit of a weird one, mostly because it represents such a massive tonal departure from the brooding, gothic pictures Tim Burton gave us with Batman and Batman Returns.
Instead, Schumacher pivots hard, leaning heavily into a neon-drenched, slightly campy aesthetic that actually feels much more in line with the nostalgic 90s animated series. You certainly can't fault the sheer star power on display, either. The cast is absolutely amazing, featuring Val Kilmer (who is arguably one of the better, more stoic Batmen we've had) alongside a gorgeous Nicole Kidman, a brilliantly unhinged Tommy Lee Jones, a young Jon Favreau, and the wildly energetic Jim Carrey.
Where the film starts to wobble a bit, however, is in its narrative structure. The story feels incredibly bloated, purely because the studio tried to cram far too many origin stories, villains, and subplots into a single runtime. Furthermore, Jim Carrey’s Riddler often feels a bit too much like the Joker. Watching him bounce off the walls in that ridiculous green suit, you can't help but think that if they had just dropped the riddles and let Carrey play a completely manic, neon-clad Joker, it probably would have been absolutely incredible. Instead, we get a slightly diluted version of that chaotic energy that doesn't quite hit the specific mark it’s aiming for, leaving the villain feeling a bit like a Jack Nicholson impersonation rather than his own distinct threat.
It’s also no secret that the acting across the board is super hammy and delightfully over the top, especially from the villains who seem to be in a fierce competition to see who can chew the most scenery. But despite the narrative bloat and the campy theatrics, there is honestly far more to like here than to dislike.
It’s a fun, colourful, popcorn-munching spectacle that doesn't take itself too seriously, even if it’s not a great cinematic masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. Batman Forever is a highly entertaining, deeply flawed, but undeniably fun slice of 90s blockbuster cinema that still holds a special, nostalgic place in my heart.
Batman Forever sits in a curious position in the broader superhero canon: too self-aware to be taken entirely seriously, too sincere to be written off as pure camp. Schumacher made a film that, for better or worse, knew exactly the audience it was chasing, even if the architecture holding it together was not always equal to the ambition. For anyone interested in how the superhero blockbuster evolved (and occasionally stumbled) through the decade, it makes for a genuinely instructive double bill alongside Michael Mann's Heat (1995), a film from the very same year that shows what a different set of priorities looks like at similar budget levels. But taken on its own terms, as a big, loud, Saturday-afternoon entertainment built for a generation that grew up with bright colours and a particular kind of anarchic fun, it still earns a reasonable amount of goodwill. Sometimes a film does not need to be great to be worth your time. It just needs to be honest about what it is.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1995 | Watched: 2026-06-30
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Batman Forever (1995) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel · Sky Go · Now TV Cinema
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Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel · YouTube TV · HBO Max
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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