VHS Review: Batman Forever (1995)

30 years later, this film deserves so much more love than it originally got

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Introduction:

The Burton/Schumacher era of Batman films are films that would define Batman and how many people that grew up in the era would remember the iconic character. Batman 89 is something that would change superhero films forever and influence the path going forward. Batman Returns would be a controversial film at the time that would be dark and would be spilt among people (I love it lol). Then you have Schumacher’s Batman & Robin which was considered the worst superhero film ever and would eventually lead the path for Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. But in the middle of it all, we would get Batman Forever which feels like a Frankenstein of a Batman movie. It has so much campiness to it, horniness, and so much more to it. It had been known to be disliked among fans and for a good while, I thought the same, However as I reevaluated the film 30 years after its initial release, I have grown to really love Batman Forever and I think of it as one of the best Batman films out there.

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Review:

As soon as you hear Batman say “I’ll get drive thru” as one of the first lines of the film, you know you’re about to watch something special. A lot goes on into the story of Batman Forever and it makes for a chaotic yet entertaining film to watch. There’s a surprising amount of the balance between campiness and seriousness into the story that it makes me really love that about the film. The Burton/Schumacher films have their fair share of campiness and seriousness thrown in, but I feel that this movie does the best at balancing both. It creates an entertaining film out of it.

When it comes to Val Kilmer’s Batman itself, I think it gets under valued from many people because of how popular other iterations are like Michael Keaton and Christian Bale. But Kilmer is one of my favorite iterations of the character. His Batman is very fun to watch even if it is corny as times. He gets a lot to work with and I think Kilmer utilizes it as much as possible which shows in the final product. Then you have his Bruce Wayne which I feel is under appreciated as well. Up till this point, I don't think Bruce Wayne was explored too much in the live action adaptations, so seeing it here made for a interesting way to explore this character and gave him more depth to him as well.

You have the rest of the cast to round it out like Jim Carrey’s Riddler who I think is perfectly casted here. He’s technically just doing what Jim Carrey always does, but he manages to make it work here. Chris O’Donnell’s Robin is very fun and it’s nice to see Robin in one of these films and I think he’s utilized pretty good here. Nicole Kidman’s Dr. Meridian is one of the most entertaining characters just with her interactions with Batman and how ridiculously horny they get with each other. It’s also Nicole Kidman and she’s just iconic like that. I always did feel Tommy Lee Jones Two Face was the one character that I could never come around to though. It always felt like he played side fiddle against Jim Carrey and even with some good scenes like the opening, I never cared too much about him. I think if he played the character more serious. It could’ve created a hilarious dynamic between him and Riddler but with what we got, I was never a fan of his Two Face. I will say though that they do have homoerotic undertones with how Riddler and Two Face communicate with each other and honestly that just makes so much sense for those characters and kinda makes it work. But I think the rest of cast is doing great here and makes the film work. Also Michael Gough’s Alfred will forever be iconic.

The Tim Burton films have this gothic look to them that we see from other Burton films and it definitely works for the vibe that he goes for, but the Schumacher movies just decide to go for this colorful looking Gotham city and I have to say, I’m kinda a fan of how the production design looks in this film. There’s a ton of entertaining set pieces that this film has to offer to it. The look of Gotham I really like in the film and makes it stand out compared to Burtons films. Then you just have a lot of exciting set pieces like the Batcave, the opening bank scene, the circus, the riddler final confrontation room, and so much more. You have the costumes to compliment that as well. Even though you have bat nipples for the suit and the ass shot in the beginning lol, the bat suit looks really nice as does every other costume in the film. You can see so much effort coming out from a production standpoint and how Schumacher didn’t just want to follow in Burtons footsteps. His team did something different and I really appreciate that.

I think what makes this movie work is how bonkers it is. As I’ve mentioned, this film is super campy and has some seriousness thrown in there as well. It makes for a weird but funny tone the movie has. The opening scene line is hilarious. Batman smiling is the reason this film is iconic. Can’t forget Batman giving that iconic thumbs up as well. It makes the film so fun to watch in that sense. This isn’t the only thing as this movie has an absurd amount of horniness attached to it. The scenes between Meridian and Batman are absurdly horny and it’s not what you would expect a Batman film to have. But it plays so well into the film that I just love it. I could go on about this, but I think watching it explains plenty for itself.

I also have to talk about how this film gave us one of the greatest songs to accompany a movie which is Kiss From a Rose by Seal. Words can’t describe how much of a banger this song is and after I watched this movie in 2022 before The Batman, I listened to this song so much it ended up in my Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year. Just shows the power of the song and how iconic it is.

I never would’ve expected this movie to grow on me the way that it has. But I just find a lot to appreciate about this movie and what it does. It definitely gets buried in between the Burton and Nolan movies. But there’s a ton here to appreciate and people should go back to watch it. Even if they might not like it, I still think they could get a good time out of it just with how crazy it is.

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Final Thoughts:

Batman Forever is a unique film in this age of Batman films, but I think it has aged really well and something that I can appreciate as I watch it again. It does a lot and makes for a fun time watching it.

Rating: 8/10