Take a look back at the many on-screen incarnations of Batman and Superman over the years.
Related lists from IMDb users
Title: Batman Forever (1995)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Val Kilmer | ... | ||
| Tommy Lee Jones | ... | ||
| Jim Carrey | ... | ||
| Nicole Kidman | ... | ||
| Chris O'Donnell | ... | ||
| Michael Gough | ... | ||
| Pat Hingle | ... | ||
| Drew Barrymore | ... | ||
| Debi Mazar | ... | ||
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Elizabeth Sanders | ... | |
| Rene Auberjonois | ... | ||
| Joe Grifasi | ... | ||
| Philip Moon | ... | ||
| Jessica Tuck | ... | ||
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Dennis Paladino | ... | |
The Dark Knight of Gotham City confronts a dastardly duo: Two-Face and the Riddler. Formerly District Attorney Harvey Dent, Two-Face incorrectly believes Batman caused the courtroom accident which left him disfigured on one side; he has unleashed a reign of terror on the good people of Gotham. Edward Nygma, computer-genius and former employee of millionaire Bruce Wayne, is out to get the philanthropist; as The Riddler he perfects a device for draining information from all the brains in Gotham, including Bruce Wayne's knowledge of his other identity. Batman/Wayne is/are the love focus of Dr. Chase Meridan. Former circus acrobat Dick Grayson, his family killed by Two-Face, becomes Wayne's ward and Batman's new partner Robin the Boy Wonder. Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
Some people talk about "the stick of straw that broke the camel's back", meaning when something reached the tipping point. So when did the Batman franchise go bad? Well, "Batman Forever" was getting silly, but it still had Jim Carrey to steal the show as The Riddler ("Batman and Robin" had about as many good qualities as a barrel of toxic waste). Personally, I don't know why they had to have Batman (Val Kilmer) going through therapy; remove that and he still would have been a cool superhero with neat gadgets. Tommy Lee Jones wasn't bad as Two-Face. Nicole Kidman and Chris O'Donnell, as Dr. Chase Meridian and Robin, respectively, didn't really add anything.
Overall, the point is that when Joel Schumacher took over directing, the franchise went downhill. Part of the problem was that while Tim Burton created an eerie Gotham City that looked like New York in the 1940s, Joel Schumacher created a Gotham City that looked like it was trying too hard to be "Blade Runner".
So, the franchise starting getting stale with this one, but Jim Carrey kept the movie from being unwatchable. As Edward Nygma, one of Bruce Wayne's employees, he had some great lines. In the movie, Nygma proposes a device that rests atop TV sets and reads peoples' minds, but Wayne rejects it, considering it too dangerous. Thus, Nygma becomes The Riddler, and he's the best character in the movie.