Batman (Val Kilmer returns, again, this time to fight Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones and Riddler (Jim Carrey). They've come up with a plan to steal the thoughts of everyone in Gotham and to find out who the man is behind the bat cowl. But this isn't the only problem for Bruce Wayne has taken in Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), a boy who lost his parents in a horrible accident, and his identities begin to clash.

This movie takes a huge turn from Batman Returns, going for a much campier, lighter feeling akin to the Batman television series from the 1960s. In fact, it feels
exactlylike a modernized version of that. Even Kilmer's performance as Batman is almost identical to Adam West. But where that show was intentionally goofy and able to pull it off really well, this movie is only intentionally goofy half of the time. The other half is spend brooding and trying to develop a serious psychological story but ultimately being able to come up with nothing. It is pure agony having to sit through any point in this film where the villains are not on screen, hamming it up big time. But it's even worse when they are on screen.

Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones have never been this annoying. I like both of these actors, and you can tell they're having fun with this project, but their fun is my pain. They are not funny and their characters are very poorly written. Their plan is incredibly convoluted and the way it plays out makes absolutely no sense. It all feels so contrived. The heroes never seem to be in danger and every death is met with apathy. There is absolutely no emotion when Dick Grayson's parents die, partly because the scene is done so poorly and partly because Chris O'Donnell is such a terrible actor. The way the villains are dealt with in the end completely contradicts the entire point of both Batman and Robin as characters.

This is also an incredibly ugly film. About half of the movie is filmed at an angle and all of it is filmed at awkward distances. Every action scene is filmed too close, making it impossible to see what's going on, and the staging of every scene in the film is completely lacking of professionalism. It feels like a Batman movie made by a student filmmaker who doesn't understand a thing about Batman.

After the first two films of this franchise, it's sad to see just how wrong it went. The studio seriously screwed up and unfortunately they didn't pay for it until the next film.


Final Verdict: