Stars: Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Chris O’ Donnell and Nicole Kidman

The third movie in the series sees Joel Schumacher take over the reins aftger Tim Burton opted out. As a result we have welcome relief from the overtly dark movies that the first two were and a sense of humour returning to the fold. You know what you’re in for when the following opening takes place:

Arthur : “Do you want me to prepare some food for you Sir”

Batman : “No, I’ll get Drive thru”

As with the previous movies we have new characters and new bad guys being introduced.

Firstly we have Two Face (Jones). Two Face is lawyer Harvey Dent who gets horribly disfigured by one of his former clients and blames Batman for his condition.

Edward Nigma (Carrey) is a former employee of Wayne Enterprises (no guessing who owns the company here!) who invents a device that enables people to not just watch television but to be part of it. An acccident sees him become The Riddler who harbours a grudge against Bruce Wayne and wants to see him destroyed.

Needless to say these two super villans join forces in ORDER to see Batman destroyed regardless of who gets in the way.

We also finally get to see Robin re-introduced into the franchise. Dick Grayson (O’Donnell) finds himself alone after the death of his family at the hands of Two Face. After being taken in by Bruce Wayne, Dick is determined to get revenge on Two Face and as a result Bruce sees something of himself in the boy and doesn’t want to see him end up the same.

Dr. Meridian Chase (Kidman)who is a psychologist who is fascinated by Batman and who will do whatever it takes to meet him but at the same time has feelings for Bruce Wayne which, as you and I know, causes something of a problem!

The capers pulled by the two bad guys in this movie are much more advanced that what we saw in the previous installments and the dynamic duo are pushed to their limits in trying to bring the evil reign of terror to an end. There are a lot more “bat gadgets” seen in this movie which helps raise the entertainment stakes to new heights.

THE EXTRAS

* Production Notes

CONCLUSION

With the exception of Nicholson’s Joker, this is the better of the all the Batman Movies…. a must if you have the first 2 movies…