Joel Schumacher

Schumacher replaced Tim Burton as the director of the Batman film franchise when he directed Batman Forever in 1995. Val Kilmer replaced Michael Keaton in the title role; despite a lukewarm critical reception, the film scored the highest-grossing opening weekend of 1995. It finished as the second highest-grossing film of the year in North America, and sixth-highest worldwide.

Yes, Schumacher's second Batman movie, 1997's Batman and Robin, is more of a "Schumacher" movie in many ways -- namely, that it emphasizes costumes and production design, gaudy as they may be, over all else. But Batman Forever is the more interesting of the two because it shows Schumacher trying really hard to make a "good" summer blockbuster instead of just following a studio edict to sell more toys. Tacky as it may be (Wah! Bat-nipples!), there's a lot to like in Batman Forever: Val Kilmer is pretty good in the title role, Chris O'Donnell brings a lot as Robin and many of the shots look like they were taken right out of a pre-Frank Miller issue of the comic. People love to hate this movie, but Schumacher definitely made a big-budget comic book movie that belongs as much to him as the first Batman belongs to Tim Burton. In a world in which people can claim that MY Superman is the one that kills people and MY Batman is the one who repeatedly calls it quits, isn't there room for this interpretation, too?

After this success, Warner Bros. hired Schumacher to direct a sequel, Batman & Robin, in 1997. The film did not perform as well at the box office as its predecessors, and was a critical failure; it is frequently considered to be one of the worst films ever made. Warner Bros. subsequently put the Batman movie series on hiatus, canceling Schumacher's next planned Batman movie, Batman Unchained. On the DVD commentary, Schumacher has admitted that his movie disappointed fans of darker Batman adaptations, saying that the film was made intentionally marketable (or "toyetic") and kid-friendly. He claims to have been under heavy pressure from the studio to do so; however, he admits full responsibility and, at one point, apologizes to any fans who were disappointed. Schumacher is a devoted Batman fan himself, and has said he would have personally preferred an adaptation of the comic Batman: Year One