Batman Forever: Red Book Edition - The 15th Anniversary Enhanced Edition

I heard about Kevin Smith screening the Schemer Cut, and so I finally decided to check out this legendary "Red Book Edition" I’ve heard about forever but never actually watched, usually due to the lower quality of the original.

I’ll usually watch fanedits on plane rides, but many suck and I don’t get through the first half hour. But goddamn this was awesome. Loved the slightly more serious tone of the film, and still hit the nostalgia moments from my childhood, when I last watched this movie.
Great work, great quality. Highly recommended.

This is, in fact, the first fanedit I've ever watched, and I'm glad it was this one. INIGHTMARES has done a phenomenal job at touching up and recreating Scaperat's original edit.

The noir-like colour grading reminiscent of Sin City was something I was a great fan of, and it made me realise how strangely well this movie works in B&W. The inclusion and touching-up of the deleted scenes was incredible and strengthened the movie's story a LOT. The removal of certain parts helped tighten up the pacing.

However, a problem I have with this edit overall is that it attempts to transform the movie into something that's just impossible: a darker, less campy take on Batman. I admire Scaperat's attempts a lot, but the colourful goofiness is just something that was always permanently a part of Batman Forever's identity. I also just plainly prefer that the embracing of the camp in general, to be fairly honest.

In conclusion, I think that this is a phenomenal fanedit of one of my favourite Batman movies that, while I don't personally agree with in some parts, is still just an incredible piece of work that Scaperat and INIGHTMARES should receive praise for. I still wouldn't call it the ideal way to watch Batman Forever, but it IS an improvement.

Quite liking Tim Burton’s Batman (particular Dwight Fry’s “Descent into Mystery”) and loving Batman Returns, I have been reluctant to venture into the world of Joel Schumacher and his rather less well-regarded entries. This recent re-redo has prompted my interest, and will shortly be followed by MusicEd912’s “Deep Freeze” recut of Batman & Robin.

This is probably the least favourite of mine out of the three, though that in no way means it’s bad! I happily watched it straight through and never lost interest and could quite imagine myself doing so again. The feelings I have are entirely unoriginal, with the main point of annoyance being the overacting villains, even compared to the previous entries! Would be interesting to see how more cutting might help, might try some of the other edits available here.

AV generally excellent, barring the low-quality deleted scenes of course but the desaturation and added grain helps with quality consistency. Thanks Scaperat for making the original edit, and INIGHTMARES for enhancing it!

Amazing edit, feels very seamless in terms of deleted-scene integration! I give it a very high approval rating, would like to say though that it's a bit too black and white, I missed the Burton Blues...

But still a solid edit

This is hands down the best fanedit I've seen so far.
I've never hated Batman Forever, but it was never a movie I took very seriously.
This edit changes that completely. The recolouring is very severe, but I can't say it isn't stylish. Once you get used to it, it actually feels weirdly fitting for a Batman story, and the whole movie is made much quieter with some scenes using more sombre music, or no music at all, which gives the whole film a moody atmosphere and sort of counteracts the campiness and odd performances.
The inclusion of the red book storyline also elevates the film far above what was theatrically released. The original didn't feel like it had much personal stake for Batman, which I think is a big part of why it's so forgettable, but this version really challenges Batman as a character more than I ever expected.
There were one or two edits I noticed, like dialogue lines being cut short when Bruce is talking to Dick, or the TV broadcast of Two-Face's origin being cut short for no real reason imo, but mostly the edits were seamlessly done.
I did have a few visual issues with this edit, though. There was a lot of grainy noise in the picture, which was a stylistic choice, but I didn't like it much and I have to mention that it bothered me. It was also very difficult to tell what was happening during the finale in part because of the darkness and desaturation.
There were also a few issues that carried over from the original. While Val Kilmer's Bruce Wayne was monumentally improved, Jim Carry and Tommy Lee Jones' odd performance choices still stick out to a large degree. While a lot of this can't be helped, there were one or two Riddler lines that I felt could have been cut.
All in all though, the good parts of this edit far outweigh the bad. Not only in comparison to the original, but also on it's own merit. I this was released in '95 as a Batman movie exactly as it is, I have no doubt that I would absolutely love it. It definitely replaces the original for me.
A great edit and a great movie.