Batman Forever: Red Book Edition

This fan edit has been held in high regards for some time now so I was excited to finally sit down and watch it.

From the opening scene I felt like I was watching another movie. Then with the transition to the red Bat logo and then to the Batmobile taking off I thought this is fantastic. However from that point onwards my enthusiasm waned.

Most of the deleted scenes worked great though some could have benefited from more sound design. The newly added Goldenthal cues generally work but I think ultimately his score just isn't right for Batman

What bothered me most about this edit was the colour design. From scene to scene the picture didn't seem very consistent. In some scenes it was very nearly black and white and in others very flat. If I felt this was the editors intention I could except it but I'm not entirely sure it was. I appreciate the flashy neon design that Schumacher created wasn't right for Batman, nevertheless I think I prefer that over a very flat image.

With all that said this is still a very good fan edit. Scaperat could've probably been more brutal with cuts, but most of the truly offensive stuff is gone making this a much more watchable film.

As other reviewers have said, a lot of the cheese from Forever has gone, but I'm not sure if you can polish this waste. The problem isn't the editor, it's more a problem of the film itself as the film is quite simply a mess and I doubt many people surrounding this film initially thought that they would end up with a car crash of a film (still.....Batman & Robin, anyone?)

The deleted scenes are grainy, off-coloured and unfortunately don't match the rest of the film. On whole, I don't really think they improve the film much and I'm sure they were originally deleted because Bruce basically tells the audience that he is "whole" with Batman (whatever that means) with his final confrontation with The Riddler.

Maybe, The Riddler and Two Face could have been further toned down. I don't blame you for leaving The Riddler as Jim Carrey is visually amazing and I don't know if making the film "darker" was your true intention. The scene with the "dark/light Two Face girls" is very cheesy and I honestly thought that the scene in particular would have been kept to an minimum....but recently thinking about it again, it may have looked awkward when the girls re-appear at The Riddler's exhibition and at the evil island in the final confrontation. Who knows how it would have looked, I can't really pass judgement.

Another problem is Chase, she could have been reduced even further really. Maybe it could be someone's job to see if they could remove her completely? I personally don't see much need for the character at all. Nicole Kidman was purely in it for her name and nothing else.

On conclusion, I think you did your best trying to change the film. Maybe you could have made the film darker by changing the soundtrack audio and trimming the remaining bits of cheese you left in? But again, maybe that was not your intention. Would I keep this edit and watch it again? Probably not. But the cuts in audio and visuals were very well made and I'm sure you got the end result that you personally wanted to achieve, so good on you.

Thank you Scaperat! :]X

I enjoyed it. I showed it to my brother, and he likes it. It overall make Batman Forever more serious than the theatrical version.

as with any fanedit that incorporates deleted or unfinished scenes, some of the quality does suffer a bit. however, as this is unavoidable i don’t really include that in a rating unless it is unnecessarily added.

i can happily say that this is a great fanedit and a 4/5 from me. i really enjoyed the excised silliness and unnecessary elements and what was added helps a great deal. the image overall DID seem degraded and was a bit distracting.

entertainment 5/5
fanediting 5/5
video 4/5
audio 5/5
original 3/5?
fanedit 4.5/5

4/5