Schumacher has also hit on a more consistent house acting-style half- way between

Schumacher has also hit on a more consistent house acting-style, half- way between cartoon and realism. Kilmer, taking over from Michael Keaton, has more butch presence, but less neurosis. But neither director has much mastery of action scenes (it will be interesting to compare the expert Brian De Palma’s fight scenes in the forthcoming Mission: Impossible). Joel Schumacher has replaced it with a canniness that borders on cynicism.

There have long been those who have argued that Batman and Robin, seen in the comics lolling around Wayne Manor in dressing gowns, are an idealised homosexual couple. Batman Forever toys with the idea, as if seeking to woo gays without offending straights. Robin talks of “hanging out with a lot of biker boys”, and indulges with Batman in the matey misogyny of the comics But at the end the relationship is left ambiguous. “A man’s gotta go his own way – a friend told me that,” Robin gushes. “Not just a friend,” Batman simpers back, clasping the boy’s hand. “A partner.” Whether the pair are gay or not, there is no doubting they are deliberately sexualised Their costumes incorporate giant, armoured cod-pieces. They look like the sort of things an English cricketer might wear to face Curtly Ambrose – without a bat, let alone a batman.Schumacher is a better story-teller than Burton, whose narratives were weighed down by Stygian gloom.

Schumacher allows his plots to simmer nicely for a while, before bringing them to the boil. It’s true there was monotony in the glacial elegance of Burton’s vision At least there was a vision. Tim Burton’s two Batman pictures were criticised – above all by the marketing men – for their unrelenting darkness. And the arrival, at last, of a Robin/Boy Wonder (Chris O’Donnell), neatly confirms the thesis.