10 Villains DC Movies Got Completely Wrong
5. The Riddler (Batman Forever)
The Riddler was often portrayed as a tongue-in-cheek villain in some of the early DC Comics, but the family-friendly Batman Forever took this too far by casting Jim Carrey in the role and giving him free reign to go full comedy.
Carrey's spandex-clad Edward Nygma was the character that made the first film of the Joel Schumacher era a throwback to the days of Adam West - his portrayal was over the top and just downright silly.
The biggest problem was the movie's tone. In search of bigger box office bucks, Warner Bros took Batman into PG territory and a pantomime-style Riddler, offset against the somewhat grittier Two Face, was deemed the best fit for this style.
Like numerous other characters, Nygma was a victim of Schumacher's approach because the Riddler is a character ripe for reinvention on the big screen. In an age of mass surveillance and Wikileaks, the puzzle-obsessed baddie could be reinterpreted as a master cypher who tests Bruce Wayne's detective skills to the max.
Alternately, he could be remoulded as a Saw-style villain, who snares Batman in a series of complex traps that can only be escaped through advanced problem solving.
But, back in the 1990s, Schumacher played it safe with a family-friendly Batman movie, and the Riddler was one of the characters who suffered most.