10 Villains DC Movies Got Completely Wrong
2. Two Face (Batman Forever)
Like everything else in Batman Forever, Two Face wasn't so much watered down as he was drowned within an inch of his life. Harvey Dent is one of the most complex and tragic rogues in the Bat gallery, and his duality and downfall have given writers across multiple mediums plenty of substance to explore.
Casting Tommy Lee Jones, a veteran actor capable of channelling true gravitas, should have helped the movie plumb some of that depth, but sadly Joel Schumacher had zero ambition to do that. His version of Two Face was a second-rate rehash of Jack Nicholson's Joker.
Jones's Dent cackles manically when hatching a diabolical scheme and throws a tantrum when they don't pan out. The role was supposed to be a conflicted exploration of dark duality, inner turmoil and a heartbreaking downfall, but deviation from the comic books saw it descend into cliche.
While Zack Snyder has been criticises for deconstructing characters in the current DCEU, at least there was vision underpinning his process. Schumacher deconstructed DC heroes and villains and left only their bones behind.