4. Recast Robin
I have no idea what casting directors were thinking when they chose Chris ODonnell to be Dick Grayson. For one, he and Kilmer are so close in age that the whole father-figure thing came off like Bruce was trying too hard to act older than he was, while Dick seemed extremely immature. Adding to that, ODonnell is just not a very good actor. I cant think of a single movie Ive seen where I actually enjoyed his performance and in this, he really is the odd man out. The rest of the cast, although they dont show it in Batman Forever, are great actors. Its all the more baffling how ODonnell got the role in the first place given far better actors who auditioned for the role. Matt Damon, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, and, ironically enough, Christian Bale were all considered, as were others. The final choice actually came down to ODonnell and Leonardo DiCaprio. But instead of making the decision based on acting ability, instead they took photos of ODonnell and DiCaprio, showed then to eleven-year-old boys, and asked them who would win in a fight. When they overwhelmingly said ODonnell, he got the part. DiCaprio was still in his pretty-boy teen heartthrob stage of his career at that time, but had he done a serious Batman movie as Robin, he might have been able to move away from that at an earlier point. More than that, his youthful looks would have made the father/son dynamic between Bruce and Dick make more sense. Plus, hes just flat-out a far better actor than ODonnell.