8. The Riddler - Batman Forever
I so nearly put Freeze on the list too; Ahnuld's OTT villain was iced at the eleventh hour. But if we are to have one wasted-potential Bat-villain, it has to be Jim Carrey's stellar performance as The Mask. It's a shame he was supposed to be playing the Riddler, a criminal mastermind constantly battling his obsessive compulsion. In retrospect, should anyone hire Jim Carrey in the '90s, they would have expected a certain Carrey-ness to the role, and so the character was tailored to suit the madcap personality that made Ace Ventura so successful. Unfortunately, it flew in the face of the classic comic-book character, as did Joel Schumacher's interpretation of the morose Mr Freeze. And Two-Face. And Poison Ivy. And Bane. Thank god the planned fifth Batman film never made it to air; it was rumoured to star the one and only Nicolas Cage as skinny fear-merchant Scarecrow, and the Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn to played by none other than Madonna. Unlike Thomas and Martha Wayne. I think we dodged a bullet.