For a change it's the acting rather than the action that makes the third screen adventure of Gotham City's dark knight worthwhile.

Val Kilmer is much better casting than Michael Keaton - he even gets the emotionless voice right - while Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey act their fiendish socks off as his deranged opponents, Two-Face and The Riddler.

If Chris O'Donnell seems wrong as Robin, then Nicole Kidman and Drew Barrymore provide more personable female support than old pointy ears has had to date.

A circus sequence early on provides the punchiest of the visual thrills.

But too many of the combat sequences lack cohesion and definition, setting off routine explosions and punch-ups which don't help the progression of a scene.

It's personalities rather than power that see this typically dark-toned outing through.