Batman & Robin

BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: "Big. Bold. Lavish. Outstanding Visual Mischief." Janet Maslin, The New York Times.

FILM REVIEW: After taking the Batman franchise in a completely new direction with "Batman Forever", I looked forward to "Batman and Robin" with much enthusiasm. Sadly, this film is absolute crap of the worst kind. You'll walk out of this film demanding your money back. "Batman Forever" walked a fine line between the darkness of its predecessors and instilling a sense of fun in to the franchise. With "Batman and Robin", director Joel Schumacher has simply turned it back in to the 60's television show, but what's worse, is that it not only makes fun of that show but it also manages to insult and parody the dramatic seriousness of the previous films, especially the first "Batman" film which had intended to divorce the word 'camp' from 'Batman'. Now they're back together again. Not even an impressive Schwarzenegger who tries his hardest to lift this dire material can save this absolute disaster of a movie. And it's staggering to know that they spent $100 million on this film...
Except a couple of scenes with Arnie as Mr Freeze, nothing works in this film. George Clooney, an otherwise good actor and strong screen presence is totally miscast as Bruce Wayne (who by the way, is meant to be mentally anguished, not fun and playful as he is here). Chris O'Donnell turns the same performance as the previous film, but ultimately comes across more whiney thanks to a pathetic subplot where Robin wants his own respect away from Batman. Uma Thurman as Poison Ivy; there was so much potential there but it's ultimately hard to watch starting with her 'birth' from plants.
It all starts to fall of the rails in the first big action scene where we see Batman and Robin try to stop Mr Freeze from stealing a big crystal. Arnie is actually quite effective in these scenes, but it just goes way over the top, culminating in Batman and Robin blasting out of a rocket and flying back down to Earth on surf boards (yes that's right, surf boards...). Then it just keeps going including an awful scene where Batman and Robin attend a benefit and are lured into the evil clutches of Poison Ivy and then turn against each other in fits of jealousy. Even Arnie doesn't get off with a bad scene where he's trying to get his henchmen to sing to a Christmas tune. Not good. Then there's the introduction of Bat-girl, clearly a hook designed to get young girls to watch the film and that's exactly how her character comes off. It just seems ludicrous that so many of these over-the-top characters could be all located in one story. And last but not least, the sculpted body suits that caused such a stir in "Batman Forever" are truly over-emphasised to the point of stupidity in this film with numerous ass and breast shots (in the body suits) as the characters don their costumes.
Again, this film suffers from having too many characters (including the introduction of Batgirl played by Alicia Silverstone). Whereas "Batman Forever" got away with having too many characters, this film just seems to be a celebrity-fest designed to cater to Hollywood egos. But what really kills this film is that lack of respect it shows to the characters. And fans, and non-fans alike, deserve better than this tripe. We only got a couple of 60's television Batman references in "Batman Forever" but they're all over the place in "Batman and Robin" which is totally inappropriate as this Batman is supposed to be different to the 60's Batman.
Don't watch this film. You'll be demanding your time and money back.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: "Batman and Robin", like it predecessor, receives an excellent transfer; the images are vibrant, strong and crisp. It's a shame it's such a bad film. The audio is extremely well done, and will give your home theatre system a solid work-out. Overall, a well produced disc.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The extra features on this disc are on par with "Batman Returns" and "Batman Forever", offering an almost identical amount of extras as those discs. We have an informative, but not extensive, documentary on the making of the film which offers a humble Joel Schumacher accepting responsibility for the film's failure and why he thinks it didn't work. There are featurettes on specific aspects of the production, four music videos, additional scenes and an audio commentary by director Joel Schumacher (which is an extension of the documentary and reveals some of the thought processes that went in to this travesty of a film - more interesting than you might imagine). Overall, a decent extras package.

BOTTOM LINE: Don't even bother.

FILM RATING: 2/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 7/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 3/10 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

I’m sure that we’ve all heard how this is the film that caused the demise of the Batmanfranchise. I wish I could disagree, but I just can’t. While the film isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be (it’s not that great, either), it doesn’t come close to the level of the previous films.
I read that director Joel Schumacher chose George Clooney to replace Val Kilmer as Batman/Bruce Wayne because he wasn’t as serious as Kilmer or Michael Keaton. Hello! This is Batman, he’s suppose to be serious. The jokes and such are meant for Robin and Batgirl. Having said that, Clooney did what he could with a subpar script and less than stellar directing.
Chris O’Donnell returns as Robin. Unlike in Batman Forever, he’s not whining, complaining, and feeling sorry for himself the entire film. Although he is obviously more in tune with Dick Grayson/Robin in this film, I still have to say that he is too old to play him. That really is my only issue with him.
Alicia Silverstone enters the franchise as one of the most underrated characters in the Bat-universe, Batgirl. First, Batgil is supposed to be Barbara Gordon, daughter of Commissioner Gordon, not niece of Alfred. Whoever wrote this, royally screwed up, or at least didn’t fully read the source material. Next, Alicia Silverstone, while being a total cutie, just wasn’t meant to be Batgirl. Had they have made up some random girl for O’Donnell to date, then she would have been perfect for that, but she just doesn’t pull of Batgirl. I’m not sure what it is, but something about her performance doesn’t sit right with me.
Uma Thurman holds her own as Poison Ivy. She seems to have taken a page out of Jim Carrey’s book, and makes the character a tad eccentric, but at the same time, she keeps Ivy faithful to the comic, which I, as a fan, really respect her for. I’m not sure if I cared for her speaking like a 50’s era vixen, but there are a lot of worse things she could have done.
Arnold Schrazenegger should not have been Mr. Freeze. No one will ever mistake Arnold for a master thespian such as Laurence Olivier, but his performance here was painful to watch. On top of the fact that he bears no resemblance to the character in the comic, this just was not inspired casting, but rather bad comedy.
Whoever it was that designed the costumes for this film needs to be drug out into the street and shot. Ok, so they did an awesome job with Poison Ivy and Bane. They seemed as if they jumped straight from the pages onto the screen. However, why did Mr. Freeze seem like a giant flashlight? Was that really necessary? Then of course, the issue that everyone who has ever seen this film has, why are there nipples on the Batsuit? It is still a mystery as to why men have nipples in the first place, why put them on the Batsuit (and Robin)? They were noticeably absent from Batgirl’s costume, though. Not trying to be perverted, but Batgirl’s costume is just a female version of Batman’s, so she should have everything he has. It’s just fair.
The plot for this film has problems, but what film doesn’t? I liked that they made you feel sorry for Mr. Freeze becuse of his wife and the accident (as if you didn’t watching him lug around that costume), but I didn’t really get the reasoning for making Alfred fall ill.
I’m not going to sit here and condemn this film the way others have. I think it’s a good watch, especially if you’re a fan of lighter Batman films like I am. However, in terms of film, it isn’t that great, and very well may be the worst of all films in the Batman cannon. Only you can make a decision about whether it is good, bad, or average, when all is said and done, though.

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com