Batman & Robin (1997) Reviews

• I really can't believe Joel did this

  Smells_Like_Cheese2002-09-19

  Batman & Robin, the big summer movie of 1997, I remember seeing this in the theater when I was 12 and even then I wasn't impressed. But when I was more grown up, I watched this film again, I figured since I loved the 3 previous Batman films, why not give this one another shot? Now, seeing this movie once again, I can understand the low rating on IMDb, this movie was just a pathetic attempt at merchandising Batman and making an over the top action movie that really had nothing to do with Batman. The casting was just oh, so plain wrong. We have Arnold Schwartzenegger as Dr. Freeze?! Not to mention the accent, the character was just someone you felt like you could laugh off. Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, she was alright, but again, questionable casting since she seemed out of place. Now, George Clooney?! I couldn't believe how Val Kilmer got complained about, but George Clooney I can see why. He was just the most awkward Batman ever and didn't fit the role at all, he was only used for his popularity. Batman is living it up with his bachelor lifestyle, but Robin is a bit upset that he is living under Batman's shadow and wishes to be the star. Alfred is becoming very sick and needs serious help; his niece, Barbara comes to his aid and hopes to help him and stays with Bruce Wayne. Dr. Freeze is our new villain and is looking for a cure for his wife who is frozen until he can find a cure for her, he also is intending for the world to pay for what has happened to him and his wife for some reason. Dr. Pamela Isley is a plant scientist/right activist and while her boss sees her finding out more than she needs to know about an experiment on his version of Frankenstien, named Bang, he "kills" her with her plants. But the plants chemicals have an effect on her and actually make her into Poisen Ivy. She and Freeze team up to take over Gothem and of course to split Batman and Robin forever, oh yeah, then kill them I guess. Batman & Robin was really beyond over the top, the costumes were a bit silly and the story was just too family friendly. This is Batman, the Dark Knight, it's not meant to be this bright and so crazy. I couldn't believe Joel did this, I really wish I could get past this, I know he's going to get a bad rap for this film for the rest of his career. The acting was just stupid and not true to Batman at all. The problem here was that the story and setting just had nothing to do with what Batman truly is and was just an excuse to spend stupid money. Please, don't watch this film if you love Batman, or you'll be sorry. 2/10

• an especially bad movie

  Gambitt2001-05-07

  I've rated several hundred movies on IMDB, and overall, I go easy on them. Most of the so-so ones get a 5 or 6. A movie has to be pretty bad to get a 4 or 3 from me. And movies with a 2 are simply, awful, awful movies. I have saved the rating of 1 exclusively for Batman and Robin, for I'm pretty sure no movie could possibly suck more. Normally, when I walk into a theatre with low expectations for some movie, this gives the movie an advantage since I've basically lowered the bar for it. I held low expectations for Jurassic Park, but ended up being surprisingly entertained. Batman and Robin failed completely to meet even the rock-bottom expectations I held for it when I saw it. The script is a complete wreck. The jokes are an insult to your intelligence. The acting isn't especially bad, but then again, very little is required of the actors. The action sequences are confusing and incoherent. If you're a Batman fan, then you will hate what Joel Shoemaker did in this film. His bastardization of Bane pretty much kills any possibility of a Knightfall-based movie. If you're not a big Batman fan, you'll just hate this movie just because it's so freakin' stupid. Any pros? Well, I've read some reviews that say the sets are beautifully constructed. Personally, I thought the sets were ok, but hardly anything special. Nothing that couldn't by done with lots of construction paper and elmer's glue. So, no, there aren't really any pros.

• Quite Possibly the Worst Movie Ever

  Nephalim2004-02-24

  Don't get me wrong, the old Adam West Batman TV show was certainly funny, and given the times, a more accurate representation of what Batman was trying to be wouldn't have succeeded nearly as well. But the show still betrayed all the emotion and grimness of Batman's themes. In Batman & Robin, Schumacher seems to be getting back to those roots. He treats the entire Batman franchise like a joke. Even if it was funny, this would be betraying the name of Batman. But here, seeing as it's NOT funny, it only succeeds in becoming the worst of the Batman movies, and, arguably, the worst films ever created. And I'm taking into account Plan 9 From Outer Space, Gigli, and You Got Served. George Clooney just plays George Clooney. Which is the road he usually takes, but this suave, dashing, and charming Batman seems more like Mystery Men's Captain Amazing than the crimefighter of legend. There's Chris O'Donnell, the angst-ridden Robin trying to break out of Batman's shadow. The only thing he ever really does is act like a child. Alicia Silverstone. Wow. I seriously wonder what makes someone say, "Hmm, who should we get to play Batgirl . . . I know! Alicia Silverstone!" No offense to Alicia, but she's out in right field on this one. Her tough-girl performance is sprinkled with reminders of her Clueless days. But all that aside, she actually does very little. Now, onto the villains. Uma Thurman, who we know CAN act, is hamming it up to ridiculous proportions. First, when she's playing the nerdy Dr. Pamela, she exaggerates that to a level I thought impossible. And then she inexplicably turns into an extremely sexualized villainess whose plan, by the way, would kill all the plants she advocated protecting. Arnold seems like the worst possible choice for Mr. Freeze. I mean, of all the Batman villains I could see him playing - Bane, for christ's sake - Mr. Freeze is not on that list. He possesses none of the emotionless, calculated, and cold (no pun intended) sociopathy which makes Mr. Freeze such a good character. And then, all that aside, they're handed ridiculous catch phrases and cliches they're expected to say with any level of sincerity? At one point Mr. Freeze says "chill out." Of all the ways it sounds, menacing is not among them. Seriously, I'd have more respect for Schumacher if I discovered that he hated Batman, and had intentionally ruined it with this garbage. Then, this might actually be just his own personal joke. Instead, it borders on a travesty of good cinema. I only wish that 0 stars was a selectable option at the imdb, for this film ALONE.

• I've Lost Faith In Humanity

  ReelCheese2006-05-07

  BATMAN & ROBIN will make you lose all faith in Hollywood, indeed humanity as a whole. Stunningly awful, this was a disaster from the moment George Clooney traded in his scrubs for the black rubber boots. And it's not even awful in a cute, SHOWGIRLS kind of way. You won't laugh, but you might cry over the fact you've just flushed 125 precious minutes of your life down the crapper. While everyone involved brings shame to their families, from the uncomfortable Clooney as the lamely-interpreted hero to Governornator Arnold Schwarzenegger as the junior-high-dialog-spewing Mr. Freeze, director Joel Schumacher must be punched the hardest. Even those who thought he embarrassed the franchise with the light-hearted BATMAN FOREVER were taken aback. Schumacher treats the audience like a group of eight-year-old boys with ADD, constantly trying to impress us with unexciting action scenes like a hockey-themed opening battle reminiscent of the under-appreciated genius of MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS. The writers only make things worse with their "witty" hero chatter ("This is why Superman works alone"... har har, where do they come up with them??) and drawn-out "human" angles, such as butler Alfred's illness and a childish romantic triangle between Batman, Robin and the sexy Poison Ivy. This isn't root-on-the-heroes entertainment. On the contrary, you'll find yourself wishing Poison Ivy would tongue kiss both masked men to put us all out of our misery. I love Batman and superhero flicks. I'm not a movie snob by any means, as I'm willing to forgive many a gaffe. But I absolutely loathe BATMAN & ROBIN. I loathe how it disgraces the characters it depicts. I loathe how the "talent" involved is still allowed within 100 feet of a film set or writer's room. It must be said again that BATMAN & ROBIN is the kind of experience that will make you lose all faith in Hollywood -- and humanity.

• Holy Cr**py Movie Batman!!!!!

  renodc2004-08-31

  This is the most disappointing movie in the history of film for me. A 2 out of 10 is generous. I should give it a zero strictly based on the Bat Credit Card scene. Every single individual whether it be producers, director, writer or actors (minus Chris O'Donnell) should be "Bat-Whipped" for this piece of junk. This is your typical "absolutely cannot fail" franchise in film getting raped by studio execs making critical content decisions about a film when they have no talent to do so. Batman is popular simply because of the comic book not because of that retarded TV show starring Adam West, but this movie is more fashioned after that campy trash. This was nothing but a slap in the face to every true fan of the Batman. The direction of Joel Schumacher was deplorable. The set designs looked cheap (the ice looked and acted like dried craft glue) and were visually painful, especially the overuse of the red neon hue in many scenes. The digital effects were OK but often over done. The production cost was extensive, and I wonder what percentage of the budget went to the salaries of Arnold, George, Uma and Alicia. I'm sure it was high. I know Arnold got $20 million, so the percentage had to be fairly high. Well, everyone one of them needed to give back large portions of their salaries because their performances were atrocious. Alicia Silverstone needs to give her entire salary back. Hers was probably one the worst performances ever in a major motion picture. Arnold can't act anyway so I wasn't really expecting much, but I was disappointed when I heard he was cast as Freeze because he in no way fits that character. Freeze was a scientist and when I look at Arnold my first thought is not "Scientist". Ben Kingsly or Patrick Stewart would have fit better. Uma, who is normally a credible actress, was too "drama queen" which made it hard to immerse yourself in scenes she was in. Clooney was totally miscast as Bruce Wayne/Batman. I mean it's hard not to laugh when Batman is shorter than Robin. George like Uma was too overly dramatic, especially in scenes with Alfred, which made it hard to take him seriously. Chris O'Donnell was really the only actor that seemed real. With all that, I would have to say the overwhelmingly worst part of this movie was the script. Akiva Goldsman should have been banned from Hollywood after this script. It was a completely brainless jumbled mess. The story, which was pitiful at best, gets completely lost in entirely too many characters. It was so frustrating seeing the origins of certain characters ripped too shreds as Goldsman attempted to jam them into the script. Batgirl, who should have never been in this film in the first place, was changed from Commissioner Gordon's daughter to Alfred's niece, which made absolutely no sense. In an attempt, to explain why Freeze was so muscular it was explained he was an Olympic gymnast. How freakin' stupid is that? Gymnasts by necessity need to be small in stature to perform well in gymnastics and Arnold is enormous. Goldsman's use of dialogue was highly irritating consisting of nothing but one juvenile one-liner after another after another after another. One other thing that really irritated me was the complete mishandling and waste of the character Bane. Bane is a much more complex and vicious villain in the comics, and this movie version with Bane reduces him to a mindless henchman. Bane deserves much more character development than he received in B&R. The same thing happened in Forever, when one of the most highly complex and interesting villains in the comics, Two-Face, got reduced to second billing. Note to Warner Bros. stop screwing with Batman he can sell himself, and stop trying to cram so many characters into the films, and understand nobody wants to see a Campy Caped Crusader.