When Batman & Robin came out in 1997, the only other Batman movie that I had seen then was Batman Forever. I had enjoyed that movie, not finding out until years later how much had been changed to make it a more family friendly and even silly at times movie. I thought the trailer for Batman & Robin looked interesting and I decided to see it in the theater with my best friend. For some reason, we stayed in a theater with broken air conditioning in the middle of summer to watch this. At least we managed to claim the only few seats that were in range of the puny fan that was supposed to combat the heat.

Bruce Wayne continued to fight crime in Gotham City as Batman. He was assisted by Dick Grayson as Robin. Dick had a tendency to rush into danger which got him in trouble when he and Bruce faced Mr. Freeze. Bruce did things to protect Dick which caused some trouble between the two because Dick didn’t think he needed protection. Alfred was surprised by a visit from his niece Barbara. She wanted to take Alfred away from his work and take care of him for a change. Barbara discovered the Batcave and that Bruce and Dick were Batman and Robin. She turned herself into Batgirl to help them.

Dr. Pamela Isley had been doing experiments with plants when she discovered that Dr. Jason Woodrue had created Bane, a mindless killer, in an experiment. When she confronted Jason, he attacked her and believed that he killed her. Instead she had been transformed by plant toxins and was poisonous. Poison Ivy wanted plants to take over the world. She used Bane as her flunky and teamed up with Mr. Freeze to fight Batman and Robin.

Batman & Robin was by far the worst of the Batman movies. It was a giant mess with a horrible plot, corny dialogue, and too many subplots. The movie jumped right into the confrontation that Batman and Robin had with Mr. Freeze without any sort of explanation about who Mr. Freeze was. That came later with a short explanation on how he ended up the way he was. His reason for his crime spree was related to his wife and was more logical than other things in the movie. I didn’t think it made sense for him to work with Poison Ivy. They were really still strangers when they started working together and their ultimate plans didn’t really mesh well. Poison Ivy’s precious plants wouldn’t survive if Mr. Freeze succeeded in freezing all of Gotham City.

It seemed like the subplot dealing with Alfred was only added to try to play on the emotions of the audience. It was a bit more developed than some of the others, but I still didn’t think it really worked. Alfred was really the only likable character in the movie and the only one I cared about at all. Some of what happened in that subplot came off seeming too contrived, which lessened the emotional impact the writer and director were probably hoping for. It really didn’t add anything important to the movie even though it ended up connected to one of the villains by the end. Barbra was established as being a teenager that frequently got in trouble. She enjoyed dangerous activities, like motorcycle street racing. That part of the movie just seemed pointless to me and I really didn’t care that she was sneaking out to participate in the races. She did care for Alfred and wanted to do something to help him, though she didn’t truly understand the relationship he had with Bruce.

In the first three Batman movies, there were romantic interests for Bruce who were important overall to the movies. That didn’t happen in Batman & Robin. Bruce was dating someone named Julie Madison. She was barely in the movie, only briefly turning up in a few scenes. She was a useless character that didn’t add anything to the movie. According to Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight, Julie Madison was Bruce’s first love and had played an important part in his life. The relationship didn’t seem that serious in the movie, at least on Bruce’s part. I have to wonder why that particular character was used in the movie. After Pamela became Poison Ivy, she had some kind of pheromone powder that made men crazy for her. She used it on both Batman and Robin, stirring up a rivalry between the men that was silly. I’m guessing it was supposed to add sexual tension to the movie. It didn’t work.

Joel Schumacher took the Batman franchise in a totally different direction when he took over directing the third movie, heading of into the land of the silly and ridiculous. Burton did get a bit bizarre in Batman Returns, but it was still a dark movie that fit well with the established history of the character. The dialogue had attempts at humor that were just stupid and corny. Mr. Freeze had some of the worst lines from any movie I have ever seen. I now know that Batman is a dark character, and this movie was just too silly for such a dark character. The movie never once mentioned anything related to the murder of Bruce’s parents or how that influenced him to become Batman. In the first movie, Gotham started off looking like a real though somewhat different city. By this movie, the city didn’t look realistic in any way. There were huge statues everywhere, even holding up some buildings or streets, and buildings that were just bizarre looking.

The over the top look to things in the movies extended to the Batsuit, the Robin suit and the Batgirl suit. For some reason, Schumacher felt the need to show close ups of different body parts on everyone the first time they wore their suits in the movie. I really didn’t need to see close ups of butts covered in rubber. Those shots were not needed. These movies really never explained where any of the suits came from which did sort of bug me before. In this one, there was a very weak explanation for how Barbra got her Batgirl outfit out of nowhere. Late in the movie, without having returned to the Batcave to change, the suits for all three characters suddenly changed and featured a lot of silver accents. That was just weird and there was no reason for it. The different gadgets had different looks and what little of the Batcave was shown looked a bit different as well.

Even before I saw Batman & Robin, I didn’t think that George Clooney was a good choice to play Batman. It wasn’t that I thought he was a bad actor. I just didn’t think he’d fit the part even though I didn’t know a lot about the character at that point. When the movie was made, Clooney was very popular thanks to his role on E.R. It did seem like he was chosen for the part more because of that than because he was a right fit for the character. Clooney’s Bruce seemed to be more comfortable with his life as a rich, eligible bachelor. Bruce/Batman really didn’t get the chance to show off his intelligence in this movie. I have read that Clooney acknowledges that he wasn’t a good Batman and he even pokes fun at the movie now.

Once again, the world was exposed to the spectacle of Chris O’Donnell frolicking around in a tight rubber suit, complete with nipples. That was something I really didn’t need to see again. If that wasn’t enough, Robin was still an annoying whiner. He was cocky and arrogant at times, refusing to believe that Bruce could be right about him not being ready to do certain things in their crime fighting. O’Donnell’s Robin is one of the most annoying characters ever to be in a movie. I hated the character and wanted to slap him silly more than once.

Batman Returns started the trend of having enemies of Batman team up to fight against him even though it wasn’t that logical that they would do that. In Batman & Robin, they went one step further by adding a third villain instead of stopping with Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. Mr. Freeze was driven by something related to his wife. That part of the movie wasn’t explored enough to work as well as it could have. Arnold just didn’t seem believable as someone who had been a brilliant scientist. The character was just corny. Vivica A. Fox was in one scene as a woman that was hanging on Mr. Freeze and seemed to want a relationship with him. There was no point to the character.

Pamela had been doing research with plants before her accident, hoping to create a way for plants to protect themselves against humans who didn’t show them what she thought was proper respect. She was obsessed with plants, seeming to think they were more important than humans. I think she was missing a few marbles even before she became Poison Ivy. After her accident she was even more determined and came up with a new plan. Uma Thurman is a talented actress. This was not one of her better parts. She did look the part, but she just went too far over the top with her acting. From what I have read about the character, the relationship between her and Batman/Bruce was more complex than it was portrayed in the movie. Bane was created through an experiment and Poison Ivy used him as her muscle. He was just a mindless thug that did whatever she told him to do. From what have read about the character in Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Night, he was a much different character in the comics.

Alfred and Commissioner Gordon were the only characters that were played by the same actors in the first four Batman movies. Commissioner Gordon had a very small part, reduced to drooling over Poison Ivy in one scene really. The character was treated horribly. Alfred was really the only character that I did like in this movie. When I first saw the movie, I didn’t realize that something very important with Barbra had been changed. She has always been Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, so I have no idea why she was made Alfred’s niece for this movie. Maybe it was just to try to make it more believable how she found the Batcave. The character was a waste and Alicia Silverstone really didn’t do well with the part.

Main Cast

George Clooney - Bruce Wayne/Batman
Vivica A. Fox - Ms. B Haven
John Glover - Dr. Jason Woodrue
Michael Gough - Alfred Pennyworth
Pat Hingle - Commission Gordon
Elle Macpherson - Julie Madison
Chris O’Donnell - Dick Grayson/Robin
Elizabeth Sanders - Gossip Gerty
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Mr. Freeze
Alicia Silverstone -Barbra /Batgirl
Jeep Swenson - Bane
Uma Thurman - Pamela Isley/Poison Ivy

Joel Schumacher - Director

DVD Information

In the fall of 2005, a new two disc special edition version of Batman & Robin, as well as the first three Batman movies, was released. The movie can be picked up alone or as part of the Batman Anthology DVD set. The DVD contained several extras. The first disc contained the widescreen version of the movie, a commentary with Joel Schumacher and the original theatrical trailer. The majority of the extras were on the second disc.

Shadows of The Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight Part 6: Batman Unbound featured the cast and some of the crew, including director Joel Schumacher, talking about making Batman & Robin. Some clips from the movie as well as from the filming of the movie were included throughout this section. Warner Brothers wanted the fourth movie to go in a more family friendly direction than what Tim Burton did with the first two movies. It was decided that there would be a lot of toy tie-ins for the movie and people from a toy company were actually involved in making some decisions for the movie for designs that would work as toys. Chris O’Donnell even said he felt like he was making one long toy commercial when the movie was filmed. With the studio’s urging, Schumacher went with a much less serious approach to Batman. The studio also made the decision to get the fourth movie out in only a few years and many people involved in the process mentioned that they had felt very rushed to finish which probably did hurt the finished product. Schumacher did briefly talk about how so many people were upset when he added nipples to the Batsuit. He claimed to base the suit on classic Greek statues and never thought that adding nipples would tick off so many people. Schumacher did say that this movie had been over hyped and he agreed that mistakes were made. He took responsibility, saying that he had gone along with certain decisions from higher up that he didn’t always agree with. In a move that surprised me, Schumacher even apologized for disappointing Batman fans with the movie. I had sort of expected everyone, especially Schumacher, to gloss over the problems with the movie and talk it up like it was fabulous. I’m glad that didn’t happen.

The Heroes and The Villains Profile Galleries split up six of the characters into either the hero or villain group. The Heroes part included short bits about Bruce/Batman, Dick/Robin, and Barbra/Batgirl. The actors each talked a little bit about their characters. Some of the interviews looked like they might have been done back in 1997 as part of the press when the movie was first released. Clooney and O’Donnell especially looked younger. The Villains part talked about Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, and Bane. There were no explanations for why Bane was changed so much from the character in the comics. A few people that work for DC comics were also briefly shown talking about the characters.

Batman Beyond contained five documentaries that focused on different aspects of making the movies. Throughout all these documentaries, the people talking kept saying how everything in this movie was so much bigger and bolder in this movie. Bigger, Bolder, Brighter: The Production Design of Batman and Robin featured some of the cast and crew talking about the different sets. While people were talking, there were clips from the movie shown or even little bits showing the construction of some of the sets. Some of the parts with the crew that worked on building the sets had been taped while they were actually building the sets and they explained how a few things were created. Maximum Overdrive: The Vehicles of Batman & Robin talked about the new look for the Batmobile and the few other vehicles that were featured in the movie. The production designer for the movie talked about how everything had to have a completely new look for this movie.

Dressed to Thrill: The Costumes of Batman & Robin had Schumacher and the crew talking about the changes made to the Batsuit. They were honestly surprised with the reaction to nipples on the Batsuit. Robin suits as well as Batgirl’s was also talked about. O’Donnell and Silverstone briefly talked about the suits they had to wear and how difficult they were to work in. O’Donnell even mentioned how he thought it was odd that the suits all changed suddenly late in the movie. The woman that was in charge of make up for the movie talked about how she used blue eye shadow around Silverstone’s eyes when she wore the mast to give a softer effect. It looked black to me before. Poison Ivy’s costume and Mr. Freeze’s armor were also talked about. There wasn’t any discussion on Bane’s costume.

Frozen Freak and Femmes Fatales: The Make-Up of Batman & Robin featured the main make up artist talking about the make-up looks she created for Poison Ivy and how there was a progression through the movie with that character’s make up getting bolder and heavier. She wore several different wigs throughout the movie as well. There was a whole unit just to do the make up for Mr. Freeze. Before someone pointed it out in this part, I really hadn’t noticed before that Mr. Freeze didn’t have eyebrows. Jeep Swenson, the man who played Bane, had to have his upper body shaved every day before going through the process of having make-up air brushed on to give him the greenish skin and bulging veins. Some of that process was shown. This section didn’t talk about the make-up used for Batman/Bruce, Dick/Robin, or Barbra/Batgirl at all.

Freeze Frame: The Visual Effects of Batman & Robin had the visual effects supervisor and other crew members talking about the special effects that were used in the movie. There was footage that showed how some of the effect shots were created. Miniatures were built for the city and CGI was used for many shots. This movie used more CGI than the previous three Batman movies. I did think it was interesting to see how some of the effects were created. One deleted scene, Alfred’s Lost Love, was included. The scene was very short, but in it, Barbra wasn’t Alfred’s niece. She was the daughter of his lost love. That would have been just weird. The second disc also included four music videos.

Batman & Robin was a huge mess of a movie, easily the worst Batman movie ever made. It was entirely too silly and filled with horrid dialogue and acting. Most people who are fans of Batman probably won’t like this movie at all. The extras included on the two disc special edition were interesting and better than I thought they would be. There is something very wrong when the extras are more entertaining than the actual movie.

Batman Reviews
Batman: The Movie ~ Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman Begins ~ The Dark Knight ~ Batman The Animated Series - Volume One ~ Batman: Mask of the Phantasm ~ Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero ~ The Essential Batman Encyclopedia ~ Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight

Other Superhero/Comic Book Related Reviews
Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ Flash Gordon ~ The Incredibles ~ The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete Second Season ~ My Super Ex-Girlfriend ~ Sky High ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~ V for Vendetta ~ X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ Ultimate X-Men ~ Zoom ~



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