Batman & Robin

Strangely enough, that's one ice-related pun that Mr.Freeze doesn't use in this film. Though it does adequately describe the movie. What was I thinking, watching Batman & Robin for a third time? Even worse, what was I doing actually starting to enjoy it?

Yes, there's something endearingly awful about a film that fails on almost every technical level. But it wasn't always so. The first two films in the franchise, anchored by the strong, and much undervalued lead of Michael Keaton, were enjoyable pop-art excursions by Tim Burton. The first, still by far the best, allowed Jack Nicholson to ham it up amongst retro stylings and the music of Prince. The second, Batman Returns, was a less successful effort to homage German expressionist cinema, the darkest of the four films, and struggled slightly under the weight of three villains.

The lesson wasn't learnt, and the usage of multiple baddies has been a fixed staple ever since. With the third, Batman Forever, the flat acting of new bat Val Kilmer was coupled with Joel Schumacher's garish direction and Chris O'Donnell's irritating Robin. Akiva Goldsman was now the writer, and any sense of depth had given way to trite puns and disjointed set pieces.

And so it was that everything that was symptomatically flawed with the series was expanded upon and magnified for the fourth, and by far the weakest, instalment. George Clooney has accepted a lot of the blame for this film, a humble admission but unfair. While he's clearly miscast as both Batman and Bruce Wayne, he doesn't give a bad performance per se. Rather, it's his back up that lets the side down. Uma Thurman (am I the only one who doesn't think she's that good-looking?) has a great time overdoing it as Poison Ivy, but she's joined by Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze. Schwarz, not exactly known for his acting skill, is unrecognisable under his costume, so what's the point? He gets to call Batman "Batunbuuurg", refers to Robin as "Buuurd Bouy" and only has 100 lines in total. The fact that 26% of these lines are lame puns on the word "ice" that even a two-year-old would struggle to find funny is even more deplorable. And when you hear Freeze tell Batman "Yew arr not zending mee too da cooola" the urge to use the video's "stop" button is almost insurmountable.

Bane makes up the trio, a monosyllabic muscleman in a gimp mask. A completely unnecessary addition, he offers nothing to the plot and goes largely forgotten. The introduction of wonky-mouthed Alicia Silverstone as a fatuous Batgirl character is also grating. And why doesn't her costume come fitted with Batnipples like the rest?

Tiny traces of amusement can be gleaned from Ivy's dialogue, with her urges that her "garden needs tending" adding some form of adult tone to the humour. However, it's unrelenting innuendo - "I'll help you grab your rocks" - does start to wear thin very quickly. I did smile at Batman's cashcard: "I never leave the cave without it"; and it's also nice to see some small references from other films. Even if it is just a glimpse of the Riddler's costume from Forever, some guards paraphrasing Cobra or some street bystanders dressed as Clockwork Orange Droogs. In fact, the idea of a Batman film as completely OTT comedy send-up may have worked, were the rest of the humour more sophisticated. "It's the hockey team from Hell"; "So this is where you hang out"; "I'll cancel the pizza"; oh, how lame and functional the dialogue is!

The film wraps up with a rather pathetic plot contrivance, and George having to dish out bland platitudes. "Not all heroes wear masks"; "to give life... that's true power". Oh, it really is abominably bad. Batman & Robin exists as a classic example of the Hollywood system folding in under its own weight. However, the universal slating this one got neglects one factor: while the least successful, it still made over $230,000,000 at the box office. I wonder how many people would be satisfied with "failures" like that?

I saw this movie upon it's release in 1997 I was just six years old and honestly I loved it so much I even had a Batman & Robin movie poster in my room that I got for attending the movies opening day. I got the movie on VHS for my birthday after it was released and I watched it pretty much every weekend at least twice but now that the movie is over twenty years old and I'm an adult with much better taste in movies I thought I'd watch the movie again on Blu Ray and give a review on my nostalgic experience and see if my opinion on the movie has changed much over the years.

The first thing I will say about Batman & Robin is that it's the worst Batman movie of them all hands down no amount of nostalgia or good memories of the movie will change that it is simply awful but having said that it's still a fun movie to watch simply because of how over the top and cheesy the movie is from the over the top acting down to the absolutely terrible Batman jokes like the Bat Credit card and the hilarious Mr Freeze one liners told by Arnold Schwarzenegger himself it is impossible not to laugh when watching this movie it's not the serious Batman movie we wanted and it doesn't do the Batman character justice at all.

This movie alone was the reason we didn't get a Batman movie for eight years because Batman & Robin failed completely and almost killed the franchise luckily in 2005 we got Batman Begins which introduced the true Dark Knight and would lead to the greatest Batman movie ever made in 2008 Batman The Dark Knight.

I love the cast involved Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze is hilarious and Uma Thurman as the sexy, seductive Poison Ivy she really makes a deadly character like Poison Ivy a lot of fun and she really does make the character look sexy as hell.

This movie is absolutely hilarious and is a guilty pleasure for me I don't watch it because it's a good movie I watch it simply because it's entertaining and enjoyable it's essentially Batman the parody it's not to be taken seriously it's a bunch of famous actors dressing in spandex so tight we actually get crotch and butt close ups so if you've always wanted to see a Bat suit with actual nipples and a cod peice then your in luck. This isn't the best Batman movie but try and enjoy it for what it is an hour and a half of entertaining fun.

The film does have nice costumes, and nice sets. Unfortunately that is about it. One major problem is some of the choices of actors.They were all wasted. George Clooney is quite a charming actor, but he is not my idea of Batman. Batman I don't think is supposed to be charming, he's supposed to be dark and brooding, and Clooney lacked that. What would Michael Keaten and Val Kilmer and even Christian Bale say when they see that Batman has turned charming? Chris O' Donnell looked uncomfortable, and in almost every movie where he is a hero, this includes the 1993 version of the Three Musketeers, he is rather lifeless. Uma Thurman does her best, but what they gave her to work with was ridiculous, and she just failed to deliver, while Alicia Silverstone was extremely annoying. The worst case was poor Arnold Schwarznegger. He was completely miscast as Mr Freeze, completely lacking the coldness and evilness that makes the character so memorable. Schwarznegger is a talented actor, but his skills are hidden beyond recognition in this movie, he just looked so uncomfortable and totally out of character. The direction from Joel Schummacher was disappointing as well, it lacked the artistic flair and the temperament that is needed to make a great film. This is further disadvantaged by a truly pathetic script that nobody in the cast could do anything with.(these actors deserved so much better)The special effects were okay, but very confused in terms of execution. In conclusion, not the worst movie, I have ever seen, but it is one of those films, where everything needed to make it memorable falls flat. 3/10 for effort. Bethany Cox

Back in the day, I felt disappointed when I watched it in theaters and I really disliked the movie for many reasons: it wasn't dark like the first two (same thing for "Foverer"), the dialogues ("chicks dig the car") the over-the-top silly acting, the props (batmobile, suits, weapons, etc), the goofy villains... However I loved the color palette and cinematography - it's pure Schumacher of course.

Over the years I have watched it again several times and when the BluRay came out I watched it more in depth and finally it happened: I like the movie now. Why? How? Well, nowadays I feel like I'm watching a "modern" take on the 60's TV series and it really makes sense to me for the very same elements I mentioned before: goofy villains, lots of colors, over-the-top cheesy acting, family-friendly overall tone. Gradually I started enjoying the movie in this context and I can say that I like it for what it is.

Unfortunately, this was the latest entry in the "comic-style" franchise.

I loved it as a kid, because I didn't know any better and years of nostalgia has keep it close to me. I'm not saying it's a good movie by any means, but the bright colors and characters cheesiness is what I loved about it, and never got Joel Schumacher fascination with bat nipples, but I digress. It has always been a guilty pleasure for just like Batman Forever is, and I think i always will.