Batman and Robin

Batman and Robin is the first of the high budget films that I will be looking at. The 1997 film was the last of the four original Warner Brothers batman films. This film received such negative reviews that Warner Bros. cancelled the unproduced Batman Triumphant and ended the series. This film was one that really should have been better. There was a $140 million budget, a proven director and actors, and a large amount of fans from the previous films and comics.
   The film pits Batman and Robin against Mr. Freeze, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Poison Ivy, played by Uma Thurman, and her henchman Bane. Batman and Robin get joined by Alfred's niece, Alicia Silverstone, who becomes Batgirl. Mr. Freeze's evil plan is to freeze everybody and save his cryogenically frozen wife. Poison Ivy wants to destroy the animals and let her genetically modified plants take over the world.
   Alfred is diagnosed with the same disease that Mr. Freeze's wife is also suffering from. This disease has no cure, but luckily Mr. Freeze was an Olympic athlete and doctor who was the leading researcher in the disease. Of course by the end of the film Batman convinces Mr. Freeze to give him the cure that he came up with for the first stage of the disease, that Alfred is suffering from. The entire film is so predictable that you could just watch the first half hour of the film and guess what happens. The characters are so shallow that there never seems to be any real connection that the audience gets to the characters.
   The entire film set is so over the top that makes the whole film ridiculous. This film is closer to the 60's TV show than the recent Batman films which take a much darker look at Batman. Batman and Robin is a ridiculous film, but doesn't capture the same goofiness that made the show so great. This is not what was wanted by any Batman fans and derailed the entire series. This film seemed to be all action and no plot. There are scenes that seem to be in there just to spend money and show random action. There was one scene where Batman and Robin play hockey with Mr. Freeze's henchmen with a giant diamond. Speaking of diamonds, this film seems to use diamonds to explain how all the technology works. Somehow Mr. Freeze uses diamonds to keep his suit cold and to freeze Gotham. Diamonds are also somehow used in a giant telescope.
   This is a film that should have never been made how it was. There was the funding, the actors, a director, and a studio that should have stopped this. The entire film was so over the top and ridiculous that it ruined the Batman series. Movie critic Roger Ebert puts it perfectly when he says "give the foreground to the characters, not the special effects"(Erbert). This is a film that almost killed Batman movies. Batman and Robin was a film that took Batman where no one wanted it to go and is painful to try to watch the whole way through.