director
Joel Schumacher
screenwriter
Akiva Goldsman
based on
characters created by
Bob Kane
producer
Peter MacGregor-Scott
cinematographer
Stephen Goldblatt
music
Elliot Goldenthal
editors
Dennis Virkler
Fred C. Vitale
cast
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Mr. Freeze)
George Clooney (Batman/Bruce Wayne)
Chris O'Donnell (Robin/Dick Grayson)
Uma Thurman (Poison Ivy)
Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl)
Michael Gough (Alfred Pennyworth)
Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon)
John Glover (Dr. Jason Woodrue)
Elle Macpherson (Julie Madison)
Vivica A. Fox (Ms. B. Haven)
Vendela K. Thommessen (Nora Fries)
Jesse Ventura (Arkham Asylum Guard)
Doug Hutchison (Golum)
Coolio (Banker)
Nicky Katt (Spike)
Jeep Swenson (Bane)
mpaa rating: PG-13
running
time: 125m
u.s.
release: 6/20/97
video
availability: VHS -
DVD
other joel
schumacher films
reviewed on this website:
- batman
forever
- 8mm
- falling down
- phone booth
- a time to kill
- veronica guerin
|
The
first two Batman movies, directed by the moody Tim Burton,
were Gothic riffs on alienation and trauma -- the film equivalents
of manic depression. The subsequent entries, helmed by the flamboyant
Joel Schumacher, are just manic. With 1995's Batman
Forever, Schumacher chucked Burton's operatic gloom and
gave the series a make-over. Never models of narrative clarity
even in Burton's hands, the Batman films have become proudly
nonsensical -- awash in neon and campy dialogue, like some nightmarish
disco remix of the '60s Batman TV show.
Batman and Robin, the fourth in the series, is slightly
better than the third -- and I mean slightly, by millimeters.
The large-scale pop apocalypse goosed a few laughs out of me.
But this franchise has gotten aggressively unsatisfying. Why
build expensive sets if we barely get a glimpse of them? Why
stage big action set pieces if we can't see what's going on?
Why is the editing so jumpy, the compositions so garish and cluttered,
that we don't know where to look or what we're looking at? Why?
Joel Schumacher makes a Batman movie by throwing a batch
of new characters into the stew and stirring it vigorously, leaving
the poor actors to fight for elbow room. The film is almost over
before Alicia Silverstone climbs into her Batgirl costume; even
then, she doesn't do much except trade a few kicks with the guest
vixen, Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman), who likewise does little except
blow aphrodisiacs at hapless men. Pouting and vamping in a blank
postmodern way, Thurman seems dazed by the sets; Fox Force
Five might have been better than this.
Among Ivy's boy-toys are Batman (George Clooney now) and Robin
(still Chris O'Donnell), who squabble over her when they're not
fighting big, bald, blue Arnold Schwarzenegger. As Mr. Freeze,
who wants to cover Gotham City with ice, Arnie comes through
with a rousing comic performance; he relaxes and has a great
time, especially when he forces his shivering minions to sing
the "Snow Miser" theme. And he has the movie's one
genuinely fine moment, when Mr. Freeze makes a tiny ice sculpture
of his ailing wife and sadly watches it revolve. But even Arnie
is defrosted by 6,000 lame one-liners ("Let's kick some
ice").
Clooney, a genial regular-guy actor, makes a plausible Batman
and a better Bruce Wayne than Val Kilmer. As for O'Donnell ...
well, he tries hard. I still think Winona Ryder or Fairuza Balk
would have made a great, funky Girl Wonder, as in Frank Miller's
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. As it is,
there are so many babes here (Uma, Alicia, the dispensable Elle
Macpherson and Vivica A. Fox) that the studio seems to be nervously
refuting the old Batman-and-Robin-are-gay theory. If so, why
all the fabulous latex nipples and codpieces?
Batman and Robin is such sheer overkill that it's tempting
to give up in disgust and let it have its way with you. Joel
Schumacher has single-handedly turned this series into empty
eye-candy for ten-year-olds who demand one sugary stimulant after
another; if Burton's films were manic-depressive, Schumacher's
suffer from attention-deficit disorder. I fully expect the next
Batman film to drop the heroes altogether and just be
a montage of expensive guest villains chewing the neon scenery.
Come to think of it, that's what this one is. |