Batman & Robin
Dir: Joel Schumacher
1997
*
Joel Schumacher made several mistakes with Batman Forever after being pressurised by Warner Bros. to 'lighten' the mood set by Tim Burton in the first two films and to make the film more family friendly. These mistakes were felt and noted by the audience but not by the studio it seems who made quite the profit. Confident they could do the same again, Schumacher was quickly given the green light for the next Batman film; Batman & Robin. It has been widely recognised as one of the worst films ever made. The visual changes in Batman Forever were bad, here they are just plain awful. Toy sales is a big part of any film based on a comic/superhero but the costumes and outfits in the film look more like toys than anything Kenner made. Chris O'Donnell, who reprized his role as Robin has since said that he complained about how cheap his new suit was and commented that he often felt that he was filming a kids Toy commercial rather than a feature film. Schumacher would often stand on a crane and shout "Remember people, this is a cartoon" to the cast, which tells you everything you need to know as to why this film failed. The direction was an attack on epileptics worldwide, the constant strobe lighting and sickly neon caused many a headache, I often wonder if they released the film because Warner Bros. had invested millions in Paracetamol (they hadn't to my knowledge) and had made money that way. In the right hands (a comic illustrator) a neon-Tokyo Batman would be great to see, in Batman & Robin however, it was verging on physical assault. George Clooney played Batman like he was an extra, the returning cast members looked tired and deflated. Alicia Silverstone's Batgirl left fans feeling cheated, Uma Thurman played it like it was a cartoon (as she was instructed) and don't get started on what they did to Bane's character. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the films only real pull. His performance and the quotable script written for him is so awful, it's impossible to look away from, making it painfully entertaining in a strange sort of way. Joel Schumacher killed something that should have been impossible to destroy, Burton's version of Batman could have gone on for several films, more than 4 at least. Somehow, Warner Bros. were totally impressed with what they were seeing during filming that they offered Schumacher a third Batman film to direct. Batman Triumphant was to film a year after Batman & Robin but was shelved soon after the negative reviews started. It would have seen Batman come up against The Scarecrow and Harley Quinn and the Joker would have returned by way of hallucination. It sounds amazing. Another thing to hate Joel Schumacher for. Bob Kane sadly died a year after the film came out. His death certificate said 'Natural causes' but I'm not so sure.