George Clooney Is The Batman Who Sucks (Batman & Robin 1997)

what killed the dinosaurs?

The Ice Age

this movie is filled with many ice puns that could freeze Florida. That movie is the box office travesty BATMAN & ROBIN. This movie was sooooooooo bad it ended the Tim Burton/Joel Schumaker line of Batman films.

Like the Superman movies of the 70’s and 80’s, the Burton line of Batman movies was straying away from being serious to outright campy. By the time Joel Schumaker directed this movie, Warner Bros was more concerned about the series generating income from merchandise and toys rather than relying on a good quality product.

The franchise was treated more like a live action cartoon than anything else and BATMAN AND ROBIN would be the nail in the coffin for the franchise.

Much can be said about the production values and set design but the franchise took a bizarre turn when nipples and cod pieces were added to the batsuits, one factor that help give this movie the reputation it earned. Showing close ups of the actors rear ends suiting up didn’t help much either.

The cartoonish dialogue and campy atmosphere would further ruin the appeal Clooney had as Batman. Had the movie been more serious, George Clooney could have been the ultimate Batman. The cartoonish atmosphere of the film either worked or didn’t work depending on who you looked at. Uma Thurman absolutely nailed her take as Poison Ivy and perhaps best understood what she was given. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze was a complete loss. The Terminator is not a good actor and even given some of the best dialogue in the movie if you can call it that, he still struggles.

Arnold was the highest paid member of the cast and had a contract stipulation he could be only on set for no more than 12hrs which limited his time as the character and maybe for the best.

This movie had Bane in it and boy does he suck in this film.

Bane who famously appeared in the early 90’s as an intelligent villain who broke Batman’s back is reduced to being Poison Ivy's dumb bodyguard. To be honest not even Christopher Nolan nailed the character in DARK KNIGHT RISES. He is a very hard character to portray properly on the big screen.

Much can be said about all of that but the overall story for this movie is by far the weakest of the 4 original Batman movies started by Tim Burton. Batman, Robin, and Batgirl have to stop Mr. Freeze from freezing Gotham City with space satellites while Poison Ivy plots to rule the world. Meanwhile, Alfred, Batman’s butler is dying from a disease that Mr. Freeze was trying to cure before he became the villain he is.

While Uma Thurman nailed her character perfectly, she unfortunately had to deal with the rubbish thrown at her which unfairly impacted her career as everyone else didn’t try that hard. Ultimately what killed this movie was the homosexual undertones, bad acting, bad writing, and everything else that went into the movie. Warner Bros only cared about their merchandise revenue which outpaced the box office gross of each proceeding Batman movie and not enough attention to make sure they had a solid film on their hands. The failure of Batman and Robin killed Tim Burton’s Superman Lives which was deep into pre-production including fitting out Superman suits for Nicolas Cage along with a shared universe.

Even Superman Lives would have been ridiculed had it been completed. Ive seen some of the costumes Nic Cage tried out and basically they don’t look that great. Kevin Smith of Clerks fame was the scriptwriter and found himself in meetings where the executives didn’t care about the dialogue but more shit for toys and games so its best Batman and Robin failed so Superman didn’t live.

Batman remains a hot commodity for Warner Bros Discovery and the most popular superhero in the DC universe. Warner Bros learned from their mistakes and gave the reins of the franchise to Christopher Nolan who directed a trilogy of Batman films to critical and commercial success. Batman would take charge in the Snyderverse of DC films and Matt Reeves directed the successful The Batman with a sequel in production.

#nostalgia #reactionvideo