BATMAN AND ROBIN
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
A new Batman, who when not Batman-ing around town is really Bruce Wayne (George Clooney); a shiny new Batmobile that can ride upside down on the ceiling of a tunnel; a new villain, Mr. Freeze (Arnold Schwarzenegger) Robin (Chris O'Donnell) now has a turbo-charged motorcycle and is better able to assist Batman; some old character actors from various prior Batman films; Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's butler, friend and father figure, and Gotham City's harried Police Commissioner Gordon (Pat Hingle).
Add to that Barbara Eilson, "Batgirl" (the lovely, sprightly Alicia Silverstone); the stunning model Elle McPherson who has the role of Julie Madison, in love with Bruce. But the one who grabs the ball and runs with it through the whole film is Uma Thurman as the villainous Poison Ivy. In addition to her own shapely lines, Akiva Goldman who wrote the script has given Poison Ivy the best lines.
Ivy was not always a villain. She once was Dr. Pamela Isley, a good person, a botanist, but something happened that turned her into Poison Ivy whose kiss means death. Robin comes close to touching lips with her. The fact is, Robin has a crush on her and when Batman tries to warn him about her, he argues that Batman is just jealous because he is actually in love with her himself. It looked for a while that Batman and Robin might actually split up.
Like Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze was not always a hateful person. As the famous Dr. Victor Fries, a molecular scientist, he tried to cryogenically preserve his wife who was terminally ill so that one day when a cure was found for her illness, she could be defrosted. Something went badly wrong with that operation and turned Fries into a madman, mad at the whole world. Schwarzenegger does a great job as Mr. Freeze. He is aided by some fancy special effects that freeze people and objects when he fires on them with a special gun. No action movie, it seems, is anything without special effects; fortunately for us, they are getting better and better.
Lots of action, lots of freezing and defrosting and shooting and terrorizing Gotham but all with humor. While Batman and Robin go about their business of saving the city, Freeze and Poison Ivy keep the film rolling. They and the special effects are what give the film whatever value it has. The visual effects are the work of John Dykstra.
Directed by Joel Schumacher who also directed BATMAN FOREVER.
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Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
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