George Clooney Batman/Bruce Wayne Chris O'Donnell Robin/Dick Grayson Arnold Schwarzenegger Mr. Freeze/Victor Freese Uma Thurman Poison Ivy/Pamela Isley Alicia Silverstone Batgirl/Barbra Michael Gough Alfred
Where to start. This movie has all the substance and believability of a Steven Segal movie. It's almost hard to fathom that Warner Bros. actually greenlighted this waste of celluloid that people have the nerve to call a "movie".
"B&R" had all the right stuff, it seemed, on paper; a solid cast, a normally reliable director, and a credible studio backing. It's the writing and director Joel Schumacher's cartoonish direction that flushed it down the drain straight to movie hell.
The "plot" suffered from the odd sensation of not quite having a start, beginning, and an end. It starts off decently with the opening credits, and the very well done score by Danny Elfman. Things start going south with the very first line of the movie, spoken unconvincingly and quite annoyingly by O'Donnell. The rest of the movie is a wretched mix of cartoonish action, horrible one-liners, insipid dialogue, an endless sea of neon objects, and way too many Bat-tools to keep track of.
It's hard to believe this is from the same guy that directed "Batman Forever" and "A Time to Kill". Much of the "action" asks the viewer to suspend reality to an unrealistic degree. Scenes with Robin flying through the air, Freeze swinging from vines, the rocket from the back of the Freezemobile, never mind that at 30,000 feet any normal human would die, never mind that we're asked to believe Robin can hang on the side of launched rocket traveling at a velocity sufficient enough to send it into orbit by virtue of Bat-magnets.
The cast, while on paper seemed right, was overridden with bad lines. Viewers are delt a barrage of terrible one-liners and puns. And oh, there is way too many comments referring to coldness, ice, freeze, etc. To call it a dialogue is a gross overstatement. Clooney was decent choice to play Bruce Wayne/Batman, but he wasn't really acting in the movie. He did what he does in almost every roles he's given which is basically charm the audience, head tilt and all. Arnold gives what might arguably his worst ever performance in his entire career. It seems that lately, only James Cameron is able to squeeze out a passable line out of him. Poison Ivy spent the half the movie talking to herself. O'Donnell's Robin was quite the little punk, and his rebellious character got old to the point that one would hope Batman goes solo his next time out. It doesn't say much for a movie when the best acting was done by a supporting character, which in this case, Alfred is expertly played as always by Gough. When Alfred's mortality becomes an issue, it adds the only real character depth to the movie, but it's much too little. Other cameos (Elle Macpherson, Vivica Fox) in this movie were so incidental as to be almost forgettable. Silverstone was, well, Silverstone.
The most glaring fault was the departure from the traditional "Batman" mood set so well in the comics. Gotham is a dark, moody city even in the daytime and Tim Burton set this tone brilliantly in the first "Batman". Same goes for the Batcave, which is made up to resemble a laser-tag arena. It's not this bright, neon-slathered pseudo-Las Vegas Schumacher makes it out to be. Batman himself is a dark, brooding, character who doesn't say much to begin with while Bruce Wayne is an suave yet slightly awkward person. Clooney, while looking very much the part, doesn't help by trying to add a lighter side to both. Also in the comics, Robin is hardly a partner to Batman. nor is he such a rebellious brat as shown here. These faults are due mainly to the director and the writing staff.
Character moments suffered in this movie. There is almost no development into the relationship between Wayne and his current girlfriend Julie Madison. The bickering between Batman and Robin gets old real fast. Freeze's desires to freeze the world is mentioned only in passing, just the audience has some idea why he's doing this, and how he came to be this way. The only parts worth watching in the movie is the too-brief moments between Bruce and Alfred. The mildly touching scenes adds a touch of humanity to an otherwise gimmicky movie.
The Batman movie series has always been about the villains, and here it falls flat on it's face for the reasons mentioned. Also straying from the comic norm is the character of Bane. In the comics, Bane is intelligent as well as inhumanely strong, not the brainless, monosyllabic lump he's portrayed as here. Despite going maniacally overboard, neither Freeze or Ivy measure up to the villains played any of the previous movies.
The entire movie reeks of the campiness from the old Adam West series back in the 60s. I left the theater thinking all the movie missed was the "Pop! Bang! Whack!" graphics of old. Incidentally, there are strong but unconfirmed rumors going around that Schumacher actually wanted these touches in the final cut, but was (fortunately) rejected by Warner Bros.
This is a pretty bad step for the Batman franchise. Next time around, get rid of Schumacher, Silverstone, and maybe O'Donnell. Clooney is fine as the Dark Knight, but make sure he stays true to form as portrayed by the comics, in other words, he needs to expand his acting abilities. Bring back the dark, gothic look of the first Gotham city and then maybe, there's hope that "Batman" will once again be something worth watching.
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