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    Batman

    Character » Batman appears in 23537 issues.

    Bruce Wayne, who witnessed the murder of his billionaire parents as a child, swore to avenge their deaths. He trained extensively to achieve mental and physical perfection, mastering martial arts, detective skills, and criminal psychology. Costumed as a bat to prey on the fears of criminals, and utilizing a high-tech arsenal, he became the legendary Batman.

    BATMANBATMANBATMAN: and Robin

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    MrMazz

    2002

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    Edited By MrMazz

    It's back, I realized I hadn't finished reposting these essays but now that I have copious amounts of free time, it's time to get them done. Still haven't written my Dark Knight Rises essay I'll get to it and all the other stuff I have planned eventually.

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    They aren't wearing hockey pads
    They aren't wearing hockey pads

    Batman & Robin is not a good movie. It is near unwatchable at times. Joel Schumacher once again tries to balance camp and drama, failing spectacularly. He overstuffs what could've been a simple campy story with villains that do little to elevate anything except its budget. A concoction of terrible dialog, overdone set pieces, and illogical drama put this film at the edge, but what pushes the camp atmosphere over the top is the non-diegetic music perfectly queued for its overdone fight scene.

    Schumacher starts his sequel to Batman Forever much in the same way he started his run with the franchise. Lots of quick cuts show us our heroes suiting up, accentuating their false sculpted muscles. They then grab color coordinated gadgets and are off to stop the recently revealed Mr. Freeze. It is an overdone mess. Once they reach the museum Freeze is robbing, Batman rides down a dinosaur Flintstone style. Mr. Freeze then escapes in his tank,that transforms into a rocket, and after trapping Batman parachutes out of it. The dynamic duo than ride makeshift surfboards down to Gotham City without major injury.What? These action set pieces are the largest in the franchise, but are filled with needless theatrics, like wire work and flipping. Batman throws thugs around as if he were Superman. Thugs fly through the air clearly pulled by wires; everything feels fake.

    What pushes these overdone comical fight scenes past the point of no return is the perfectly queued music, accentuating the impact of Batman taking out some goons. The music is an homage to the Kapow! Blaam! sounds and words found in the 1960’s Batman TV show. Even if our eyes aren’t further bombarded by both hearing and seeing these sounds in the same fashion as the Batman TV show, the simple fact of hearing it pushes these overdone set pieces into truly comical territory. Horror films are proof that hearing things is worse than actually seeing horrible things. I went and watched the opening scene on mute and it was over done with obvious wire work, on the other hand it looked a lot “harder” than when it had sound.

    The music isn’t the only reason to watch this all on mute. The dialog in this movie is nothing more than cheesy one-liners and puns with veiled attempts at exposition. Writer Akiva Goldsman seemed more preoccupied with throwing as many ice puns and terrible jokes in as he could instead of coming up with something decent.

    Joel Schumacher returns to Gotham City with a new light. For the most part, gone are the neon and black lights. Instead they are replaced with large colored lights that light up the background in reds and other primary colors. Mixed with the colorful set design he fully realizes his cartoonish Gotham City. He also seemed to go crazy with the idea of having random statues to hide the columns holding the large buildings up. Gotham appears to now be a city built on the backs of giants with every major building being connected by a random statue.

    As a franchise Batman is no stranger to toy lines. Batman Forever marked a tonal shift in how Batman interacted with his gadgets, mainly using them to takedown thugs instead of as transport. Warner Bros. had progressively getting better at securing more and more Batman branded merchandise to market. Batman & Robin is no exception. You can argue it is hurt by this overt attempt to make movie branded toys by adding more and more bat gadgets to Batman's disposal. At one point Batman and Robin emit ice skates from their boots, another special action figure next to the normal one. Now with three Bat-themed heroes they could sell three times as many variation on the batarang. With Freezes icy powers special winterized versions of the Batmobile and Robins motorcycles must be made. In the end,I began to wonder if these gadgets were created as a McGuffin to get Batman out of a tight spot or were they made simply to sell toys?

    Batman & Robin has two attempts to build some sort of grounded emotional conflict in this cartoony world. The first being the trust issues between Batman and Robin, the second being the sudden terminal prognoses of Alfred. Neither of these stand up to any sort of test of logic and are undone by the cartoony-ness of it all.

    Trust is an important aspect in both partnerships and family. You have to let your partner save himself every now and again. This is understood by Robin, with his time in the Flying Graysons. It is lost, however, on Bruce, who is still a novice when it comes to family. Having growing pains between the two is only a natural progression of their relationship. It all becomes hollow and false however once Poison Ivy is introduced. Ivy is able to spray mind controlling pheromones, infatuating all types of men to do her bidding. These trust issues are only made more over dramatic with the pheromones as Batman and Robin squabble like children over her. That is petty but it could've worked as long as Batman never became cognizant of the pheromones, except he does. Now he is forced to make Robin trust him even as he is hearing the sirens call. The drama surrounding trust ultimately becomes nothing more than a plot device leading them to the finale and not a natural look at a partnership.

    With the trust issues thoroughly destroyed, writer Akiva Goldsman plays one last card to raise the stakes: Kill Alfred. An interesting idea given the close relationship between Alfred and Wayne, this blindsides the audience, coming an hour into the movie. It is largely hinted that Alfred is slowing down, but that could simply be due to age. The threat of losing Alfred dose force everyone to come together to save the day, not having him die ties everything up into a perfect bow. The revelation that Freeze has found a cure to MacGregor's Syndrome, in particular Alfreds stage reeks of Deus Ex Machina simply to give everyone a happy ending. With Alfred cured why did we ever bother worrying about seeing this character die?

    If more is always better and if an Evil Dynamic Duo was good for Batman Forever than a Triumvirate of Evil should be GREAT for Batman & Robin. This triumvirate, consisting of Mr. Freeze,Poison Ivy, and Bane. Two-Face and Riddler helped fit into the identity theme of Forever, none of these villains fit into any theme or together. Despite being elemental villains Freeze and Ivy are completely different characters with their own goals.

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    If one of these characters was the most underused or misunderstood, it would be Bane. Bane was paired with Poison Ivy as her muscle, nothing more than a mindless brute. Which is a shame considering the characters origins. Bane is not a simple mindless brute that happened to just break the Bats back. He is a smart man, who takes his time getting to know his foes. Look no further than Batman: The Animated Series episode “Bane” or his introduction in the comics Batman: Vengeance of Bane. Tony Guerrero of comicvine.com also gets to the heart of Bane with his 3-Minute Expert on Bane. Like Two-Face the role of Bane could have easily been rewritten into a lesser character than using another of Batman's rogues instead of putting a bastardized character on screen.

    Acting
    Acting

    For the character of Victor Fries (aka Mr. Freeze) writer Akiva Goldsman goes with the more tragic interpretation of the character seen in Batman: The Animated Series “Heart of Ice”. Fries is a not a cold as ice killer, but a tragic character driven to villainy to fund his research for a cure for his wife. This would of been a great place to build an emotional connection around, but any dramatics is overshadowed by the numerous ice puns coming out of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mouth. It is confusing why would they sandwhich his goons singing “Snow Miser” with him having a moment alone with his wife.

    Arnold Schwarzenegger is miscast as Victor Fries. Even with how terrible Bane turned out, Schwarzenegger would of made a perfect Bane for this movie. Schwarzenegger had already endeared himself with his physique with rolls like Conan the Barbarian, The Terminator, John Matrix, Dutch, and Harry Tasher. He could never have been Bane, his level of stardom would not allow it without a major redux of what Bane dose in Batman & Robin. Bane’s face is completely covered with his luchador mask another thing that would not fly for a star like Schwarzenegger. Arnold was never known for his acting but as Victor Fries he gave one of the worst performances of his career. If he were Bane he would of been watchable grunting single lines.

    As summer movie franchise Batman & Robin was required to have some sort of beautiful famous leading lady, the majority of which became the love interest for Bruce Wayne. Batman & Robin splits this requirement into two characters. Uma Thurman fulfills the famous part with previous roles in Pulp Fiction and Gattaca. The beauty role is then filled by Alicia Silverstone.

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    Even though they manage to miss the mark on both Bane and Mr. Freeze, the character of Poison Ivy is handled correctly for the most part. Ivy is an earth minded women, who is more plant than human after her accident. As the villainous Poison Ivy Thurman plays a literal femme fatale, complete with stereotypical jazz theme seductively playing in the background.Multiple times Ivy is shown in poses harkening back to the Greek and Roman goddess Aphrodite and Venus. Her rebirth as Ivy is straight out of The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Poison Ivy is a seductress using her pheromones to control the minds of men. This is more a matter of personal taste, but I found nothing about Uma Thurman seductive, she looked comical with her giant hair and full green body suit.

    Calling Uma Thurman the best villain and likely one of the best parts of this movie is the faintest of praise. To a large degree she camps it up, delivering her lines with the cadence of a southern belle. Even as she is forced to say various puns and innuendos it isn’t as mind numbing as Schwarzenegger making references to ice every 10 seconds.

    The role of beauty was played by Alicia Silverstone. Batman & Robin marks the introduction of Batgirl, but not Barbra Gordon like in the comics. Silverstone plays Barbara Wilson the niece of Alfred. This change is not major and makes a lot of sense given the cinematic universe. Commissioner Gordon has largely been a useless cameo having Batgirl be Gordon's daughter would have required the Commissioner to finally be somewhat integral in this movie. Alfred, on the other hand, had been getting more screen time as the films progressed making it easier to fit into the story. That said introducing Batgirl is as useless as introducing Robin in Batman Forever. Barbra is given her own underdeveloped side plot for the film, but in the end is merely there to fill a form fitting rubber suit and once again even the odds. This vapidness is made worse by Silverstone’s terrible acting. She is Sean Connery levels of bad in terms of affecting an accent. Despite it being made clear that Wilson is from England, Silverstone hardly affects the proper accent, at best raising the pitch of her voice only to than lower said pitch a scene later. Silverstone and her character epitomize the vapid beauty role seen in the Batman franchise.

    Acting
    Acting

    Chris O'Donnell returns as Batman's partner in crime fitting, Robin and is once again under characterized. Robin starts out strong in the film chastising his partner for not trusting him enough to save himself. This is a good progression in the rocky Batman and Robin relationship. His talk of trust issues ultimately rings false, killing what little hope of grounded drama this movie had, when he becomes infatuated with Poison Ivy skipping to her lou and not trusting his partner Batman who realizes they are being compelled by Ivy’s pheromones. Robin is reduced to nothing more than a Napoleon complex in tights only to be cured at the last minute to fighting alongside Batman in the finale because Batman needs his little soldiers.

    For how truly terrible this movie is, it is shocking that it somehow manages to reveal one of the great truths about Batman: he trusts NO ONE. This is why fans get stories like JLA: Tower of Babel, later adapted into an animated film entitled Justice League: Doom. In both cases Batman is revealed to have a file on every superhero in the League and how exactly to take them out if they were to ever turn evil. The only one Batman trusts to save the day is himself because he trusts no one but himself to make the hard call. Alfred rightly points this out to Wayne stating “Death and chance stole your parents but rather than become a victim you have done everything in your power to control the fates. For what is Batman if not an effort to master the chaos that sweeps our world? An attempt to control death itself.” This is the best characterization of Batman to come from all of the live action movies up to this point. Now you could argue this idea is undercut by Batman accepting both Robin and Batgirl into the family. Remember this,they still use his technology and he has the master codes to shut it all off if he wants to. Batman merely gave them a longer leash to run around on.

    George Clooney is an ok Batman given the circumstances. He is at least more charming than Val Kilmer and Michael Keaton. Clooney walks through most of this movie simply being charming George Clooney. Clooney was at the breakout portion of his career with his role as Dr. Doug Ross on the hit NBC drama ER. Putting on the cape and cowl was a smart move for him. Even though he lacked Kilmers action heavy filmography Clooney did have From Dusk Til Dawn under his belt and is by far the most believable version of Bruce Wayne in the public eye. Clooney dose ham it up but not to an annoying degree as he has to delivers lines about Bat credit cards. He is watchable by virtue of simply being George Clooney.

    In the end I am reminded of of this quote from Billy Madison:

    “What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

    Batman & Robin is an incoherent mess that doesn't even follow its own rules. It once again over stuffs itself with villains missing what makes a character great, or giving them meaningless roles with none of them getting any chance to stand out in any positive light. Added to terrible mind numbing dialog and poorly realized attempts at drama Batman & Robin stands out as one of the worst Batman, superhero, and movies ever made.

    When all was said and done Batman & Robin grossed $238,207,122 on a $125 million budget. Critics savaged it for its toyetic and camp atmosphere. Of all the live action movies this was the lowest box office total of the franchise and the most expensive of the live action films made at that point. Even with profitability from the box office and secondary markets Batman & Robin had killed the franchise. Warner Bros. would attempt to produce several other Bat films. Schumacher talked about a Batman: Year One adaptation at several points seemingly out of guilt for killing the franchise. Warner Bros. even looked into bringing Batman Beyond and a Batman vs Superman movie to the big screen. None of these came to fruition with the property lying dormant in Warner Bros. vault, until 2003 when Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer began work on a new film that would become Batman Begins in 2005.

    MUSIC

    Warner Bros.once again put out a mixtape CD for the Batman & Robin soundtrack entitled, Batman & Robin: Music from and Inspired by the "Batman & Robin" Motion Picture. It featured artist like: R.E.M., R. Kelly, Jewel, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Forever composer Elliot Goldenthal didn’t get his own CD release like last time, his Batman Forever score didn’t review well. He did get a single track on the CD titled "A Batman Overture". When compared to Batman Forever this CD just doesn't hold a candle. None of these songs have lasted that long in pop culture. The only one that really stands out to me is The Smashing Pumpkins "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" and it’s remix “The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning”. The End is a much faster version that isn’t to bad. “The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning” is much slower methodical version. It was played during the trailer for Watchmen, and fitt perfectly. Batman & Robin: Music from and Inspired by the "Batman & Robin" Motion Picture peaked on at #5 on the Billboard 200.

    I am Michael Mazzacane and you can find on Twitter @MaZZMand at weekntv.com

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