| Batman & Robin | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Joel Schumacher |
| Produced by | Peter MacGregor-Scott |
| Written by | Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman Comic book: Bill Finger (uncredited) Bob Kane |
| Starring | George Clooney Arnold Schwarzenegger Uma Thurman Chris O'Donnell Alicia Silverstone |
| Music by | Elliot Goldenthal |
| Cinematography | Stephen Goldblatt |
| Editing by | Dennis Virkler Mark Stevens |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 20, 1997 |
| Running time | 125 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $140 million[1] |
| Gross revenue | $238.21 million |
| Preceded by | Batman Forever |
Batman & Robin is a 1997 superhero film directed by Joel Schumacher. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is a sequel to Batman Forever (1995), with George Clooney replacing Val Kilmer as Batman. Batman & Robin also stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman, Chris O'Donnell and Alicia Silverstone. The film tells the story of Batman and Dick Grayson struggling to keep their relationship together. At the same time, they have to stop Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy from literally freezing Gotham City.
Development for Batman & Robin started immediately after Batman Forever, and Warner Bros. commissioned the film on fast track for an adamant June 1997 release. Principal photography began in September 1996 and finished in January 1997, two weeks ahead of the shooting schedule. Batman & Robin was released on June 20, 1997, and was met with critically-panned reviews. Batman & Robin was a modest financial success, but observers criticized the film for its toyetic and campy approach, and for supposed homosexual innuendos added by Schumacher. Batman & Robin received numerous nominations at the Razzie Awards and is highly considered to be one of the worst superhero films of all time.[2][3] The negative response for Batman & Robin led to the unproduced Batman Triumphant, but the Batman film series was eventually rebooted with Batman Begins (2005).
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The film begins with Batman and Robin stopping Mr. Freeze from a robbery attempt, but he escapes. In South America, Pamela Isley is working under Dr. Jason Woodrue, experimenting with the Venom drug. She witnesses Woodrue use the formula to turn a diminutive convict into a hulking monstrosity dubbed "Bane". Woodrue and Isley argue over the use of the drug and Woodrue kills her by overturning a shelf of various toxins onto her and she sinks into the ground. She transforms into the beautiful and seductive Poison Ivy before killing Woodrue-with a poison kiss. She finds that Wayne Enterprises funded Woodrue, thus she takes Bane with her to Gotham City. Meanwhile, Alfred Pennyworth's niece, Barbara Wilson, makes a surprise visit and is invited by Bruce Wayne to stay at Wayne Manor until she goes back to school.
Wayne Enterprises presents a new telescope at a press conference interrupted by Isley. She proposes a project that could help the environment, but Bruce declines her offer, as it would kill millions of people. That night, a charity event is held by Wayne Enterprises with special guests, Batman and Robin, and she decides to use her abilities to seduce them. Freeze crashes the party and steals a diamond from the event. However, he is captured and sent to a chamber prison in Arkham Asylum, but escapes with the help of Ivy and Bane. Batman and Robin begin to have crime fighting relationship problems because of the presence of Ivy's seductive ability with Robin. Ivy is then able to contact Robin once more, but fails to seduce him. Robin becomes trapped, but rescued by Batman. Batgirl shows up and traps Ivy within her own plants, while Freeze and Bane flee. Batgirl reveals that she is Barbara and knows the location of the Batcave.
Batman, Robin and Batgirl decide to go after Freeze together. By the time they get to the lab where Freeze and Bane are, Gotham is completely frozen. Robin and Batgirl confront Bane and defeat him by disconnecting his venom hose, while Batman and Freeze begin to fight each other, with Batman winning in a cliffhanger battle; Freeze tries to kill Batman by destroying the telescope platform but only succeeds in crushing Bane. Batgirl and Robin unfreeze Gotham and Batman shows Freeze a recording of Ivy during her fight with Batgirl. Freeze learns that Ivy has betrayed him over the death of his wife. Ivy blamed Batman for Nora's death, but she informs Batgirl that it was her idea. Freeze is angered by the betrayal and is informed by Batman that his wife is not dead; she is restored in cryogenic slumber and has been moved to Arkham waiting for him to finish his research. Batman proceeds to ask Freeze for the cure Freeze has created for the first stage of MacGregor's Syndrome, the disease that Freeze's wife is suffering from, for a friend (Alfred) who is dying. Freeze atones for his misunderstanding by giving him medicine he had developed. Nearly insane Ivy is shown imprisoned in the cold beam in Arkham and Freeze walks in and announces he will make her life a living hell of winter. Alfred is eventually healed and everyone agrees to let Barbara stay at the mansion. The film ends with the image of a Bat-Signal, with Batman, Robin and Batgirl running as if appearing from the signal itself towards the camera.
Small roles are provided by Jeep Swenson (Bane), John Glover (Dr. Jason Woodrue), Pat Hingle (Commissioner James Gordon) and Elle Macpherson (Julie Madison). Cameo appearances are provided by Elizabeth Sanders, Jesse Ventura, Coolio, Vivica A. Fox and Vendela Kirsebom.
With the box office success of Batman Forever in June 1995, Warner Bros. instantly commissioned a sequel.[11] They hired director Joel Schumacher and writer Akiva Goldsman to reprise their duties the following August,[5] and decided it was best to fast track production for a June 1997 target release date.[11] Schumacher wanted to homage both the broad camp style of the 1960s television series and the work of Dick Sprang.[6] The storyline of Batman & Robin was conceived by Schumacher and Goldsman during pre-production on A Time to Kill.[12] Portions of Mr. Freeze's back-story were based on the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Heart of Ice", written by Paul Dini.[13] The original start date was August 1996,[4] but principal photography did not begin until September 12, 1996.[14] Batman & Robin finished filming in late-January 1997,[15] two weeks ahead of the shooting schedule.[6] The film was mostly shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.[5]
When comparing work on Batman Forever, Chris O'Donnell, who portrayed Robin, explained, "It just felt like everything got a little soft the second time. On Batman Forever, I felt like I was making a movie. The second time, I felt like I was making a kid's toy commercial."[5] According to John Glover, who played Dr. Jason Woodrue, "Joel [Schumacher] would sit on a crane with a megaphone and yell before each take, 'Remember everyone, this is a cartoon'. It was hard to act because that kind of set the tone for the film."[5] Production designer Barbara Ling admitted her influences for the Gotham City design came from "neon-ridden Tokyo and the Machine Age. Gotham is like a World's Fair on ecstasy."[16] Rhythm and Hues and Pacific Data Images created the visual effects sequences, with John Dykstra and Andrew Adamson credited as the visual effects supervisors.[17]
The Batman & Robin film trailer debuted on the February 19, 1997 episode of Entertainment Tonight.[18] Warner Bros. spent $15 million to market and promote the film, bringing the total budget from $125 million to $140 million.[1] The studio also brought in toy companies to be involved with pre-production, including the design of concept art and character illustrations. Director Joel Schumacher criticized Warner Bros.'s strategy for Batman & Robin as being overtly toyetic.[5]
Batman & Robin was released on June 20, 1997 in North America, earning $42,872,605 in its opening weekend,[19] making it the third-highest opening weekend of 1997.[20] However, the film rapidly declined with a 63% second week plunge.[21] Many observers based the second week drop on negative word of mouth. In addition, Batman & Robin faced early competition with Face/Off and Hercules.[1] Schumacher blamed it on yellow journalism started by Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News and other movie websites such as Dark Horizons.[22] The film went on to gross $107.3 million in North America and $130.9 million internationally, coming to a worldwide total of $238.2 million.[19] Warner Bros. declared Batman & Robin a financial success, but not on the scale they were hoping for.[1]
Based on 58 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 12% of the critics enjoyed Batman & Robin.[23] The film was more balanced with 15 reviews from Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics" poll, receiving a 20% approval rating.[24] By comparison Metacritic collected an average score of 28/100, based on 21 reviews.[25]
Many observers accused Schumacher of adding homosexual innuendos in the storyline.[5] Schumacher has been openly gay through most of his career.[26] James Berardinelli questioned the "random amount of rubber nipples and camera angle close-ups of the Dynamic Duo's butts and Bat-crotches."[27] Similar to Batman Forever, this primarily included the decision to add nipples and enlarged codpieces to Batman and Robin suits. Schumacher stated, "I had no idea that putting nipples on the Batsuit and Robin suit were going to spark international headlines. The bodies of the suits come from ancient Greek statues, which display perfect bodies. They are anatomically erotic."[5] Chris O'Donnell, who portrayed Robin, felt "it wasn't so much the nipples that bothered me. It was the codpiece. The press obviously played it up and made it a big deal, especially with Joel directing. I didn't think twice about the controversy, but going back and looking and seeing some of the pictures, it was very unusual."[5] George Clooney joked, "Joel Schumacher told me we never made another Batman film because Batman was gay".[28]
Schumacher and producer Peter MacGregor-Scott blamed the negative reception of Batman & Robin on Warner Bros.' decision to fast track production. "There was a lot of pressure from Warner Bros. to make Batman & Robin more family-friendly," Schumacher explained. "We decided to do a less depressing Batman movie and less torture and more heroic. I know I have been criticized a lot for this, but I didn't see the harm in that approach at all."[5] Roger Ebert criticized the toyetic approach and Mr. Freeze's one-liner jokes.[29] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times believed the film "killed" the Batman film series, and felt Batman & Robin depended too much on visual effects.[30] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post largely disapproved over Schumacher's direction and Akiva Goldsman's script.[31] Mick LaSalle, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, said, "George Clooney is the big zero of the film, and should go down in history as the George Lazenby of the series."[32] However, Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave a positive review. She praised Uma Thurman's acting, as well as the production and costume design.[33]
Batman & Robin was nominated the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, as well as categories for Best Make-up and Best Costume.[34] Alicia Silverstone won the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress. Schumacher (Worst Director), George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell (Worst Screen Couple), Akiva Golsdman (Worst Screenplay), both Chris O'Donnell and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Worst Supporting Actor), Uma Thurman (Worst Supporting Actress) and Billy Corgan (Worst Song for "The End Is the Beginning Is the End") were also nominated for categories at the Razzie Awards. Batman & Robin received nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Remake or Sequel and Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property.[35]
During the filming of Batman & Robin, Warner Bros. was impressed with the dailies. This prompted them to immediately hire Joel Schumacher to return as director for a sequel, but writer Akiva Goldsman, who worked on Batman Forever and Batman & Robin with Schumacher, turned down the chance to write the script.[6] In late 1996, Warner Bros. and Schumacher hired Mark Protosevich to write the script for a fifth Batman film. A projected mid-1999 release date was announced.[36] Titled Batman Triumphant, Protosevich's script had the Scarecrow as the main villain. Through the use of his fear toxin, he resurrects the Joker. Harley Quinn appeared as a supporting character, written as the Joker's daughter.[37] George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell were set to reprise the roles of Batman and Robin.[38]
Nevertheless, when Batman & Robin was released with negative reviews, Warner Bros. was unsure of their plans for Batman Triumphant. The studio decided it was best to consider a live-action Batman Beyond film and an adaptation of Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Warners would then greenlight whichever idea suited them the most.[39] Schumacher felt he "owe[d] the Batman culture a real Batman movie. I would go back to the basics and make a dark portrayal of the Dark Knight."[40] He approached Warner Bros. of doing Batman: Year One in mid-1998,[40] but they were more interested in hiring Darren Aronofsky. Aronofsky and Frank Miller developed a Year One script with Aronofsky to direct, but it was ultimately canceled. Christopher Nolan was eventually hired to helm the next Batman film in January 2003, resulting into the rebooted Batman Begins (2005).[39]
In "Legends of the Dark Knight", an episode of The New Batman Adventures, three teenagers discuss their ideas about what Batman is really like. They briefly meet an effeminate youth called Joel (in front of a shoemaker's shop, no less) whose idea of Batman consists mainly of a fascination with the tight rubber suits and a Batmobile that can drive up walls. The other three kids treat Joel's ideas with utter disdain.[41] In Watchmen, director Zack Snyder and comic book artist Dave Gibbons choose to parody the molded muscle and nipple Batsuit design from Batman & Robin for the Ozymandias costume.[42][43]
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