Batman & Robin

[Fresh Prince]

I don't think that the poor response of B&R should entirely be on Joel Schumacher. Yes, he was the director, but he didn't write the script (Akivia Goldsmith was pretty much responsible for all of those cheesy puns and one-liners). It was also Warner Bros. who pushed hard to make the movie as toyetic and kid friendly as possible (especially after Batman Forever proved to be a bigger hit than the decidingly darker Batman Returns). So in a way, the destruction of the original Batman movie franchise is also one Tim Burton's hands, when you really think about it. Burton laid the groundwork for the more campy material (e.g. the Penguin's army of missile strapped little penguins) that was found in the Schumacher movies.

Yeah right. Batman 89 and Batman Returns had camp and cheese. Joker dancing in the resturant, him on the float at the end of the movie, him dancing by himself and with Vickie Vale. Also Penguins being strapped with missles.

 

[Fresh Prince]

I don't think that the poor response of B&R should entirely be on Joel Schumacher. Yes, he was the director, but he didn't write the script (Akivia Goldsmith was pretty much responsible for all of those cheesy puns and one-liners). It was also Warner Bros. who pushed hard to make the movie as toyetic and kid friendly as possible (especially after Batman Forever proved to be a bigger hit than the decidingly darker Batman Returns). So in a way, the destruction of the original Batman movie franchise is also one Tim Burton's hands, when you really think about it. Burton laid the groundwork for the more campy material (e.g. the Penguin's army of missile strapped little penguins) that was found in the Schumacher movies.

Yeah right. Batman 89 and Batman Returns had camp and cheese. Joker dancing in the resturant, him on the float at the end of the movie, him dancing by himself and with Vickie Vale. Also Penguins being strapped with missles.

 

[joshgonemad]

as everyone who defends this pile of s**t movie that say it was based of the 1950s version of batman and robin, all i have to say to them is that it should have stayed in the 50s, dead where it belonged. if the crap from the 50s was so damn good, all batman comics and movies would still be using the slap schtick garbage that died out back then. wb and joel g@ymocher ruined the original franchise that was GOLD. the movie was bad, EVERYONE HATED IT FOR ITS TIME. it was a step backwards and wb suffered for it and all involved. the only way that batman 5 could have ever redeem forever and b&r would to go back to being dark, hiring back michael keaton and pretending that the 2 crap fest movies never existed and pick up where returns left off

 

[Majik1387]

Actually, WB was the one who made Schumacher do the lighthearted approach, not himself as a director.

 

[joshgonemad]

true, wb did demand that it be light in tone,but im sure they learned quick and they learned a very HARD lesson by it. wb will NEVER tell chris nolan what to do, he saved there sorry asses and im willing to bet well never see "batman lite"ever again. if burton would have made them a BILLION dollars too they never would have asked for a happy batman. LONG LIVE BATMAN BEGINS & THE DARK KNIGHT

 

[Two-Face]

Without "lite Batman" there would be no BB.

 

[El Payaso]

Without "lite Batman" there would be no BB.

BB wasn't done thanks to B&R but in spite of it.

 

[Fresh Prince]

Lite Batman can work just cannot work B&R style. But it can work.

 

[El Payaso]

I don't think that the poor response of B&R should entirely be on Joel Schumacher. Yes, he was the director, but he didn't write the script (Akivia Goldsmith was pretty much responsible for all of those cheesy puns and one-liners). It was also Warner Bros. who pushed hard to make the movie as toyetic and kid friendly as possible (especially after Batman Forever proved to be a bigger hit than the decidingly darker Batman Returns). So in a way, the destruction of the original Batman movie franchise is also one Tim Burton's hands, when you really think about it. Burton laid the groundwork for the more campy material (e.g. the Penguin's army of missile strapped little penguins) that was found in the Schumacher movies.

Burton had nothing to do with ruining the franchise. The way he did the movies worked. It's not his fault if someone else took the elements he handled and did it wrong.

If for that, we should blame Bob Kane and co for creating Robin.

 

[Fresh Prince]

I thank Bob Kane and co for creating Robin. Robin will be in future Batman films and he can and will be done right and justice! Batman needs someone to help fight in war against crime on Gotham. Besides love it when the dynamic duo teams up. People be in for greatness!

 

[david icke]

Without 'lite' Batman there would be no BB

BB wasn't done thanks to B&R but in spite of it.

I have to agree with both statements here actually.

Yeah, I think if WB and Shumacher had stuck with the BF formula, and had not completely abandoned the darker aspects of the BM mythos, we very well might have been stuck with a series of successful but average BM movies. WB probably wouldn't have taken the chance of going back to a darker BM movie after BR performed below expectations and had parents complaining. I doubt they would have been so eager to do such a dark and serious flick as BB.

And of course, in spite of B&R causing the franchise to a halt in that continuity, a new BM movie series was allowed to flourish and be given a chance. A chance it might never have had had the old series hit such a low.

 

[TMC1982]

Yeah right. Batman 89 and Batman Returns had camp and cheese. Joker dancing in the resturant, him on the float at the end of the movie, him dancing by himself and with Vickie Vale. Also Penguins being strapped with missles.

Of course, I'm not going to deny that the Tim Burton films had campy and cheesy elements in their own right. My point was that Batman & Robin wasn't as subtle with its own campy and cheesy elements. In other words, the movie took certain things and turned to level 11.

 

[TMC1982]

Burton had nothing to do with ruining the franchise. The way he did the movies worked. It's not his fault if someone else took the elements he handled and did it wrong.

If for that, we should blame Bob Kane and co for creating Robin.

Tim Burton did have a part in ruining the franchise. Because he had to make Batman Returns so much darker and twisted (i.e. more personal) than the first one, soccer moms got angry and this in return, convinced Warner Bros. to make the future movies lighter in tone and more kid friendly. Had Burton shown more restraint and kept Returns closer to the direction as the 1989 film, then maybe he and Michael Keaton would've done Batman Forever instead of Joel Schumacher.

 

[TMC1982]

as everyone who defends this pile of s**t movie that say it was based of the 1950s version of batman and robin, all i have to say to them is that it should have stayed in the 50s, dead where it belonged. if the crap from the 50s was so damn good, all batman comics and movies would still be using the slap schtick garbage that died out back then. wb and joel g@ymocher ruined the original franchise that was GOLD. the movie was bad, EVERYONE HATED IT FOR ITS TIME. it was a step backwards and wb suffered for it and all involved. the only way that batman 5 could have ever redeem forever and b&r would to go back to being dark, hiring back michael keaton and pretending that the 2 crap fest movies never existed and pick up where returns left off

Actually, Batman & Robin you can argue, represents the Adam West TV series era of the Batman mythology. Batman Forever represents the late 1940s-1950s era (when Robin was introduced and the direction was becoming decidedly lighter and more entrenched in sci-fi). Batman Returns represents the 1980s-early 1990s, Killing Joke/Dark Knight Returns period. The 1989 film meanwhile, represents the early Bob Kane/Bill Finger comics from 1939 (but in a late 1980s environment).

 

[colonel sanders]

They didn't kill off any of the villains.

 

[The Joker]

In the movie universe, there's nothing wrong with killing off the occasional villain. It's not the comic books. There's not going to be a movie every month.

 

[colonel sanders]

Yeah it really doesn't bother me if they kill a villain if the character served his purpose and it works well for the story, like two-face in the dark knight or the green goblin for spidey 1.

It really doesn't matter to me i was just posting this because a lot of people complain when the villain is killed off and Batman and Robin so far is the only batman movie where none of the villains die.

 

[willemjoker]

Frankly, I wanted every character - hero and villain, dead at the end of this movie, with the exception of Michael Gough.

 

[CJ]

I always thought Batman's end speech to a defeated Freeze was kinda cool, though cheesy.

But yeah, everything else in the movie was wrong. When Batman, Robin and Batgirl were riding their new vehicles down the streets of Gotham near the end, The Power Rangers theme song came to mind "GO GO POWER RANGERRRRRS" I'm suprised Joel didn't have their vehicles combine into a giant robot.

 

[CJ]

I always thought Batman's end speech to a defeated Freeze was kinda cool

No pun intended.

 

[ChocheTheHero]

Well... It contains some people being murdered by Poison Ivy... Poor guards!

Also, Batman & Robin KILLED the franchise.

 

[Bathead]

Well... It contains some people being murdered by Poison Ivy... Poor guards!

Also, Batman & Robin KILLED the franchise.

Really? Then what were these last two films? Imaginary?
It may have put the franchise in intensive care, but it didn't kill it.

 

[colonel sanders]

Well... It contains some people being murdered by Poison Ivy... Poor guards!

Also, Batman & Robin KILLED the franchise.

It didn't kill the franchise, it ended up making it better. Its the reason we have Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.

 

[El Payaso]

LOL. BB and TDK weren't made thanks to B&R but in spite of it.

B&R did kill Batman franchise. BB was a CPR procedure that worked.

That said, yes, aren't we lucky they kept Thurman's Poison Ivy and Schwarzenegger's Dr. Feeze alive? Two of the most horrid and loathsome pieces of acting ever. I don't even need this extreme example to get that killing the villiains is not a bad idea per se.

 

[CJ]

I think what he meant, El Payaso, was that if Batman and Robin was not as terrible as it was, WB may have just continued with another Scumacher film.

However, B&R was SO bad, they pulled the plug on the franchise, wanting to start all over with a new director and a new take on it. So in a way, if B&R never came out, we may never have gotten a Nolan film.

For that, we should be thanking Joel.