The Bat Summer of '97

[Excel]

Strength. Courage. Honor. And loyalty. On June 20, it ALL comes together...

hehehehe...

 

[BatBruce]

Man, 10 years ago huh? How far we've come. Well my brother and I were all jazzed for this one just as we were 2 years earlier for Forever. We had the toys, tshirts, cups, etc. We went opening night with our dad and the theater was packed cuz of how popular Forever was and the flick was marketed out the ass like usual. 2 hours go by, and something was different. I had seen all the other Bat-flicks in the theaters and they all had good reactions from the crowd at the end (except for Returns, which all I remember is my mom saying "I'm not taking you to see anymore of these!") but this one, everyone had kind of an exceptance in their minds that this was it. I was young, but even I was thinking "that was the last Batman movie". It's kind of an odd memory really.

 

[The Shredder]

Upon seeing the previews of B&R back in hmmm ... Feb/Mar of '97, I felt the film franchise was definately becoming a full blown amped up version of the 1960's television series. But, I bit the bullet and had the displeasure of seeing it opening day with about 150 school kids (something that thankfully didnt happen with BF), and ultimately walked out of the theater that day not only annoyed, but very much disappointed as well. I felt the Batman films were definately about to go into a long hibernation period. And fortunately/unfortunately that did indeed happen. And as far as any merchandise, I didnt even bother outside of purchasing a official magazine for the movie that I picked up a few weeks prior to the release date. Which is something I cant say I did in the Summer of 1995 with Batman Forever.

 

[GoogleMe94]

i saw batman and robin in theaters with a bunch of my friends and my sister i think, but i dont remember much of it, i dont remember whether i liked it or not, i was only 10 years old. at that age, being the bat-fanatic i was, i probably liked ANYTHING batman, good or bad.

 

[Penismightier]

I saw the trailer, then on the opening day I avoided going outside, watching TV, reading the newspaper, or seeing anything remotely related to Batman and Robin. I put the VHS of Batman '89 in the player and I watched it and Returns in a nice, quiet evening alone. The torment was postponed until Batman and Robin came on HBO.

 

[Darkest Knight]

I had a summer of intense basketball camps. The last day we finished I went and saw it, after being totally excited. And it sucked goat nuts, and I remember having this sick feeling in my stomach afterwards.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

I actually had a migarine headache. That's not a joke. The sheer ammount of garish, swirling neon colours and dazzling lights made me ill.

Damn you, B&R!! Damn you all to hell!

 

[The Shredder]

I actually had a migarine headache. That's not a joke. The sheer ammount of garish, swirling neon colours and dazzling lights made me ill.

Damn you, B&R!! Damn you all to hell!

Sounds like you had a reaction much like those unfortunate souls who purchased a Virtual Boy back in the day. But one could hardly blame you. As I imagine alot of people walked out of the theater after viewing B&R with migarine headache's.

 

[Penismightier]

^The movie's like watching a multi-colored strobe light. I shudder to think what happened if some unlucky epileptic children's group went to see that movie as some sort of group thing. I'm being serious, I would feel sorry for those kids.

 

[CFE]

^The movie's like watching a multi-colored strobe light. I shudder to think what happened if some unlucky epileptic children's group went to see that movie as some sort of group thing. I'm being serious, I would feel sorry for those kids.

IDK...when I was in kids summer camp we were subject to Episode I in theatres...

some films should NEVER be seen when surrounded by a group of camp kids.

CFE

 

[Penismightier]

Yeah, I didn't go to movies with other kids. Even when I was younger, I wanted to watch the movie, not have some kid next to me ask me what's going on.

 

[strikezone89]

I still have a stub from Batman 89. I have it stuck in the movie adaptation novel.

rofl. i want one

 

[Booznian]

Well I moved to America when I was 3 and had seen Batman action figures, and fell in love with them. Then became in love, watched Batman Forever on VHS because my dad rented it for me. We were poor when we first moved to Chicago. I remember the day when we saw Batman and Robin. I was 5 years old at the time, we finally got a bigger apartment, and during the morning while my mom was watching the news she saw the previews for it. They said they were taking me to this place, and when we arrived there were movie posters everywhere! Since I have never been to movie theater, I was excited, we bought the tickets, and entered the theater. Previews flew by, then the WB logo showed up, and I heard that music...That damn Batman music, that I would hum while playing with my Batman action figure.. =]]

 

[Darkness Falls]

97
I would have been six
i remember getting the figures
i can't remember if i saw it in cinemas
but my parents bought me the video when it came out
i liked it
and i still do even with it's many flaws

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I was a paperboy.

I remember seeing a small Black&White picture of Clooney in the batsuit and thinking: 'Cool, he looks a lot like Keaton did in B89' LOL

How wrong I was!

Then on PARKINSON they showed a clip of the movie with Clooney sliding down the dinos back and saying, 'Hi Freeze, I'm Batman.' LAME.
I knew then that the movie would suck but I saw it TWICE anyway. The second time because I convinced myself that it couldn't be as bad as my mind was telling me, lol

 

[david icke]

I didnt have any clue about net sites like AICN until U.K. newspaper the Guardian did an article on Batman and Robin a couple of months before it's release. The cover had an amusing(altho it made me feel gutted at the time) cartoon on the cover of it's Guide section of a little kid punching Batman in the stomach(this was to reflect the part in the AICN article where HK described hearing a kid begging their parent to take them out the theatre). The article basically gave you a rundown of the AICN article and the fall out from it, there was an extremely faint glimmer of hope in that it said Schumacher was going back into the editing suite to get rid of some of Clooney's bat-jokes(like the 'didnt your mother ever tell you not to play with guns' line to Freeze that was in an early trailer). Even so, i didnt think it could be that bad.
It was the only bat-flick i only went to see once in the cinema, i went 1st day and my friend and i went for a couple of beers after, for the most part we just took the piss out of the Arnie freeze puns, nothing much else could be said apart from 'that was probably the last Bat movie' which would have been too depressing to voice. I thought they would press on with a Batman5 and theyd make sure it was much better, really glad they didnt now of course, BB was worth the wait and worth the embarassment of BandR, which in retrospect was a gift from the gods, if not for BandR we wouldve probably got a series of ok but unworthy Batflicks every 3 years that wouldve ended up doing Bat's rep some damage to the point that we wouldnt have seen a Batman yr one type re-boot flick until 2032 or something.

 

[Superwoman Prime]

I didn't see B&R in theaters, but as soon as it came out on VHS, my family rented it.

 

[Super_Ludacris]

My memory of B&R was more of being suprised that a new one came out so soon. "already?". It also seemed like no one was really checking for it beforehand. It was like another Bat summer? Whoever said MIB stole its thunder was right. Movie had no buzz, nevermind Clooney and Schwarzenegger's involvment.
I do still rember Dateline (out of all programmes) doing a camped out special segment about the movie and alotta promo for the actors on talk show (remember the story about them in a jetplane and the door swung open mid-air?).
But the movie itself didnt do nothing for me. I did remember thinking Alicia Silverstone was hot. I dont get why people complained about weight, Ma was looking right in the film.
The soundtrack wasnt too bad, R. Kellys joint was funny (remix was hot though) and Smashing Pumpkins was alright. I checked it mostly for the Bone Thugs N Harmony song.

 

[BatFitz]

I remember having a lot of the figures for the film. Even the two "playsets" of Mr. Freeze's lab and some sort of Ice...wall. And I remember liking the movie when it came out. Because it was only the second Bat-film I'd seen at the theater, and it was thrilling, what can I say? I was only 10.

Oh, and I also bought the soundtrack on tape and just about wore out the sections with the two Smashing Pumpkins tracks.

 

[Milu]

Back when I saw this in '97, it was awesome. Today, however, I feel the exact opposite. And to think that I skipped out on seeing Forever in theaters. I saw all the Warners' bat-films in theaters but Forever . At least BF was better than what was to come two summers later.

The B&R soundtrack was not as great as BF's either -- the only things B&R's soundtrack had going for it were "TEITBITE" from the Smashing Pumpkins (didn't care much for their closing song), as well as the songs from Bone Thugs and Arkana, and Goldenthal's "Batman Overture."

However, Silverstone was HOT-- probably not quite as hot as Kidman, who is my #1 bat-babe, but she is easily my #2.

 

[Swordmaster]

^Over Pfeiffer?

 

[Milu]

To be blunt, yes (possibly #3-- can't decide between her or Basinger) -- but at least she was the best actress in a bat-film.