Why do people hate this movie?
I haven't seen this movie in over 20+ years and I remember liking this movie back in high school, I thought it was entertaining and flowed very well.
shareI liked it as well
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MovieChat Forums > Batman & Robin (1997) Discussion > Why do people hate this movie?
I saw Batman and Batman Returns in theaters. They were great considering the Batman we had before was the 60's TV show and super friends.
It seemed like a long time between Batman Returns and Batman forever. At that time, Batman the Animated series was a carry on of what we saw from Tim Burton and the comics (batman didn't kill). Batman forever was fun, colorful and okay at the time. It doesn't hold up.
Then came Batman and Robin. It was too cheesy. The sets looked terrible, the puns were too campy, the acting was atrocious, George Clooney was wooden, and it was embarrassing to watch. At least we got a good view of Alicia Silverstone's rear (eye candy for the teenager me). But it was bad like Steel.
People hate this movie because it’s horribly made dog crap.
I never thought I’d see the day where it was somehow “cool” to like this abomination of filmmaking, but I’m noticing a lot more people posting on here defending this dumpster fire of a movie. Unbelievable. I guess some people really do like anything, regardless of quality.
Batman & Robin suffers from an extreme case of tonal whiplash. For example, we have Mr. Freeze leading is gang into singing the "Snow Miser" song and not to long afterwards, we see him grieving over his wife. And there's a scene where Batman and Robin are discussing about how dangerous and evil Poison Ivy is and then a few seconds latter complimenting her boobs (buds) and legs (stems). You have a presumably intense fight scene between Ivy and Batgirl that's interrupted by Ivy needing to check her hair in the reflection of her switchblade. And there's of course, the climatic scene where Mr. Freeze gives Batman the vial that would cure Alfred and quips (since he's a doctor after-all) to take this and "call him in the morning".
I'm not saying that there shouldn't be any levity in a Batman movie or any superhero movie for that matter. Humor of course, can serve as a coping mechanism. But you can't have a movie that wants to be like an updated version of the '60s TV series with Adam West or a live-action update of the Dick Sprang era of Batman comics, and then have stuff that's supposed to be deadly serious like Bruce Wayne's butler fighting a life threatening illness.
Exactly. One of the biggest faults of this movie is that the tone and mood jumps back and forth too many countless times. One of the biggest rules of filmmaking is you need to be consistent about mood and realism in movies. This is precisely why those crap parodies with "movie" in the title since the mid-2000s were unbelievably bad. Just take the the very first lines after the opening suit up. It goes from being a serious mood moment to a very humorous moment like those films.
shareBatman & Robin when it attempts to be humorous, it isn't organic. The movie in other words, has little internal logic for why this is supposed to be funny in the context of the scene or why the characters would be saying this stuff. Like the infamous "Bat-credit card" scene, which doesn't make sense other than to have George Clooney make an American Express, "Don't leave home without it!" joke (whic was already done early in the 1989 film much more subtly). Say what you will about the Adam West incarnation of Batman, but the rubber shark biting on his leg and him pulling out the "Bat-shark repellent" is actually funny and clever because the world was set up in a manner for which, you could actually buy his Batman in using something like that.
In Batman & Robin on the other hand, all of the "funny stuff" boils down to aggressively cheesy puns, double entendres, and cartoony slapstick. It's like what you said, Joel Schumacher (god rest his soul) and company set up to make a tone-def parody of Batman but within the confines of what's otherwise supposed to be dark and serious movie like the previous three (yes, this includes Batman Forever). Imagine if for example, one of the Star Wars episodes had bits and pieces throughout that would feel more at home with intentional, straightforward parodies like Spaceballs. That's Batman & Robin in a nutshell regarding the superhero movie genre and its tonal whiplash issues.
Yes. I felt Batman Forever was at least practical and fairly realistic like movies are supposed to be, despite it's silliness. It's easier to swallow.
shareBatman & Robin also feels extremely cynical. It was a movie that didn't really feel like it was made as a genuine creative endeavor. As much as I don't care about Batman Returns and consider it the second worst of the first four live-action Batman movies, I'll give Tim Burton credit for at least trying to make something from an artistic standpoint before a quick financial grab.
Batman & Robin meanwhile, feels like a lazy reworking/rehash of Batman Forever, except dumber. Chris O'Donnell really put things into perspective that when he made Batman Forever it felt like he was actually making a movie. Whereas on Batman & Robin, it was like making a two hour two commercial.
It also came out when the animated series was still on the public's imagination. Batman: The Animated Series unlike Batman & Robin, could appeal to kids without going out of its way to insult the audience's intelligence or show little disregard or disrespect for the source material.