The key was Season 1 & The Movie showrunner Lorenzo Semple Jr., who's 80s Flash Gordon movie was also really fun. Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman are no Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Batman & Robin - 25 years later
- Thread starter Qonundrum
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The key was Season 1 & The Movie showrunner Lorenzo Semple Jr., who's 80s Flash Gordon movie was also really fun. Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman are no Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Sorry, I thought you were discussing “Batman & Robin” (1949) here!
But seriously, I still find “Batman & Robin” (1997) & “Batman Forever” are more watchable than “Superman Vs. Batman” or any of the new DC Universe Batman’s.
But seriously, I still find “Batman & Robin” (1997) & “Batman Forever” are more watchable than “Superman Vs. Batman” or any of the new DC Universe Batman’s.
I agree with this point. Batman 66 feels highly sincere while B&R feels highly farcical.
I'll add that I think that Batman 66 handled a balance of comedy with some drama at times well, while B&R was rarely funny and one brief moment of decent drama. The rest I'll give a hard pass on.
No, that’s “Batman and Robin”.
Batman Forever is flawed but quite watchable. Batman & Robin was just bad.
66 Batman was stupid too but at least it was just what it claimed to be. Same bat time, same bat channel.
66 Batman was stupid too but at least it was just what it claimed to be. Same bat time, same bat channel.
Batman & Robin is a guilty pleasure for me. Elliot Goldenthal's soundtrack is just lovely.
Yeah it was just a bad movie. I'd like to think that given a better script the cast could have done a much better job than they did. As it was it looked like they all realised it was a bit of a joke and performed accordingly. And as much as I love Arnold, he was completely miscast. I remember when the movie was originally being filmed, hearing rumours that Patrick Stewart had been the first choice for Mr Freeze. I'm not sure if he passed on it, or wasn't offered the role once Arnold expressed interest, but either way I'm sure he's fairly happy he missed out. Again, with a better script, a Patrick Stewart Mr Freeze could have been awesome.
Bad as the film is I think some of the criticisms are overstated.
Arnold Mr. Freeze was bad, and the overall movie much worse than BF, and yet less annoying that Tommy Lee Jones Two-Face. Arnold could have been OK as Mr. Freeze with a really good script but yes, even then, he would have been miscast. I think he could have been pretty good as Bane, though, even with an OK script.
The movie is often, pretty fairly, slammed as Toy Commercial (even Chris O'Donnell said it felt like that was all they were making, more than that they were making a movie) and yet that applies as much or just a little less to many other superhero films, including some recent ones. B&R is particularly described as that in part from the heroes suddenly having new costumes near the end with no real reason and yet that's not that much different, just a bit more extreme, from heroes having a new costume every film which I read some analysis was pretty much a Disney MCU mandate.
Arnold Mr. Freeze was bad, and the overall movie much worse than BF, and yet less annoying that Tommy Lee Jones Two-Face. Arnold could have been OK as Mr. Freeze with a really good script but yes, even then, he would have been miscast. I think he could have been pretty good as Bane, though, even with an OK script.
The movie is often, pretty fairly, slammed as Toy Commercial (even Chris O'Donnell said it felt like that was all they were making, more than that they were making a movie) and yet that applies as much or just a little less to many other superhero films, including some recent ones. B&R is particularly described as that in part from the heroes suddenly having new costumes near the end with no real reason and yet that's not that much different, just a bit more extreme, from heroes having a new costume every film which I read some analysis was pretty much a Disney MCU mandate.
But its not a version of the 1966-68 series--not as Lorenzo Semple designed it to be when it first launched. Anyone watching the first season will see that the worn stereotyping of "camp" is barely anywhere to be found. If anything, that charge was truly applicable to the horrifying third and final season, when William Dozier ran out of ways to relive the initial cultural explosion/inventiveness and shoved the embarrassing, sexist interpretation of Batgirl into the show, with an emphasis on Batman being a caricature of his earlier self. Arguably, that is where the awful Batman and Robin bears any resemblance to the TV series.
...but Schumacher was such an unqualified hack that he could not get his alleged inspiration right.
^ There's a blast from the past: you slagging off Yvonne Craig's marvelous Batgirl. I think that was the first time, years ago, that I remember going, "WTF is up with this guy?" 
And it is a FAKE comment
I will go ahead and believe you were joking!
The 1990s was a very bad period for superhero films, with the Burton/Schumacher Bat-films leading the pack. The lone comic-based movie of quality released in that decade--and still holds up--was Blade (1998).
The 90s was indeed a very bad period. But no, I would 100% take Batman Forever over BvS. Not eagerly, but still.
Not Batman and Robin, though. That one was equally shitty as BvS, just in a completely different way. But I might take B&R over Justice League, which is possibly the worst superhero movie I've ever seen.
Not Batman and Robin, though. That one was equally shitty as BvS, just in a completely different way. But I might take B&R over Justice League, which is possibly the worst superhero movie I've ever seen.
No I wasn’t joking. “Batman Vs Superman” I kept walking out of the room on whereas “Batman & Robin” I could stay sitting and watching.
Even I can't say I would prefer Schumacher to Snyder.
^ Hitting the bottle again? 
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