• Vivica A. Fox as the only female member of Mr. Freeze's gang.
• Jesse Ventura as a security guard in Arkham Asylum.
• Coolio and Nicky Katt appear in the bike racing scenes.
• Elizabeth Sanders (wife of Batman co-creator Bob Kane) reprising her role of Gossip Gerty from Batman Forever.
• Vendela Kirsebom as the cryogenically frozen Nora Fries.

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Development

Given the success of Batman Forever, a sequel was planned, with Joel Schumacher, Val Kilmer, and Chris O'Donnell set to return. Poison Ivy was earmarked as the next villain and Julia Roberts was reported as a suitable candidate.^[3]

Akiva Goldsman, who had co-written the screenplay to Batman Forever was hired to write the script. With the perceived success of Batman Forever towards a "kid-friendly" audience, Warner Bros. sought for the sequel to include even more material geared towards that audience.^[2]

In February 1996, Val Kilmer decided not to return for a sequel, feeling (much as Michael Keaton had when he vacated the role) that Batman was being marginalized in favor of the villains.^[4] Kilmer went on to do The Saint with a salary of $6 million (triple the amount of his contract for Batman Forever).^[4] When asked why he didn't return for a fourth installment, Kilmer said he liked the characterization of Simon Templar better than Bruce Wayne. Kilmer commented "Simon is a literary character who uses his wit, and not violence. Batman is a real screwed-up guy who has hustled an entire city, and now he's running around in a cape. What's it all about?"^[5]

Days later, George Clooney signed on to take over the part. Clooney was signed for three films, with a contract totaling $28 million.^[4] Clooney backed out of the long-in-development Green Hornet motion picture in order to star in Batman & Robin.^[6]

Batgirl was finally introduced in the franchise and Gwyneth Paltrow was the first choice for the role. Paltrow declined the role however. Kristin Chenoweth was considered next for the role but she declined as well. Alicia Silverstone was finally cast for the role of Batgirl. For this movie, she was named Barbara Wilson and was the niece of Alfred Pennyworth rather than the daughter of Commissioner Gordon as in the comics.^[7]

Julia Roberts (as previously mentioned), Demi Moore, and Sharon Stone were all considered for the role of Poison Ivy. Moore turned down the role and it is speculated that Roberts did as well.^[7] In March 1996, Uma Thurman was cast in the part.^[8] Anthony Hopkins, Patrick Stewart, and Ben Kingsley were all considered for the role of Mr. Freeze, though ultimately Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast because Joel Schumacher decided that Mr. Freeze must be "big and strong like he was chiseled out of a glacier".^[7] Sylvester Stallone and Hulk Hogan were considered for the role of Mr. Freeze if Arnold Schwarzenegger had not wanted to play the character.^[9]

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Reception

Published financial figures indicate that the movie was made on a budget of $125 million.^[10] Batman & Robin opened at #1 at the box office, and had an opening weekend of $42,872,605 in 2,934 theaters averaging $14,612 per venue, which were two of its very few successes.^[11] However, over time, its popularity slipped, (possibly when put in competition with The Lost World: Jurassic Park, another summer film, which became a huge financial success) and the film collected only $107,325,195 domestically — less than any other Batman film — and $130,881,927 abroad, for a total worldwide gross of $238,207,122, but still covering the film's budget.^[10]

The film was neither a critical nor a huge financial success. It was mocked for the poor script, and overextending the campy attitude, comprising the smirky one-liners and ludicrous stunts of its predecessor, Batman Forever.^[12] Author Mark S. Reinhart said, "The combination of Batman & Robin's terrible script, ridiculous costuming, garish sets, uninspired direction, etc. made the film into the appalling dump heap that it is".^[13] In his review of the film, critic Leonard Maltin found that "the 'story' often makes no sense" and that the "action and effects are loud, gargantuan, and ultimately numbing".

The film was derisively dubbed Batman on Ice by critics for a scene in which Batman and Robin inexplicably have retractable ice skates in their boots while battling Mr. Freeze's henchmen on an icy floor in the opening sequence.^[14][15][16] George Clooney was severely embarrassed himself, by the film, saying "I think we might have killed the franchise."^[17] George Clooney has said he would personally refund the money of any fan he meets who paid to see the movie. On the special edition DVD of Batman & Robin, (in a featurette entitled "Batman Unbound"^[18]), Chris O'Donnell compared his experiences on making Batman Forever to his experiences on making Batman & Robin by saying "When I made Batman Forever, I felt like I was making a movie. When I made Batman & Robin, I felt like I was making a toy commercial."^[19]

Yet another reason as to why the film was ridiculed by critics and fans alike was because of the pun-ridden dialogue, which mainly came from the two main villains of the film, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy. Some of the most criticized portions of the dialogue were Mr. Freeze's ice puns,^[20] such as 'You won't send me to the cooler!' and 'Hey, everybody! Chill!' Lines such as these were seen as something of a lowlight in the Batman universe.

Uma Thurman's performance in the film received mainly negative reviews, and critics made comparisons between her and actress Mae West.^[14] The New York Times wrote, "like Mae West, she mixes true femininity with the winking womanliness of a drag queen." A similar comparison was made by the Houston Chronicle: "Thurman, to arrive at a ’40s femme fatale, sometimes seems to be doing Mae West by way of Jessica Rabbit."

Director Joel Schumacher has admitted to not being proud of his work,^[2] On October 18, 2005, Warner Bros. released a DVD of the movie with a director's commentary. On it, Schumacher said he was compelled to put in gadgets that could be adapted into a toy line, and that he went too far trying to make the movie more kid-friendly than the previous films. He defended screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, saying, "If you don't like the film, blame the director."

Executive producer Michael Uslan said, "In my estimation - you're not making movies, you're making two-hour infomercials for toys.^[2] And that's sad. Because, if a filmmaker is allowed to just go out and make a great film, I believe you will sell toys anyway".^[13]

The movie ranked "#1 Worst Superhero Movie" on an MSN Movies article describing "The Best Superhero Movies".^[21] The film critic aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes in 2007 listed the film 88th of 94 comic book movies.^[22]

In his book Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese, Michael J. Nelson, referring to the film's poor reputation, clarified that it was not the worst film ever, but the worst thing ever, on a scale encompassing everything in existence instead of simply films. Later, Nelson would team up with fellow MST3K alumni Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy to record an audio commentary track for the film under the RiffTrax label, citing that the film was "The single most requested movie on the forum." Unlike previous works, this track took the novel approach of being written entirely by RiffTrax fans.^[23]

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Legacy

Following the film's poor critical and commercial reception, the Batman movie franchise was put on hold for nearly eight years. Warner Bros. launched a new series in 2005, with the successful Batman Begins, an origin story film with no continuity to the Burton and Schumacher movies.^[24] The role of the Dark Knight went to the much younger Christian Bale (who incidentally auditioned for Robin in Batman Forever),^[25] who was widely praised for his performance.^[24] Joel Schumacher was originally to make a sequel to Batman & Robin named Batman Triumphant.^[26] Batman Triumphant was originally scheduled to come out around 1999-2001, but since the film Batman & Robin did so poorly at the box office in 1997, they decided to call off the whole idea before Batman & Robin was even out of theaters.^[26] Batman Triumphant was originally supposed to star George Clooney as Batman and Chris O'Donnel as Robin/Nightwing, both actors reprising their lead roles.^[27] The villains were going to be the Scarecrow played by either Jeff Goldblum, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Lloyd, or Nicolas Cage and Man-Bat. Meanwhile, Jack Nicholson was rumored to come back as the Joker in a dream sequence.^[26]

For more details on this topic, see Batman (film series)#Batman Triumphant.

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Home video

The Batman Motion Picture Anthology

Batman & Robin was released on VHS and Laserdisc in October 1997. It was also given a "bare bones" DVD release in 1999, devoid of extra features. The main menu featured background music while the only extra feature was a synopsis of the film. In 2005, Warner Bros. released a two-disc special edition set of all four Burton-Schumacher films in Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology.

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Soundtrack

Main article: Batman & Robin (soundtrack)

Despite the overwhelming negative publicity the film received, its soundtrack became very popular and was well received. The soundtrack included songs by R. Kelly, Arkarna, Jewel, The Goo Goo Dolls, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and The Smashing Pumpkins, whose song "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" rolled over the movie's closing credits. Three songs from the soundtrack became top-ten hits in the United States; Jewel's contribution, a radio-mix version of "Foolish Games", as well as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony's "Look into My Eyes", and R. Kelly's "Gotham City". There was never an official release of Elliot Goldenthal's score to the film, aside from the brief suite on the song album, but bootleg copies are in fairly wide circulation.

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References

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External links

• Batman & Robin at the Internet Movie Database
• Batman & Robin at Rotten Tomatoes
• Batman & Robin at Box Office Mojo
• Nostalgia Critic's review of Batman & Robin

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