Batman & Robin arrived in June 1997 as the fourth film in Warner Bros.’ original Batman series, and it is the one that ended the run. Joel Schumacher directed. Akiva Goldsman wrote it. George Clooney plays Bruce Wayne and Batman, Chris O’Donnell returns as Dick Grayson and Robin, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman and Alicia Silverstone round out a cast that the studio plainly hoped would sell toys.
It runs 125 minutes. It scored 4.4 out of 10 with audiences on TMDB across 5,545 votes. That number is the whole review in one line.
Trailer, via DC.
A Cryogenic Suit Powered by Diamonds
The plot is a chain of errands. Mr. Freeze, once Doctor Victor Fries, leaves a string of diamond thefts behind him because his cryogenic suit runs on diamonds. He needs them to survive at average temperatures. He also wants to turn Gotham City into an arctic region, which is the kind of plan a film stops arguing with and simply films.
His motive is the one genuinely sad thing here. Fries was a molecular biologist working on a cure for MacGregor’s syndrome, hoping to heal his wife, Nora. An accident in the lab left him unable to live at normal temperatures. Vendela Kirsebom plays Nora. That is a real story buried under a lot of ice.
In Brazil, botanist Pamela Isley works under Doctor Jason Woodrue, played by John Glover. Woodrue has turned her plant research into a super soldier serum called Venom. He uses it to mutate serial killer Antonio Diego into Bane. Isley threatens to expose him. He tries to kill her by overturning a shelf of toxins. Instead she becomes Poison Ivy, kills Woodrue with a venom-laden kiss, destroys the lab, and heads to Gotham with Bane to bankroll her research with Wayne’s money.
Batgirl, Barbara Wilson, and the Wayne Family Diamonds
Alfred Pennyworth’s niece, Barbara Wilson, turns up at Wayne Manor unannounced and Bruce invites her to stay until she goes back to school. She has lost her parents. By the end she is Batgirl, which is the film’s one clean idea and it gets almost no room to breathe.
Batman and Robin try to lure Freeze out by displaying the Wayne Family diamonds at a Wayne Enterprises charity event. Ivy shows up and uses her abilities to seduce both of them, which is where the partnership starts to come apart. Freeze crashes the event. There is a telescope for Gotham Observatory. There is a press conference. There is a lot of noise.
The Mandate Was Toyetic
Warner Bros. fast-tracked the film after Batman Forever made money, and Schumacher was given a mandate to make it more toyetic than its predecessor. That word explains the film better than any synopsis can. Schumacher and Goldsman conceived the storyline during pre-production on A Time to Kill. Val Kilmer declined to return as Batman. Schumacher was interested in William Baldwin before Clooney won the role. Shooting began in September 1996 and wrapped in January 1997, two weeks ahead of schedule.
Batman & Robin is the only film in the initial series made without Tim Burton involved in any capacity. It premiered in Los Angeles on June 12, 1997, and went into general release on June 20.
Key facts
- Release: June 20, 1997 (premiere June 12, 1997)
- Runtime: 125 minutes
- Director: Joel Schumacher; writer: Akiva Goldsman
- Budget: $125–160 million
- Worldwide gross: $238 million
- TMDB audience score: 4.4/10 (5,545 votes)
- Series position: fourth and final installment, 1989–1997
Production schedule
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| September 1996 | Principal photography begins |
| January 1997 | Principal photography wraps, two weeks ahead of schedule |
| June 12, 1997 | Los Angeles premiere |
| June 20, 1997 | General release |
What $238 Million Actually Buys
The film grossed $238 million worldwide against a production budget of $125–160 million. By the standards of a franchise this size, that is a disappointment. The series stopped here.
Here is what matters, and it is not the box office. It is the mandate. A studio told its director to build a film around merchandise, and the director did it. The result is a movie where Mr. Freeze’s diamond-powered suit is the most coherent character in it, because the suit has a function. Everyone else is explaining themselves.
The tragedy is that the raw material was there. A man freezing the world to save his dying wife is a good story. A botanist mutated into an eco-terrorist by the man who stole her research is a good story. A butler’s orphaned niece joining the fight is a good story. Batman & Robin has all three and gives none of them the time. It spends its 125 minutes on entrances instead.
Clooney is a fine Bruce Wayne and a forgettable Batman, which is less his fault than the script’s. O’Donnell’s Robin chafes against Batman’s authority, and Ivy’s pheromone dust amplifies it. Thurman plays Ivy as a cartoon. Michael Gough returns as Alfred, Pat Hingle returns as Commissioner Gordon, Elle Macpherson plays Julie Madison, and Robert Swenson plays Bane in his final film role.
The 4.4 is not a mob verdict. It is the correct one. Batman & Robin is not the worst film ever made; it is a competent film made for the wrong reason, and the wrong reason is visible in every frame. Watch it once to see how a franchise ends.
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