Batman And Robin (1997 film)

If Superman was the Alpha of comic book movies, Batman & Robin was very nearly the Omega. It was an expensive, garish, day-glo nightmare of a film.
I am, by no means, a defender of this movie. But I do acknowledge that some of the anger that it receives is misplaced. If you look at the climate that the box-office at the time, some of the baffling decisions made during production start to make more sense. Here's a breakdown of the budget to revenue ratio of the Bat-films up to that point:

Batman (1989): $35 million budget/ $411 million gross
Batman Returns (1992): $80 million budget/ $266 million gross
Batman Forever (1995): $100/ $336 million gross

After making the first Batman, WB had a massive hit and likely weren't sure how to proceed. Burton was re-hired to direct a sequel and he made a much more "Burton-esque" (and much less profitable) film. The studio decided to take things in a different direction with a second sequel and Joel Shumacher was brought in to add some color and a larger sense of scale to the series. Likely for a number of reasons (cast of popular actors, youth appeal, the hit Batman cartoon on Fox Kids, etc.) this take clicked with audiences. And if studios are good at anything, it's recognizing when something is slightly profitable and then overdoing the hell out of it. When viewed from the cold, dollars-and-cents perspective of a studio executive it's frankly amazing that the film turned out as coherent as it did. I mean, sure it was a glorified advertisement for toys but at least it wasn't a LITERAL advertisement. I can just imagine some exec giving the note, "focus groups say that kids would love the deluxe Snowtracker Batman even more if George actually played with one in the movie, let's make that happen."

I wasn't joking about that.

Listening to the film's commentary was a rather cathartic experience for me. Like many fans, I have spent years with a certain amount of anger over this movie and the fact that it essentially killed the Bat-franchise for almost a decade. Also like many fans, I placed most of the blame on Joel Schumacher. But after listening to him discuss the troubled production of the film, I realize that he did what he could to salvage it amid absolutely ridiculous studio decisions. I'm not saying that he should bare none of the blame (nor does he, in fact he accepts more responsibility than is probably deserved) but I think the lion's share should be leveled at WB as a whole. Every single aspect of the making of said film was done with the express concern of selling toys and pushing merchandise. At one point in the commentary Schumacher mentions that producers would look at everything in the movie (concept art, costumes, sets, lighting) and determine how "Toyetic" it was. Adjustments were then made to increase marketability. Think about that for a second. I imagine it would be difficult, if not impossible, for even some of the most respected directors to make a decent movie with that kind of meddling.

If nothing else, there is one solitary reason to appreciate this film. Its failure gave life to the current trend of "serious" comic book films. The studios acknowledged that silliness and over-merchandising aren't ways to make profitable comic movies. Without Batman & Robin there would be no Blade and then there would be no X-Men, no Batman Begins, no Iron Man and no Avengers. To me, that kind of puts it all in perspective.

You know what, never mind...this is crap.