It seemed like quite a feat to produce a Batman movie that could top Batman Forever, but Schumacher and the gang did it with much aplomb. A visual and emotional tour-de-force, Batman and Robin is easily the finest comic-genre film ever created. Clooney proves himself the best Batman by far by giving a surprisingly realistic performance. He seems to have captured the Bruce Wayne demeanor, cultivated it, packaged it and shipped it out to the comic-book-loving American audience so that we can all relish and treasure it. He is a very gifted man, as he proved to us in ER, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and From Dusk Till Dawn, and as he proves once again here in this film. Thurman is genuinely creepy (and oh so undeniably seductive and sexy!) as Poison Ivy. She brings life to an otherwise mundane role. The seductive dance she performs in a gorilla costume stands as my favorite part of the movie. Never before had I been so attracted to a gorilla!! Chris O'Donnell puts an interesting psychological tone to the movie playing Robin as a complex and enigmatic character. In the movie, unlike the comic, Robin is insecure, yet confident, mature, yet adolescent, and attractive, yet togged in garish garb. Holistically, O'Donnell's Robin is a walking paradox. In this movie, Robin is so uncannily complex that it brings to mind the question: "could Kafka or Faulkner have done a better job than Akiva Goldsman and Joel Schumacher?" Perhaps not. And, lest we forget, Arnold's Schwartzenegger's performance in this masterpiece was nothing less than spellbinding. As Nobel prize laureate and two-time Olympic decathloner Victor Freeze, Schwartzenegger finally proves that he can really act. Not only is Schwartzenegger uproariously funny and convincingly terrifying, he plays Mr. Freeze as an obviously ingenious, yet tortured man. We, as an audience, can commiserate with Freeze easily; he is a very strong-willed person, yet he must live his life with obvious physical handicaps (the necessity for cold) and the desperate need for love. Breathtaking Arnold, breathtaking. Aside from the acting, the movie has an undeniably engaging plot, and what an ingenious script! This, in a sense, is a Hitchcockian mystery, a classic cult teenage angst film, a heart-wrenching drama, an edge-of-your seat action-suspense film, and a subtly brilliant comedy all rolled into one! Who would expect such an interesting and eclectic mix of styles and genres to be a Batman movie?! More importantly, who would expect a Batman movie to be so captivating, to have such frightening villains and likeable heroes and to be so downright funny! Hahahahahaha! Oh God, I wish more movies like this would come out of Hollywood!!
Review of Batman & Robin
