Review Detail

Batman & Robin had.... a decent movie hidden inside????

Yes indeed, and I'm as surprised as you are! It was just a matter of removing layer upon layer of outrageous garbage, and what remains is a nice little Batman story, which is very hard to notice in the official version because the terrible stuff is so prominent. But lose the neon aesthetic and make it a beautiful black and white, remove the truckload of ice puns and all that other random nonsense, and cover it with the amazing music from the Arkham games, and the result plays surprisingly close to a Batman the Animated Series episode in tone. And one with a lot of heart: Mr. Freeze was arguably the most tragic villain of the show, and the basics of the character remain here, even if Arnold is still a less than ideal casting choice (where was Patrick Stewart when we needed him?), and the Alfred subplot displays a lot of warmth inside the Bat-Family. For all of the movie's interminable list of faults, this warmth is an aspect that is rarely present in other, better ones, despite memorable comic book stories having been built around it (anyone remember the Legends of the Dark Knight story "Family"?). These people deeply love each other, which is sadly kinda lost in the current grim-and-gritty cinematic approach to the characters.

Sure, this is still not as good as Batman 1989 or The Dark Knight or [insert about any other Batman movie here], but Music Ed has created a version of Batman & Robin that I can actually enjoy. And that's no small feat. Highly recommended!