Batman and Robin: Deep Freeze

This edit did the impossible and made Batman & Robin a watchable movie by cutting down the cringe, noise, and neon. Though I missed Elliott Goldenthal's score, the new music chosen was fitting.

Removing Bane, Poison Ivy's origin, and that stupid gorilla suit improved Poison Ivy tremendously, and losing the puns (as much as I love them!) improved Mr. Freeze. However, even with the editing, Alicia Silverstone's Batgirl is barely tolerable and the plot is paper-thin (not the fault of the editor, some things can't be helped!)

Still, to echo the sentiment shared by reviewer mnkykungfu: if you're going to watch Batman & Robin, this is definitely the way to watch it.

This is absolutely a fantastic fanedit, even without rating it on a curve for level-of-difficulty. Does it turn Batman & Robin into a good movie? Oh god no.

Does it make Batman & Robin watchable? Surprisingly: yes!

My thoughts on this film and exactly what the hell Joel Schumacher was doing with it are here: https://boxd.it/3qY4bl but suffice to say that it's one of the worst comic book movies of all time. When you wonder why people aren't raging in the streets at the sloppy efforts DC comes out with all the time now, it's probably in large part because we all know just how much worse it can get. This.

But we also know how much better it can be, like Batman: The Animated Series. Seeing that MusicEd's goal was to make this film more like that show was very intriguing to me...and he mostly pulls it off! I honestly NEVER would have drawn the comparison, but changing the movie to black and white showcases the intense lighting that Schumacher used, and actually gives this a rather appropriate, almost Gothic/expressionist look like often used in the animated series. The bizarre building architecture suddenly looks less like studio excess and more fitting to a weird, heightened 1940s aesthetic. Poison Ivy's entrance hearkens back to Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Mr. Freeze's tech looks like something from Lost In Space. The massive rescoring of the film places it more in tone with the series as well, as do the opening credits which I actually found really impressive... God help me, it almost all works!

That said, this is one of the worst scripts ever written, and a lot of the dialogue is still cringey. Despite all the cuts, Arnold speaks almost exclusively in bad puns, so many are still included, like “The iceman cometh!”, “Freeze in Hell, Batman!”, and “Adam and Eve-il…” <eyeroll> Clooney is still as horribly-miscast as him, Silverstone and O'Donnell's storylines are still underbaked and annoying more than fun, and there's honestly just a lot of really inconsistent acting here. The whole affair still has jarring tones at war with each other and plot pieces strung together on the thinnest of margins. It's written down to kids far more than the worst Batman cartoon.

My favorite exchange made me actually *guffaw* at the end, where Batman says-
"The satellites COULD be reconfigured but it would take a computer genius to --"
Robin: "I'm on it!"
Batgirl: "No, I'M on it!"

Ah, this movie is just full of geniuses. ;) However, as dumb as it is, it's a vast improvement over the theatrical version, something which was almost physically painful for me to watch even 5 minutes of at a time. Cutting Bane out of this film works amazingly well, as do most of the other plot alterations. The cuts do leave some slight logic gaps in the narrative, where it really feels like people (especially Batman) just suddenly know things or have decided things and we've missed that whole process off-screen. That said, I'm sure the original film wouldn't feel much different... more material would just raise more questions. It's a silly movie with very little logic to it, so what's here is actually a big improvement. Can't fault it for not being perfect.

If you're going to watch Batman & Robin, this is unequivocally the way to watch it. I still don't know that I'd recommend watching it at ALL, (a better choice would be to spend time with Kevin Conroy's work, the best Batman of all time...) but if you do, this is the way to do it.

Look... It's a well known fact that this movie has some bad writing and cringy line delivery. No amount of editing is going to change that. Some negative reviews seem to take the core film too seriously... So I want to focus on the positive, and I'll start by saying that I had a lot of fun with this fan edit! A big part of that is the use of the Arkham City score; something I feel is a quintessential Batman theme. It's not always perfectly placed in its use here, but for the most part its a nice addition to the film that gives it a stronger tone.

Batman & Robin suffers from trying to do too much, so cutting it down and removing certain elements really benefits the central story; Bruce fighting to save his family. Cringy lines aside, I've always felt that George Clooney gives an earnest performance as Bruce Wayne and that the right edit could really highlight that. Music Ed pulls that off and then some!

Freeze is now a much stronger villain without the constant, terrible one-liners, and the decision to cut out Ivy's origin strengthens her as a villain, too, as she's introduced as a crazed environmentalist, and then a few scenes later shows up (not in a giant ape costume) as a confident and sexy threat, making her feel instantly more unhinged! Removing awkward scenes of henchmen singing, and flawlessly removing Bane, also makes Freeze and Ivy much more focused characters. (You'd seriously never know that Bane was even in this movie!)

Now, truly, these changes would not work as well if the film weren't presented in black in white; something I feel majorly benefits the overall tone. The lack of vibrant colors helps keep a more grounded, almost Burton feel - especially in any exterior Gotham shots (although the statues are still goofy. But the lack of neon makes them more palatable). The new aesthetic makes it feel like this edit would be a great companion piece to the Batman Forever: Vintage Workprint.

This will be my go-to version of Batman & Robin. Granted, my previous "go-to" version was to just never watch it... So it's an improvement in my book!

It really is the sub zero "cheese" version. I'd say the majority of the frozen stale cheese within the film is melted away. The intro is exactly how it should have been done originally. The fight scenes look more slick and do not look as goofy. The one liners are mostly gone and the odd one or two which remain are just enough for a Batman film. Oh and Bane who?

The score actually sounds brilliant now. I remember it being extremely off-putting originally. The change of soundtrack improves the film alone. Changing from colour to B&W contrasts well with the ice visuals throughout the film. It makes Mr Freeze's blaster effects (and Mr Freeze himself) look much more deadlier too!

Batgirl and Robin? Well less is more in this case. Even Clooney wasn't great. I'm glad Batgirl's lines were cut short...everyone knows the entire script is awful....the speech is just terrible, but Batgirl suffered the worst in the theatrical release...Did she just not bother because the script was so bad? Whatever the case, it still shows here even with her mostly being cut right down....I never liked the whole racing scene either. Were Batgirl or Robin needed at all?

This edit seems more aimed towards an older audience. The original is strange for that reason as it really didn't seem to know who to capture, it seemed like a kids film, but the actual themes revolving around death, ecology (a very big theme in the 21st Century, was Poison Ivy just an extreme Greta Thunberg?) and sexual lust are quite adult for a kiddy audience, but then it would make sense why they added so much silly goofy humour and cartoonish visuals to hide it.

My conclusion on this "Deep Freeze" edit would be that if you ever wanted to watch Batman & Robin ever again then this would be the one to go for. I do recommend it and I didn't cringe...too much! ;-)

This is the first time since the blu ray came out years ago that I have been able to finish this movie! That is quite an accomplishment if you had any idea how much I really don't like it LOL...

I have seen 2 movies by Music Ed and he does a wonderful job! I really enjoyed is Superman edit and this shows a ton of creativity and work. There were a couple of scenes that looked like they were slowed down so I took a point off for that. The audio was very inspired except for when Poison Ivy tells Freeze they should team up and placed cartoonish music when we cut to Freezes face.

The removal of Bane and most of the silly elements really sells Freeze as a more sympathetic villain and gives the movie some much needed focus. Going black and white is probably the only way to save our eyes from all the neon color the theatrical version had.