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Every generation gets its own all-time bad comic book movie. Not too long ago, there were so few of these films that the most reviled entries would stick around as stand-ins for innately bad cinema for decades. 2023, however, has already delivered five different American superhero movies within the first six months of the year. There are so many of these that, inevitably, more duds will creep into the subgenre. With the presence of flops like Morbius or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania come new opportunities for fresh generations to develop their own lingo describing the “nadir” of comic book movies. Time marches on and so do perceptions of the very worst things a comic book movie can be.
For so many years, though, there was no question that many geeks considered the 1997 movie Batman & Robin the absolute bottom of the barrel when it came to comic book adaptations. Shortly after the film was released, it turned into a punchline and that reputation has never faded away. Its leading man, George Clooney, never fails to seize an opportunity to emphasize to people how much of a career blemish that whole thing was while the subsequent live-action Batman films worked overtime to not evoke the light-hearted vibes of Batman & Robin. The idea that this Joel Schumacher directorial effort is inherently a terrible film is taken for granted nowadays…but what exact qualities of Batman & Robin make it worthy of so much scorn?
‘Batman & Robin’ Encapsulated Frustrations With ’90s Superhero Cinema
Batman & Robin arrived in 1997, toward the end of a decade had been full of comic book adaptations chasing the trend of 1989’s Batman, though none had taken off in the public consciousness. These projects and general superhero movies had gotten increasingly silly throughout the decade, full of bright colors and objects meant to spawn toys. This was in heavy contrast to Tim Burton‘s first two Batman movies, which emphasized gothic visual impulses and expressionistic tendencies. 1990s superhero fare like The Phantom, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, and Judge Dredd were quite ridiculous, but none of them garnered much enthusiasm from moviegoers.
Batman & Robin’s very specific production aesthetic was something that could only have existed in this decade of blockbuster cinema, but that was part of the problem. By the time it landed in theaters in 1997, this style of superhero cinema had become such a cliché that audiences were tired of it. With Batman & Robin being a massively prominent example of all these visual and thematic hallmarks, it became a perfect lightning rod to attract everyone’s grievances for the then-current state of superhero fare. Audiences were hungry for a new direction on superhero movies, which they would get in the new decade with titles like Spider-Man and Ang Lee’s Hulk.
‘Batman & Robin’ Couldn’t Balance Camp With Studio Demands
Of course, it didn’t help that many had understandable grievances with the shortcomings of Batman & Robin. Most notably, the feature does suffer from a bit of a “fish or fowl” problem of often being too campy for mainstream sensibilities but also still catering too much to the expectations of general moviegoers to reach its full campy potential. Actors like Chris O’Donnell seem way more uncomfortable with all the cheeseball mayhem than, say, Uma Thurman. Corny and predictable one-liners feel like they were written by intrusive studio executives, a far cry from the inexplicable humor that populates many camp classics.
Most damning of all, the greatest camp movies functioned as upending of corporate desires for what cinema should look like. The works of John Waters, for instance, gleefully throw expectations for how movies are “supposed” to operate in favor of repulsive debauchery that’s bound to make any studio executive recoil in terror. Batman & Robin has lots of fun moments built on its unabashedly ridiculous sensibilities, but its obvious impulses to sell toys undercut its most transgressive ambitions. You cannot simultaneously be as subversive as Gil Scott-Heron and as supportive of corporate interests as Ryan Seacrest. Schumacher’s ambition to bring preposterousness to the world of Batman on the big screen is an admirable one. However, as the likes of Chloe Zhao and Ang Lee can attest, it’s very difficult to reconcile auteur visions with the demands for blockbuster superhero cinema.
The Darker Underbelly of ‘Batman & Robin’s’ Backlash
The generally negative reputation of Batman & Robin can also be traced back to how deeply subjective humor is. For many mainstream audiences unaware of the larger pop culture history (and even legacy of goofy Batman comics) that this Joel Schumacher title was leaning on, the barrage of ice puns must’ve seemed like an affront to everything summer blockbusters should be. Audiences that don’t get what they want out of genre entertainment can be an extremely angry bunch, as seen by the folks that were mad at the “misleading” trailers for Drive. The distinctively goofy vibes of Batman & Robin were just not on the wavelength of many people’s sensibilities or pre-release expectations. Going against those elements ensured Batman & Robin’s negative reputation.
Then there’s the elephant in the room regarding the rampantly negative response to Batman & Robin, an element that the openly gay filmmaker Schumacher didn’t shy away from commenting on. In a 2019 interview with Vulture, Schumacher noted that there’d long been stereotypical jokes and comments about Batman and Robin being gay in the comics. In his view, that obsession informed the general view of Batman & Robin as a movie and people’s especially hostile reactions to it. He also remarked that he felt people wouldn’t have been so pronounced in their outrage with things like the accentuated nipples on the Batsuits or all the campy dialogue of the feature if he himself wasn’t gay.
It’s impossible to know whether or not this phenomenon really informed a large swath of people’s opinions of Batman & Robin and a person isn’t innately homophobic if this film isn’t their cup of tea. However, 2023 being a year packed with legislation targeting trans folks should be a sign that discomfort with anything queer is far from a thing of the past in the modern world, let alone in 1997. It’d be ridiculous to not consider the way societally-normalized homophobia might’ve informed Batman & Robin getting a much worse public reputation than, say, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance or Jonah Hex.
Lots Went Wrong With ‘Batman & Robin’…But Not All Hope Is Lost
Batman & Robin’s flaws as a piece of filmmaking (and especially the way it’s torn between being very mainstream and Schumacher’s campy sensibilities) haven’t vanished after more than 25 years but it is easier to appreciate today the things it gets right. If only modern all-time bad comic book movies like Fant4stic, Morbius, or Suicide Squad were this colorful, for starters. While so many live-action comic book films even today recoil from being too “silly” looking, Batman & Robin throws itself headfirst into all the bright hues and preposterous outfits that populate many classic Batman comics. Something like Dark Phoenix would’ve been way more fun to watch if it went this confidently ridiculous in its visual palette. The production design and costumes of Batman & Robin were once lambasted for being garish, but in 2023, their unabashedly vivid sensibilities make them a welcome contrast from the dimly-lit likes of Quantumania.
Best of all, the audiences that do enjoy Batman & Robin and Schumacher’s specific take on the Batman mythos are making their voices heard now more than ever. Most notably, the critically acclaimed indie film The People’s Joker from writer/director/star Vera Drew is apparently dedicated to both her mother and Joel Schumacher. Given that The People’s Joker is a skewering of the Batman mythos that’s also deeply queer, it’s no shock that Drew would have a fondness for the extremely camp works of Schumacher. The world has made it no secret that a lot went wrong with 1997’s Batman & Robin. However, given that the feature is resonating with modern artists and inspiring new subversive pieces of cinema, Batman & Robin must’ve also been doing something right.
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