Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'Batman & Robin'

Written by Scott Edwards

I have to ask, how does Gotham remain in one piece after everything that has happened with villains running rampant, robbing, killing and causing a menace? Oh yeah, that’s right, Batman is there to save the day. Now I know that Batman is just a guy in a suit, but he seems to be more focused on protecting the lives of others than taking care of himself.  Putting his life on the line all of the time and making sure that the citizens of Gotham are protected, well, that might just make him one of the greatest superheroes of all time. Or maybe not, he is just fun to watch as he tries to stay off the radar most of the time since when he is in crime fighting mode he wants to be heard and not seen. Well, here is the final review of the last group of four movies, Batman & Robin.

Doctor Victor Fries has one goal in life and that is to cure his bride of an incurable disease. But while working in his lab, a terrible tragedy occurred causing him to become the feared villain; Mr. Freeze. Now needing diamonds to power his super cold suit, Freeze has had to take to a life of crime and will stop at nothing to get what he needs. There is something else on his mind however, to take Gotham back to the big chill that once ravaged the world. Needing extra-large diamonds to make his dream of a frozen Gotham to come true, Freeze is now being baited by Batman to come and steal some of the Wayne diamonds to complete his destiny. 

Doctor Pamela Isley has a plan of her own to save the world and when it comes to her plants, she knows that they are the future. When her new formulas go missing, she knows exactly where to look as Dr. Woodrue keeps taking samples for his own pursuits. Watching as Woodrue holds an auction on her latest formula, turning a little killer into a mountain of a man, Bane, she tries to escape, but Woodrue catches her in the act. Trying to explain himself will not work so he has to take the next step and tries to eliminate Isley from the lab, but winds up making someone much worse. Poison Ivy comes out of the ground and she is looking to take her cause to the top of the chain and with everything that Mother Earth has created at her disposal, she will be difficult to stop. Setting her sights on Bruce Wayne since his name is on the beakers in the lab, she knows that his power and influence can help her cause, but in Gotham, only brute force gets things done, so she takes Bane along for the ride as well.

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Bruce Wayne and his new partner Dick Grayson are having a hard time making their new team work together well. Since Batman is the one who gets all of the glory and Robin is a secondary hero, Dick is ready to be allowed to fail on his own. After their recent encounter with Mr. Freeze, Bruce is afraid that his young follower will be harmed and will not allow that to happen on his watch, but there is something more serious coming to light in the Wayne household as Alfred is starting to act strangely. When Barbara Wilson comes knocking for her uncle Alfred, Bruce knows that it is more serious than he thought. As Alfred’s health declines quickly, he is happy to be surrounded by family, but is more focused on finding his cousin that works on a different continent. Young Barbara sees this and will do anything to help her uncle during his final days, and wants nothing less to release him from the prison that he has been wasting away in. But Alfred is stubborn and will not leave, not until his job is completed and Mr. Wayne has everything that he needs to complete his task at hand.

As Mr. Freeze is terrorizing Gotham, Batman is able to formulate a plan to capture him once and for all. Setting up a trap to bring Freeze out, an unexpected visitor comes to the sting and Poison Ivy is not the woman to mess with. With strong pheromones at her disposal, she is able to make both Batman and Robin lose their minds and take their eyes off of the prize when Freeze makes his appearance. Pitting the partners against each other is not difficult for Ivy, but she wants more and when she and Freeze form an alliance, she makes it known that she is the only woman that matters. When Freeze is able to complete his ultimate freezing device, he will have to find a place to make it work and with the addition of a new telescope in the Gotham Observatory, he has everything that he needs to bring the city to its frozen knees. But the Wayne family is a member stronger with Batgirl and now with three heroes to deal with, both Ivy and Freeze may have to rethink their dastardly plan.

This movie gets a bunch of flack and even watching it now, I understand why. Too much star power and not enough story for my liking. I think that the movie would have been better if they would have just kept the villains as smaller stars, not the beasts that they were at the time. But that is neither here nor there, it is over now and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. The Alfred story is the only one that mattered in this movie since he is preparing himself for the afterlife. The addition of Batgirl into the series was not a bad thing, she just seemed a little more focused on herself with her racing than on family, even though that is what she was doing it for. The storyline got pulled too thin with everyone being added in and I really wish that Bane would have had a back story, heck, everybody else did and he is one of my favorite bad guys from the video games. Then you are left to question what Superman would have done in this situation? He can blow ice, so I don’t see that being much of a problem for him, but one thing about Gotham that can hold him back…the sun is never out and for a man that gets his power from our nearest star, he may not fare well when the pitch black of Gotham takes over. Just saying.

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