June 20, 1997

Batman and Robin

By JANET MASLIN

t a gala in Gotham City, the fabulous Poison Ivy makes her entrance in a fluffy magenta gorilla suit made from 450 Santa Claus wigs. Then she peels this off slowly as the band plays her theme song. And out comes the most show-stopping character in "Batman and Robin," the fourth and most frenetically gaudy feature in the series. As played by Uma Thurman, Poison Ivy is perfect, flaunting great looks, a mocking attitude and madly flamboyant disguises. Like Mae West, she mixes true femininity with the winking womanliness of a drag queen.

Poison Ivy captures the essence of "Batman and Robin," a wild, campy costume party of a movie and the first "Batman" to suggest that somewhere in Gotham City there might be a Studio 54. Joel Schumacher, director and ringmaster, piles on the flashy showmanship and keeps the film as big, bold, noisy and mindlessly overwhelming as possible. In this context, it's not surprising that even the opening credit sequence is at fever pitch. The movie begins with Batman and Robin caught up in a crazed hockey match, taking off on a rocket and then surfing through space.

Aiming for comic book fans with a taste for heavy sarcasm and double-entendres, the lavish "Batman and Robin" cares only about delivering nonstop glitter. In the interests of this, it is more than happy to steamroller over questions of character and plotting. There's not much more to Batman, now played affably but blandly by George Clooney and given only second billing, than a heroic jaw line, understanding gaze and anatomically correct rubber suit. The mixed-up, melancholy Batman of Tim Burton's first two films looks like the brooding Prince of Denmark next to this.

What "Batman and Robin" does deliver is outlandish visual mischief, and the more the merrier. The architecture of Gotham City now incorporates huge, hunky male statuary, and the local punks suggest "A Clockwork Orange" and heavy metal bands. Gotham throws a Save the Rainforest costume ball, complete with extras doing a Polynesian dance number. Mr. Freeze, the lumbering villain played by Arnold Schwarzenegger plus a 45-pound suit equipped with a couple of thousand tiny blue lights, is the occasion for crazy experiments in icy decor. Since "Batman and Robin" does its best to throw in something for everyone, there's even a dinosaur in one of these frosty scenes.

Like "Batman Forever," the new film was directed fancifully by Schumacher and written by Akiva Goldsman (one of several "Batman" writers last time). Like "Batman" characters, these two lead double lives: they also collaborated on two John Grisham adaptations, "The Client" and "A Time to Kill," which concern real people experiencing life without benefit of special effects. In other words they're a lot smarter than, say, Mr. Freeze, whose deadliest weapon in the film is an arsenal of har-har puns. Like: "I'm afraid my condition has left me cold to your pleas!" And: "You are not sending me to the cooler!"

Schwarzenegger wears his armor manfully and delivers such lines with suitable smirks. And his Mr. Freeze is introduced as a former two-time Nobel Prize winner in molecular biology, which is surely the funniest thing in the movie. But the "Batman" formula now works best when the characters, like the filmmakers, can be tongue-in-cheek.

Certainly the brilliantly costumed Ms. Thurman is teasing as she plays a mousy botanist who becomes a glorious Venus flytrap and green-rights advocate. "The time has come for plants to take back the world so rightfully ours!" she threatens, while also denouncing Batman and Robin. ("Militant arm of the warm-blooded oppressors! Animal protectors of the status quo!")

On the other hand, several of the film's characters conspicuously fail to find the fun in their roles. After all the irony on display in "Clueless," Alicia Silverstone plays Batgirl dully straight. And Clooney, who does look ideal in the Batman outfit, is often seen listening thoughtfully, grinning ruefully and not knowing what to do next. The performance works well enough for the role's limited demands, but Clooney doesn't seem to believe that a suave, level-headed grown man might actually be Batman. Actually, you can't really blame him for that.

While the film veers recklessly from neo-"Triumph of the Will" to Hong Kong action to anything else the traffic will bear -- and that's just in the opening hockey match -- it trots out a lively supporting cast. Elle Macpherson, Vivica A. Fox and Vendela K. Thommessen supply window dressing in small roles, while John Glover flames amusingly as the mad scientist who gives Ivy her start. Michael Gough harrumphs heartwarmingly through the role of Alfred the incredibly patient butler, whose presence this time is milked to create a semblance of emotion.

And Chris O'Donnell's Robin really deserves to have his name in the title, giving a much better performance as his much-improved Robin slyly comes into his own. "I want a Robin signal in the sky, all right?" he complains to Batman. "I'm tired of living in your shadow!" This time, Robin shows how to succeed in "Batman": playing it straight while getting the joke.

PRODUCTION NOTES:

Batman and Robin. Directed by Joel Schumacher; written by Akiva Goldsman, based on Batman characters created by Bob Kane and published by DC Comics; director of photography, Stephen Goldblatt; edited by Dennis Virkler; music by Elliot Goldenthal; production designer, Barbara Ling; visual effects, John Dykstra; produced by Peter MacGregor-Scott; released by Warner Brothers. Running time: 99 minutes. This film is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It includes cartoonish violence, many coy innuendoes and fetish-ready rubber suits.

With: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Mr. Freeze), George Clooney (Batman), Chris O'Donnell (Robin), Uma Thurman (Poison Ivy), Alicia Silverstone (Batgirl), Michael Gough (Alfred Pennyworth), Elle Macpherson (Julie Madison), John Glover (Dr. Jason Woodrue), Vivica A. Fox (Ms. B. Haven) and Vendela K. Thommessen (Nora).

