The Flash movie brought back one of the best Batman actors, but it also brought back the very worst. While taking us through a multiverse, The Flash movie featured a cameo from George Clooney. Clooney, of course, played Bruce Wayne/Batman in 1997’s Batman & Robin. That movie is well-remembered, but not in a good way. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 12%, some consider it one of the worst movies of all time. Clooney himself has been apologizing for the movie for years. Let’s examine why Batman & Robin is such a bad film and why we should thank our lucky stars that George Clooney will not be the DCU’s new Batman despite The Flash cameo.
‘Batman & Robin’ Features Lousy Acting from George Clooney and Everyone Else
Clooney’s performance in Batman & Robin has zero personality. He seems like he’s just there to look good. Honestly, Clooney doesn’t even try all that hard to act. The mannerisms we get aren’t those of Bruce Wayne/Batman but of an actor who doesn’t want to be there.
Clooney isn’t the only one whose lousy acting made this movie suck. We all know from Clueless that Alicia Silverstone is talented, but she does nothing to create a memorable Batgirl. Arnold Schwarzenegger takes the tragic Mr. Freeze and turns him into a ridiculous clown. Wrestler Robert Swenson, who died shortly after the movie’s release, turns the complex villain Bane into a mindless goon.
And, of course, there’s the career-damaging performance by Chris O’Donnell as Dick Grayson/Robin. O’Donnell is certainly talented and was a highly sought-after star during the 1990s. But after this movie, getting work got hard for the actor. He’s done alright on television, but Batman & Robin still lingers over his name.
Uma Thurman had fun as Poison Ivy, and the late Michael Gough was a great Alfred. But not even they could make this movie suck less.
Who is Really to Blame for ‘Batman & Robin’ Failing?
Batman & Robin had a talented cast, and it’s not entirely George Clooney or any other actor’s fault that the movie was a total trainwreck. The true culprit is the movie’s late director Joel Schumacher.
When Tim Burton directed 1989’s Batman, he reinvented the superhero genre, giving it a darkness and maturity that adults could appreciate. Then Schumacher stepped into the chair in 1995 with Batman Forever and undid what Burton accomplished. While that movie is still somewhat entertaining, the goofy visuals and hyper-theatrics began taking the franchise back into childish territory. And it got unbearably worse with Batman & Robin.
The film is outrageously over-produced and designed to sell merchandise. The cast doesn’t do much, but they weren’t given a good script to work with. Schwarzenegger was a total miscast, but he didn’t write the script with all its crappy puns. Here’s hoping Matt Reeves can do Mr. Freeze some justice as he did for the Riddler, another villain Schumacher biffed on.
And we can’t end our criticism without bringing up those gratuitous “suit-up” shots with the built-in nipples and the accentuated butts. This film feels like it’s for kids, but those scenes feel like something from a leather fetish catalog.
‘The Flash’ Cameo Is Not George Clooney’s Return to Batman… Thankfully
George Clooney’s cameo in The Flash is just a meta-joke, as is Nicholas Cage’s cameo. However, James Gunn has clarified that George Clooney will “absolutely not” be the DCU’s new Batman. And for that, we should all be thankful.
