Batman Returns at 21

[OutRiddled]

I made a conscious choice not to see Batman and Robin because of the bad reviews.  Besides, there were other good films to see that year like The Fifth Element, Starship Troopers, Event Horizon.. not to mention the re-release of the Star Wars films.. so, it just did not interest me.

[johnnygobbs]

I made a conscious choice not to see Batman and Robin because of the bad reviews.  Besides, there were other good films to see that year like The Fifth Element, Starship Troopers, Event Horizon.. not to mention the re-release of the Star Wars films.. so, it just did not interest me.

The reviews came out after I saw the film although I kind of figured it would be pretty bad from the trailer and pre-release photos (although it must be said, the initial reviews were nowhere near as bad as it's later reputation might suggest - 'Empire' to its internal regret gave the film 3 stars  and many of the British newspapers at the time gave the film middling reviews rather than outright negative ones).  Still, even though I kind of knew going in that the film would be bad (and I wasn't even a fan of 'Batman Forever') it was my first opportunity to see a Batman film on the big-screen so for that purpose alone I made an effort to catch 'Batman & Robin'.  For what it's worth, whilst it's undoubtedly a bad film I certainly don't think it's 'the worst film of all-time' as its reputation suggests or even for that matter the worst comic-book movie of all time.

Also, I've got to say I dislike 'Event Horizon' just as much as I dislike 'Batman & Robin', maybe even more so and I consciously avoided seeing the re-released Star Wars movies since it infuriates me what Lucas did to his own films with all those terrible extra CGI shots, including a ridiculously unconvincing Jabba the Hutt in Episode IV etc etc.  The best film I saw at the cinema in 1997 was the superlative 'L.A. Confidential', a text-book example of how to do a great screen adaptation of a novel.

[Edd Grayson]

I was still a twinkle in my father's eye in 1992.