The Inner Crust: Batman & Robin (Yeah that Batman and Robin)

You know what's popular today? Looking back into the rear view of the 1990's and reminiscing about what was popular then. The funny part about it is that most of the self-appointed 90's kids were born in the mid 90's and barley remember.....I'm getting off the tracks, sorry. Anyways one thing that I know for sure wasn't popular back then was Joel Shoemaker's infamous Batman Forever follow up Batman & Robin. The movie is  famous for ice puns and the Bat- credit card (by VISA). The Inner Crust will be a short form (hopefully a couple of paragraphs) opinion piece where I can express some ideas that hopefully lead to a heated exchange of words. I love debate. This time, I'm making the argument that Batman & Robin is not the disaster dumpster fire it is remembered for but instead the perfect homage to what came before.

I get the hate I truly do. After the not so terrible, kinda enjoyable Batman Forever, the growing fan base was expecting the follow-up to go in the darker, more Burton-y rout than what actually ended up on screen. But with B&R Joel actually wanted his film to mimic an incarnation of Batman the predates Burton's version by 20 years. Yes, I am talking about the ever campy Adam West era Batman and Robin television show. To truly get what he was going for you had to be a kid when watching Batman & Robin for the first time. Growing up my brother (let's call him Jake for privacy sake) and I loved everything, Batman. We watched the animated series, read the comics, we were Batman and Robin for at least 5 Halloweens in a row. We also grew up watching Adam West and Burt Ward as our costumed detectives on Nick@Nite. Everything was over the top form the BIFFS and POWS to the shark repellent spray. It was like reading a really old issue from the 40's and 50's in today's comics climate. It seems really silly and outlandish that this is what the character used to be. But that's the point.

Characters, at least the ones that have been around for a while will inevitably change. No matter what as the days turn to years people change. I bet you're not the same as you were five, ten, twenty years ago. So why should we expect our favorite fictional characters to be any different? Shoemaker wanted to do something different with his Batman. He went into the two films wanting to honor what came before him. That's not just Tim Burton's Batman or Frank Miller's. He included Adam West and the comic strips from the 50's and 60's. He wanted to make a fun, not taking itself too seriously (remember Bat credit cards!) and from that perspective he did ok. If the viewer goes into this film today expecting more in line with The Room or an old school B-Movie from the 50's they'll have a great time, especially if you make a drinking game out of it.


But seriously, fuck Bat Nipples.