‘Batman And Robin’ Has Comic Feel

I can already see “Batman 5.” It’ll have a $120 million cast with more stars than the Oscars, $50 million worth of cutting-edge special effects that no one cares about and a script donated by a Hollywood middle school student. And it’ll still be an enormous hit.

Now that we’ve made it to four Batmans entirely too many for any franchise excluding James Bond I wonder where it’s headed. Since Michael Keaton left, the series has faced a need for mega stars to be successful.

I can’t tell whether the latest Batman movie is a thrillfest or a babefest. After “Batman Forever,” featuring Val Kilmer and Nicole Kidman, “Batman and Robin” stars George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone, Elle Macpherson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Since “Batman and Robin” has more sex appeal than an episode of “Baywatch,” it seems immaterial that the movie has little other merit.

With every sequel, the good guys get nicer, the bad guys get meaner, the explosions get bigger and everyone becomes more attractive. And more people flock to see it.

Admittedly, though, I enjoyed it. With each new sequel, “Batman” gets that much closer to the original DC Comics cartoon.

The first villain in “Batman and Robin,” Mr. Freeze (played by the buffer than usual Schwarzenegger) is as outrageous as the rest of the film. He barely survived an accident trying to save his wife, and is stuck wearing a temperature controlled suit that keeps him as cold as necessary.

His ultimate goal is to freeze the planet so everyone else suffers, but he can shed the suit.

The other primary villain, Poison Ivy (Thurman), is turned into a half-human, half-plant guy magnet while she looks for a way to save endangered plant species. While she has a face to launch a thousand ships, she uses it to pit Batman and Robin against each other. Her ultimate goal is to give flora a way to fight back against the evil that is civilization.

The good guys are the same as always, with a few not-very-notable twists. Clooney is the third Batman and probably the most entertaining on the cartoon level of the film. He has a smaller part than past Batmans, so he doesn’t get much of a chance to shine.

The newest (and best) addition to the crime-fighting team is the semirebellious but good-hearted Batgirl, played by Silverstone. She’s really just a side note to the rest of the film, but a positive one.

The three saviors of Gotham City plunge even closer to death than usual as they attempt to thwart Freeze and Ivy’s plans. The terror is at the level of “Independence Day”: It’s fun to watch the Batpeople beat off the bad guys, but is it as frightening as “Scream?” Not even close.

To put a halt to all this nonsense, in the next version, Michelle Pfiefer should return as Catwoman and work with the Bat crew on crime prevention, so creatures like Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy never become an issue and the Bat Team will never be the size of a football team.

Grade: C+