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Conducted by:
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Jonathan Sheffer
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Produced by:
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Matthias Gohl
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Availability:
No commercial release of the score is available. Several 2-CD bootleg varieties exist.
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Sorry, there are no commercial ordering options for this title. However, you can
search for this title at the soundtrack specialty outlets listed on the Filmtracks Links Page. |
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you were unsatisfied by the inconsistency of Batman
Forever and you want to hear a better Goldenthal effort for the caped
crusader.
Avoid it... if you threw away your Batman Forever score CD and
used its jewel case to replace the one you cracked on your Batman
album.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
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| | Goldenthal | |
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Batman & Robin: (Elliot Goldenthal) By 1997, the
Batman concept that had once captivated audiences with its elegant
vision of good versus evil had dissolved into a MTV light show with an
excess of characters and total lack of consistency and common sense.
Director Joel Schumacher's return to the franchise after his monumentally
failing Batman Forever drove the final nail into coffin of the
Batman series, at least for several years until audiences could shake
off bad memories of Batman & Robin. Suffering from the same overdose
of eye candy as Batman Forever, the predictable and unengaging
Batman & Robin introduced two new villains, a bat girl, another Bruce
Wayne flame, and, of course, another different actor as Batman. The entire
project was a disastrous example of franchise stupidity, and somewhere, you
had to get the feeling that Tim Burton and Danny Elfman were wincing and
celebrating at once. Like Poison Ivy's garden, the film was overgrown in
size and lacking in substance. Despite calls by thousands of upset fans for
a return of Danny Elfman to the franchise (which was never going to happen),
Elliot Goldenthal returned with his Elfman-imitation Batman knock-off theme.
Disgruntled fans were treated to another Batman film which used
Elfman's theme in the trailers, but utilized Goldenthal's less coherent
music on the viewers of the film. Due to a cold reception by fans to every
aspect of the project, the fourth installment would never experience a
score-only album release.
The shame of this reality is the fact that Batman &
Robin is a better effort by Goldenthal than its predecessor, Batman
Forever. His debut into the Batman series had been a wishy washy
mess of carnival cues, with several lengthy sequences of unlistenable
garbage sprinkled throughout heroic orchestral music that never sustained
itself long enough to make a difference in the film or on album. For
Batman & Robin, Goldenthal expends his statements of his action cues
so that they are fleshed out into accessible and enjoyable music. The title
theme may be nearly identical in its appearance at the beginning and the
end, but there is more hearty and snare-driven brass throughout this effort.
Elfman fans will argue (with a good point) that Goldenthal's theme
adaptation is a cheap representation of Elfman's original, but again, the
average viewer isn't going to notice any difference. With so many new
characters, Goldenthal's most difficult task would be to conjure several new
themes or motifs to accompany them. The character themes in Batman
Forever had ruined that score (who can actually sit through "Nygma
Variations?"), and his handling of the character themes in Batman &
Robin is less snazzy and more orchestrally rooted. Poison Ivy is scored
with a jungle-like motif that never really takes flight, and her moments of
seduction are lifted by a distant, jazzy sax theme. But the choral and
resounding drum theme for Mr. Freeze is the highlight of the score. While
the active percussion during Freeze's attack scenes is adequate, the
haunting choral beauty of the scenes of his frozen wife offer several superb
moments in the Batman & Robin score (despite their thematic lifting
from Demolition Man). A sympathetic character at the end, the scene
in which Freeze is defeated and is scored with a tender choral rendition of
this theme is equally charming.
Also placing this score one step above the previous one is
the more dramatic (and sometimes choral) handling of the stomping title
theme. From the scene in which the costumes are being strapped on (including
those famous padded ass shots) to the climax of the film's rescue scenes,
Goldenthal slows the tempo of his main theme statements and adds more
instrumentation to the mix. It isn't as choppy and flat-sounding as the
identical cues in the previous score. There is quite a bit of lifting that
goes on in Batman & Robin from Batman Forever, but luckily
Goldenthal took only the best parts of the latter for repeating. Still,
Batman & Robin suffers from the knowledge that Elfman's contributions
to the series were superior in capturing the spirit of Gotham City. Adding
to the total despair for Batman film score fans was Warner Brother's
treatment of the commercial album for Batman & Robin, which contained
an exact replica of the Batman Forever song album suite and a more
hideous than usual collection of harder rock songs. In fact, not a single
cue of the Batman & Robin score would ever appear on a commercial
album. Thus, as you might imagine, double-CD bootlegs began surfacing in
1999 and 2000. With universally poor sound and typically bad edits, the
bootlegs included snippets of songs and reprises of the title theme. The
less-than-digital sound quality should deter all except the most devoted
Batman music fans, though there is yet to be a clear alternative. On
the other hand, these bootlegs do feature the entire two hours of music from
the film, and if there's something you heard in the film that you liked, it
will be on the bootlegs. For the majority of fans, however, the
Batman situation is such a mess that you may as well skip both of
Goldenthal's scores and stick with Elfman's material. ***
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Viewer Ratings and Comments:
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Track Listings (Variation #1):
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Total Time: 120:56
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CD 1 (60:55)
• 1. Main Titles (2:19)
• 2. Museum Mayhem (5:37)
• 3. Blast Off/Surfs Up (5:54)
• 4. Frozen Stiff (2:32)
• 5. Bane is Born (4:34)
• 6. Memories of Childhood (0:48)
• 7. Poison Ivy/Mr. Freeze's Plans (4:58)
• 8. Barbara Arrives (3:57)
• 9. Observatory Unveiling (1:56)
• 10. Ivy & Bruce (3:11)
• 11. Costume Ball (4:47)
• 12. Cool Party Crasher (4:19)
• 13. A Chilling Chase (2:34)
• 14. Matters of Trust (2:20)
• 15. Freeze on Ice/Renovations (7:10)
• 16. Main Titles Alternate (3:35)
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CD 2 (65:01)
• 1. Bike Race (4:33)
• 2. Secrets Revealed (1:43)
• 3. Prison Break/Freeze's Lair/Beauty and the Beast (14:21)
• 4. Ivy & Freeze Join Forces (0:55)
• 5. Alfred's Illness (0:33)
• 6. Partners Part/Seeing the Light (5:17)
• 7. Barbara's New Identity/Will You Trust Me?/Observatory (7:11)
• 8. Invading Ivy's Garden (4:41)
• 9. Icing Gotham (3:04)
• 10. Storming the Observatory/Final Battle/A Helping Hand (13:11)
• 11. Partners Three (2:03)
• 12. End Credits (4:53)
• 13. Main Title Reprise (2:18)
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Track Listings (Variation #2):
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Total Time: 120:56
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CD 1 (60:55)
• 1. Main Titles (2:19)
• 2. A New Villian/Batman Drops In (5:37)
• 3. Museum Mayhem (5:54)
• 4. Frozen Stiff/The Jungle (2:32)
• 5. Bane is Born (4:34)
• 6. The Nature of Family (0:48)
• 7. Poison Ivy/Freeze's Plans (4:58)
• 8. New Family Arrives (3:57)
• 9. Poison Ivy Arrives/Gotham Observatory (1:56)
• 10. Mine for the Greening/Sad Moments (3:11)
• 11. One More Diamond/The Ball (4:47)
• 12. Freeze Crashes the Party (4:19)
• 13. A Chilling Chase (2:34)
• 14. A Matter of Trust (2:20)
• 15. Freeze on Ice/Renovation (7:10)
• 16. A Batman Overture (3:35)
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CD 2 (65:01)
• 1. Song/Dick Saves Barb (4:33)
• 2. Secrets Revealed/Alfred's Dying (1:43)
• 3. Escape from Arkham/Freeze's Revenge (14:21)
• 4. Adam and Evil (0:55)
• 5. MacGregor's Syndrome (0:33)
• 6. Partners Part/Seeing the Light (5:17)
• 7. Access Allowed/Trust Me Now/Barb Suits Up (7:11)
• 8. Ivy's Garden (4:41)
• 9. Ice Malice (3:04)
• 10. Final Confrontation/A Helping Hand (13:11)
• 11. Partners X 3 (2:03)
• 12. End Credits (4:53)
• 13. Main Titles Reprise (2:18)
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No official cover or insert exists for the bootlegs.
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