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Review of Batman & Robin (Elliot Goldenthal)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you were unsatisfied with the wild inconsistencies of Batman
Forever and want to hear a better focused version of Elliot Goldenthal's
sound 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:
Batman & Robin: (Elliot Goldenthal) By 1997, the Batman
concept that had once captivated audiences with its elegantly bleak 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 ridiculous (but still fiscally viable)
Batman Forever drove the final nail into coffin of the Batman series,
at least for several years until audiences shook off bad memories of Batman &
Robin and Christopher Nolan could resurrect the concept in the mid-2000's.
Suffering from the same overdose of wild eye candy as Batman Forever, the
predictable and repetitive 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 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 many of his
devices from Batman Forever (which had, at the very least, used Elfman's
most famous, rising two-note major key progression liberally). Disgruntled fans
were treated to another Batman production which used Elfman's theme in the
trailers but forced Goldenthal's less coherent music on the viewers of the film.
Due to a cold reception by fans to every aspect of Batman Forever (except
for fans of the Seal song that highlighted its pop album), 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. 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 lasting difference in the film or on album.
For Batman & Robin, Goldenthal expands upon the statements of his title theme and action material so that they are fleshed out into more accessibly 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 rendering. Goldenthal's ballsy, brass and percussion-heavy ensemble would be accompanied this time by an ethereal choir, adding a sense of majesty to the equation. With so many new characters in Batman & Robin, Goldenthal's most difficult task would be to conjure the necessary 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 schizophrenic and more harmonically rooted in the orchestra. Poison Ivy is scored with a stereotypical jungle-like motif that never really takes flight, and her moments of seduction are lifted by a distant, jazzy sax theme. Goldenthal once again uses the pacing of a waltz to represent the plotting of the villains, and in cues like "Ivy & Freeze Join Forces," the tone is far more stylishly consistent with surrounding material than had been for the previous two villains in Batman Forever. 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 for 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, Freeze and his defeat are scored with a tender choral rendition of this theme that 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 restricts the wavering brass effects during full ensemble statements. The performances of Goldenthal's title theme aren't as choppy and flat-sounding as in similar applications in the previous score. The use of brass layers is often harmonically complimentary, with bursts of sixteenth notes on the trumpets often accompanying the action cues in the same manner that Elfman had employed. The moments of shrieking dissonance are also held at a comparative minimum here. There is quite a bit of structural lifting from Batman Forever that exists in Batman & Robin, but luckily Goldenthal took only the best parts of the former for repetition (such as the climactic crescendo in "Final Battle"). Hints of the noir material for the love interest in Batman Forever are translated into Poison Ivy's jazz as well. There is likely 30 minutes of truly engaging music of consistent style and quality to present on a four-star album. Still, on the whole, Batman & Robin suffers from the knowledge that Elfman's contributions to the series were superior in capturing the gloomy 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, instrumental backing for those songs, and reprises of the title theme. Rather poor 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, so if there's something you heard in the film that you especially 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. These two franchise entries from the late 1990's have become almost completely lost compared to the scores before and after. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Variation #1:
Total Time: 120:56
Variation #2: Total Time: 120:56
NOTES & QUOTES:
No official cover or insert exists for the bootlegs.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Batman & Robin are Copyright © 1997, Bootlegs and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/4/03 and last updated 3/24/09. |
