How could it have been anything else really? Though Clooney was well cast as Bruce Wayne and Batman, he was hung out to dry horribly by a terrible script, wayward tone, and the rest of the cast seemingly forgetting that they were professionals. Joel Schumacher ran amock and rough-shod over everything that Tim Burton had done well in the name of Batman, bringing too much pantomime, and too much cartoonishness to the film, and robbing everyone involved of any credibility at all. The film was just too close to everything that was bad about the campy, excessive 1960s TV show, which is well loved now as a cult gem, but which all but killed Batman's legacy on TV and on the page until a revival that took the source back to the the dark tone it had previously thrived on (sound familiar?) If any further denouncement of the film was necessary at this point, Clooney himself despises what became of his chance to be one of the most iconic characters in film history. Whenever asked about it, he openly tears it apart such in an interview with Total Film when he said, With hindsight its easy to look back at this and go Woah, that was really sh*t and I was really bad in it. So at least he's aware of what he did. And boy, is he bad?! Given a rancid script, and a barely movable rubber suit enhanced with grotesquely over-masculine muscle tone and for no reason, nipples, it became patently obvious that Clooney was there to be leered over, as opposed to lauded: he is no more than a walking mannequin with big rubber nipples, and in that context, it's obvious why his performance struggled. Do you agree with this ranking? Share your own favourites and least favourites in the comments thread below.
