> Well, you get the idea... but this guy does have great imagination and it's not HIS fault the Batman movies sucked. At least he tried to make them visually appealing, if to make up for a lack of plot, substance, characterization, all those minute details. He didn't have everything to do with the movie, after all... he was just the orifice that it spewed out of.

Wait, it's not the director's fault the movie sucked? No, it is. Unless you're going to cite studio pressures (and I have no reason to believe that "Batman & Robin" sucked because WB was meddling) the director is pretty much the fellow with the final say on everything. It's his job to make sure the script is ready to be filmed, it's his job to make sure the acting is there, it's his job to choose the way the movie looks and it's his job to oversee everything else. He should have demanded a better script and certainly should never have let somebody like Arnold play Mr. Freeze (I will NEVER understand that casting choice, save for the fact that they needed someone who could where a really heavy suit). He should have gotten rid of all the stupid puns that plauged the series (especially in his two) and he basically should have not been such a moron in every aspect of the film.

>
> Schumacher directed 9MM, which I enjoyed slightly... he directed A Time to Kill, which I thought was incredible.

I didn't see "9MM" for two reasons: 1) Schumacher directed it, and 2) it looked far too similar to "Se7en" which is one of my least favorite all time movies. "A Time to Kill" was allright, but I liked the book better.

> Basically, he got stuck with the unfortunate but lucrative task of directing Batman, which is probably done for now. Let's put that nastiness behind us and give him a big ol' hug.

The problem is that Batman isn't just any old franchise. Batman is a revered and respected comic series, and the franchise was actually starting to recover from the concept of that horrid '70s series when Joel took over (say what you will about Burton, at least he was trying to capture the dark themes and look of the comics). What makes it all the worse in my opinion is that at the same time Schumacher was making his two additions to the franchise the far superior Batman animated TV series was running. Come to think of it, "Mask of the Phantasm" is much better than any of the 4 recent Batman movies. The fact is that Schumacher had a specific "vision" for how Batman should be and it was a terrible slap-stick filled idiocy fest. I wonder if the guy has ever even read "Dark Knight Returns"...

Ste "Anybody see the Batman Animated Series episode with "Joel" in it?" phen