Director Joel Schumacher has been the butt of many jokes among film buffs for the last two decades, and the focus of these jokes are almost always the nipples on the Batsuits, the pastel colors, and bad pun explosion known as “Batman & Robin.” In this writer’s opinion, the “BatCard,” with the expiration date of “Forever” is even more ridiculous, but to each their own.
It seems like the star-studded cast of the sequel that finally convinced Warner Bros. to reboot the whole franchise feels obligated to apologize to the public about their involvement at least once a year, as evidenced by yet another request for forgiveness by George Clooney.
Schumacher also jumped on the public admission of regret bandwagon recently, solemnly predicting that he will forever be known as the man who gave the world an intense case of Batnipples. “I think that will be on my gravestone. It’s how I’ll be remembered,” Schumacher said in an interview with Variety at The Hamptons Film Festival.
Moreover, he took responsibility for the film’s failure, not the cast and crew. “I didn’t do a good job. George did. Chris (O’Donnell) did. Uma (Thurman) is brilliant in it. Arnold was Arnold,” he said.
Schumacher pointed to his previous inexperience with helming sequels (“Batman & Robin” was his first sequel), and the short timetable given by Warner Bros., as the reasons the film didn’t work. In any case, it’s time to forgive and forget and give the man some slack. After all, he did direct “The Lost Boys.”