Rifftrax Year: 2013
Riffers: Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett
*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS SERIAL UNRIFFED*
"Remember folks, people actually WATCHED this in a THEATER!"
It's been a long time coming, but it seems the folks at Rifftrax have finally said "You know, we failed to do a complete serial on Mystery Science Theater thrice, so let's take one and go the distance." Can they maintain constant commentary for fifteen straight chapters? Let's find out! One of the drawbacks to MST's dips into serial territory was that they did them really early on in their run. The guys at Rifftrax have been in the riffing game for decades, so maybe the time is right.
What to tackle? Why Batman and Robin of course! Sharing the name with the most notorious superhero movie of all time, Batman and Robin is actually the second of two serials featuring the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder. And believe it or not this is actually the less crappy of the two. This one is a bit less monotonous, a little bit more unintentionally funny, and at the very least has a villain that isn't a white guy in Asian makeup.
This Batman story begins as Gotham is being terrorized by a mysterious villain known as the Wizard. Yes kids, as easy as it would be to put some jackass in clown makeup and call him the Joker, we're going to put a hood on a guy and make up our own villain. This Wizard, who displays no wizard-like attributes whatsoever, sends his thugs out to collect a remote control device, while Commissioner Gordon sends Batman and Robin after him.
Cheap as it may be, the serial is a fair representation of the pulp comic adventures of the 40's meeting the repetitive allowance thieving serial storytelling of the time. Batman and Robin can often be looked down upon, but I'll give it this: of all the serials I've seen I'd definitely state that it's one of the ones I was bored by the least (The Adventures of Captain Marvel and The Phantom Creeps are probably among the best of these few I've sat down and watched).
That doesn't mean there is nothing to make fun of. If anything the fact that it's both bad and watchable helps it be even more riffable. Mike, Kevin, and Bill seem to relish their shot at this, as while they've given the old MST treatment to the opposite ends of the spectrum representations of Batman, Batman & Robin and The Dark Knight. While both films lent themselves to the format in different ways, a serial has an old-fashioned type of cheesiness that you don't really get from a blockbuster film, with its simplistic childlike innocence and, well, hilarious lack of budget. They zero in on the flaws: the fact that the Batmobile is just a broken down old car, Batman and Robin's silly Halloween style costumes, the cheap sets, and long periods of simplistic exposition being drawn out. The old-timey punch-and-tumble-heavy fight scenes also get noticed, as Bill quips "This Batman didn't learn combat from no League of Shadows, just an old Irish drunk."
This is an easy recommend, to Batman fans and non-fans alike. The short is a bit of a dumb hoot and the riffing is quite hilarious. It gives us hope for this serial and any attempt they may make to riff another serial in the future.
Thumbs Up
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