When most people hear the title Batman and Robin, they think of the terrible movie from 1997. However, there’s actually an even earlier adaptation of the characters with the same title. This 1949 Batman and Robin is an old serial (the ninth serial based on a comic book character, to be exact) and is significant for being the first superhero sequel ever, following up the 1943 Batman serial. I’ve gone on record with my other reviews of the superhero serials as saying that I generally just don’t like this format, and so it kind of diminishes my enjoyment of these earlier adaptations. However, while not the best one I’ve seen, I actually enjoyed Batman and Robin a decent bit, and so it’s not as bad as some of the other ones I’ve had to sit through.

In comparison to its predecessor, there isn’t any deeper story or shake-up to the formula in Batman and Robin. Instead, it just features the duo taking on a new villain, but otherwise it follows the exact same beats you would expect from one of these serials. This time, Batman and Robin take on the Wizard, a masked man whose identity we don’t find out until the very end. The Wizard is your typical evil genius, but his specialty is that he has a device that enables him to tap into nearby machines and control them. This lends itself to all sorts of neat things, like stopping the engine of a car to slow down Batman. While the character isn’t fleshed out or anything, I thought that this was a really novel concept, especially for the time. I’m not gonna say that the Wizard even comes close to most of Batman’s rogues gallery of villains, but he was at least a pretty neat foe for Batman to take on here.

The general consensus is that this is a worse serial than the 1943 Batman, but I personally liked it more. Don’t get me wrong, though, I completely understand why people would say the first one is better, since Batman and Robin has many problems. These serials were made really cheaply, and so a lot of it was just thrown together without any real regard for logical consistency. For example, there’s a moment where Batman shines the Bat signal in the sky…in broad daylight. This obviously wouldn’t work. My absolute favorite example, though, is that Batman and Robin’s prime suspect on the Wizard’s identity is a man confined to a wheelchair, but they always note the fact that it can’t be him because the Wizard is able to walk. Then, later on, they talk to this suspect and witness him walking, and it’s never even addressed! It’s insane that this wasn’t caught. So, don’t get me wrong, Batman and Robin does have a lot of problems, including these and the general problems that serials face (repetitive cliffhangers, generic henchmen, formulaic structure, and bloated runtime), so I won’t argue against this being a bad movie.

And yet…this is now the ninth serial I’ve watched, and it’s one of the ones I enjoyed the most. I think the main reason is because most of these serials have been bad in a boring way, but Batman and Robin is one of those movies that’s actually bad in a fun way. My girlfriend and I were at least entertained while we were watching it. It definitely ran out of steam by the third hour like these generally tend to do, but we were at least laughing at this for most of it instead of pulling out our hair out of boredom. I also would argue that Batman and Robin improved the serial in some noticeable ways for me, such as with better picture quality, camera work, and action scenes than I’ve seen in some of the other ones. I’ll never say that this is a great movie by any means, but I think it’s good for what it is. Check it out if you’re interested in seeing some of the earliest adaptations of iconic characters, but otherwise stick with the newer iterations. Despite its flaws, I at least had fun with it.

3.5/5