Batman: 15 greatest Batman movie villains of all time

Photo: Batman & Robin / Warner Bros. Studios Image Courtesy Fathom Events Press

12. Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin)

Actor: Uma Thurman

Uma Thurman was riding high after her role as Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction. Just from that alone, she sounds like a good pick for play Dr. Pamela Lillian Isley. She’s tall, attractive, and we’ve seen that she can act pretty well. This should have been a home run. Somewhere along the way, this got botched.

Uma started off as a bumbling assistant and that was fine. When she became Poison Ivy after her boss attacks her and causes Ivy’s transformation, she was still good. Her origin was very similar to how Selina Kyle becomes Catwoman in Batman Returns (if it ain’t broke…). When she turned, she was immediately seductive. It looked like this was going to go well. Unfortunately, this was still Batman and Robin.

Uma Thurman did a good job with the material she was given. Since she wasn’t an A-list actor at that time, she probably wasn’t given the option of speaking up about her role. Thurman played it the best she could. Since everything in this movie was overly silly, what was she going to do? When you have the Bat-Credit Cards and Bat-Nipples, it would have been off to see her play the role more like the comics or Batman the Animated Series. We shouldn’t blame Uma for this role.

Memorable moment: Playing Batman and Robin against each other.