I'll admit Batman & Robin isn't a GREAT film and I totally recognize the reasons it draws a lot of people's ire but I just don't think it's that bad. I'll watch it again sometime with the commentary but the last time I saw it I went in bracing myself to be horrified in my mistake ("It's not so bad!" I said, "It might be fun! I said...) and wound up really enjoying myself. While the plot is thin and not just a little cliche, it carries itself well enough that I can't call it awful at that most fundamental level. Sure, it's not without holes but it's no where near as fundamentally broken in its narrative as, using this example again, the Star Wars prequels (and, IMO, Batman & Robin's cartoon logic covers for many its inconsistencies, whereas those films' more serious approach to storytelling does not). So call me crazy but I have no qualms with the plot.
What's left? Well, firstly, the puns. Like I said, bad puns are almost literally a job requirement at my work so this movie is amazing to me in that respect. If you think that's terrible writing, that's okay. I couldn't be happier with it, man.
As for the production design... well, I'll give you the suits. They don't bother me personally (art history classes have simply made me amused by the concept of having the heroes suits resemble Greek statues, tasteless as it may be for Batman
) but I won't defend them. Although Freeze's costume looks pretty cool (but his dome-headed incarnation from the animated series is, admittedly, cooler). Everything else? Man, I love it. I love the lighting in this film especially. It reminds me of a number of far more artful films, Suspiria and much of Akio Jissoji's later work among them. As I said before, the juxtaposition of the Tokyo-like neon splashes against the classic New York art deco works so well for me. And DEM MINIATURES. YUSSSS. (Most all the Batman films have pretty sweet miniatures though, don't they?)
I dig it, man. No irony here - I honestly like it. And just as you've presented a reasonable explanation as to why you think it's one of the more horrific ventures in cinematic history, I think I've presented a fairly reasonable explanation as to why I think it's really not so bad. Neither of us is going to change the other's mind, no, but I think it's all been a fairly legitimate discussion.
