Review of Batman Returns (1992) by Mrmoviebuff — 29 Mar 2016

'Batman Returns' is a movie I like a little bit better than 'Batman' (1989), only by a small amount.

The movie, once again directed by Tim Burton is all Tim Burton, before, his style really showed in the 1989 movie where it tried its best (and mostly succeeded) to avoid that cringe, campy style everyone knows from the Adam West "Batman" we saw in the 1960s. Here, the tone seems to be darker, but almost too theatrical, everything from the set pieces of Gotham city, right down to Danny Elfman's over-the-top score to make everything seem more dramatic than what it already is.

There are two main villains in this movie, although, one of them may not be that much of a villain. They are the Penguin (Danny DeVito), and Selina Kyle aka "Catwoman" (Michelle Pfeiffer). We get a glimpse of Penguin's backstory of how he was left abandoned as a child and had to grow up in the sewers, his almost deformed look will frighten the faint of heart and make them cringe.

Pfeiffer is absolutely terrific as Catwoman however, she has the right amount of seductive charisma, her voice, and overall appearance make her born for this role. Although, the constant licking of herself can get real old really fast.

Michael Keaton never shines as Batman/Bruce Wayne and the reasons for this is due to the fact that in the previous movie, he was upstaged by Jack Nicholson's The Joker, and here, it seems like the biggest star is director Tim Burton and his visual, Gothic style. We don't even hear Keaton, as Bruce Wayne say his first line until just roughly half-an-hour into the movie. Considering he is the title character and gets top billing in the cast list, we sometimes forget he's supposed to be there.

That's the main issue with Burton, I presume, not only does his visual style overcome the lead actor's work, but he focuses way too much on the villain's and their evil plans. We get so much insight of how the Penguin is about to rule Gotham city with the help of Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), and we get an extended origin story of how Selina Kyle became Catwoman.

Batman is pretty much Batman, he comes, he saves, he goes on with his daily life as Bruce Wayne. There are some interesting elements as to how the Penguin decides to frame Batman and turn the entire Gotham city against him, this showed that there was some real struggle for the character.

I liked the darker, and more bloodier tone of this movie, I admired the plot, I even give huge credit to Pfeiffer who did an excellent job of portraying Catwoman. This is a marginal step-up from the previous movie which I liked as well. But, the pacing is troubling from time to time, it's only 126 minutes long, and the sort-of overstuffed plots almost intrudes on the movie's narrative focus. But you come for the visual ride, 'Batman Returns' is a worthy sequel.