Batman Returns

It is interesting that having watched this movie recently after having seen Christopher Nolan's two adaptations it has really created a high standard for even the Batman films that preceded the film. Had I never seen these my overall rating may have been higher. Overall this is a good movie, is far from perfect and is really enjoyable to watch for some great entertainment. I don't necessarily know if it is true or not, but for me I believe Tim Burton's interpretation of the villains is the way that the villains of a comic book need to be portrayed and may have helped Nolan in his way to create the portrayal of the villains.

Michael Keaton with his portrayal will always be the second best Batman behind Christian Bale. He gives the portrayal of Batman with a great balance of weirdo loner and cool crime fighter. Danny DeVito is perfect in his role of the Penguin. He becomes so fully engrossed in his character that many of his scenes actually are a little disturbing and hard for me to watch. What is really great though is the fact that we are given some great depth with the villains. These are not superficial villains that we experience with some of the other villains that have been portrayed in Batman movies. Christopher Walken is his typical self and really does a great job being spooky. Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman was a perfect fit, as she is able to give a great portrayal in a way that is realistic and she makes leather look really good.

Batman Returns is a film that once you watch, you know instantly is a Tim Burton film. Gotham City has a great Gothic feel throughout and is definitely the darkest of the original four films. It was really interesting to me that as I watched the film that Burton does not actually focus this film on Batman. It is almost as if he views Batman to be a bit boring and stale after the first film. Instead, the Penguin becomes the main focus throughout the film. While many may view this as a flaw for some reason this works and it really tells a great story of the Penguin that I actually feel sorry for Penguin by the end of the film. Howard Shore gives a much better score this time around with great themes that really help give the darker Gothic feel to the film.

As for the script, although there are minor problems including some non-sequiturs and bizarre decisions (in terms of logic) made by characters, it's clear that Burton and writers Sam Hamm and Daniel Waters are not exactly trying to tell a traditional story. A lot of the dialogue is pun-oriented, but often this is fairly subtle and/or complex (of course, sometimes it is very blatant or transparent, too). It helps to look at Batman Returns as a more "poetic" film, as I believe was the intention. This also carries over into more general plot and directorial decisions--plenty of odd character actions, including from minor characters, are done in service of a general mood or style, and that style works very well.

Batman Returns ends up being a good movie. While for me I may have given it a stronger rating had Nolan's movies had never come through. This is still just an overall enjoyable movie, that one can enjoy and watch. My suggestion to all movie watchers is if you have not seen any of the Batman movies be sure to watch the two Tim Burton films before watching the great films that Christopher Nolan has put together with Christian Bale. I am giving this film two and a half buckets of popcorn out of five. this is one that they ought to try to see at some point.

-The Movie Man-