Batman Returns (1992)

Batman Returns (1992)

8/10

Starring

Michael Keaton

Danny DeVito

Michelle Pfeiffer

Christopher Walken

Directed by Tim Burton

Tim Burton’s style of violence with a dark theme make this movie a masterpiece right beside the first movie and arguable better. As usual Burton is not one to make a film with the focus being solely on the lead, in Batman (1989) – The Joker was the lead and Batman was around to make him interesting. In the Batman Returns, Batman is the lead, but with three villains to make his day interesting and our time of viewing, even more entertaining.

Only Burton can make a villain from an attempted murder, turn her insane from a fall and then she switches to CATWOMAN.

Before we dive into the plot, the movie has something for you the viewers to watch out for - fantastic acting from the actors.

Michael Keaton (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Michelle Pfeiffer (Selina Kyle/Catwoman), Christopher Walken (Max Shreck) and Danny DeVito (The Penguin) were all hitting targets in their acting. They made this movie awesome to watch anytime they were on screen either together or on their own with another supporting cast.

The movie starts with an introduction of Penguin, how he got to be living underground, from there we meet Max Shreck, a ruthless business man who is as evil as they come.

The Penguin has plans to join the human world with a diabolic plan of his own and he decides to come to the world as a hero using the help of Max. Max on his own has his own plan for Gotham and the Penguin, he interrupts the penguins plans numerous times to interject his own and twirl the Penguin towards his own gain.

Bruce is very sure both are up to no good, he is having difficulty proving it, but he has his assumptions of what they both are up to, only wishing he has the proof to tie it all together.

Selina Kyle is Max’s clumsy and not worth looking at assistant. She was trying to prepare Max as she usually does for presentations and meetings, which led her to by herself look into his files without his permission and discovers some of Max’s plan to rob Gotham of its electrical power.

Max tries to silence her by throwing her off his skyscraper, but her fall was broken many times on her way down and she survives the fall. She returns to work the next day after a night of dressing up as Catwoman. She says she has no recollection of the scar on her head, how it got there or where she was that she got it from.

Bruce/Batman is now on alert watching everyone and trying to be ahead of the three.

The movie has better visual effects and destruction to the city than the first Batman movie as the movie production cost twice the budget to make. Its visual style is more pronounced, and you can sense the dark gothic theme even more, the Tim Burton style. Batman had more and better choreographed fight scenes, as we would have expected from a master martial artist.

Tim Burton infused as much violence as the first movie, but he did some improvements on Batman’s suit, gadgets and automobile.

Burton’s dark theme Batman may not have brought in just as much cash as the first, but I believe they should have let him continue with his style before they ruined a good franchise with a new director.

The new director, Joel Schumacher worked with Val Kilmer as Batman for Batman Forever and finally murdered the franchise with George Clooney as Batman in Batman and Robin.

If this movie was done today there would be an uproar from the feminist, as Batman struck Catwoman more than once in this movie during their one on one fights.

A memorable scene in the movie, is when Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne discovered both were Catwoman and Batman respectively.

Here is a movie you should own a copy of, just as you would Batman (1989) and Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008).