Medium: Movie
Runtime: 2hrs, 6 Minutes
Genre: Superhero/Drama
Rating: R
Batman has gone through a lot of iterations. Like, a lot a lot. There's campy 1960's Batman, Tim Burton's late-80's-early-90's duology (and its quite, er, "remarkable" sequels), the realistic Nolan trilogy, the currently-airing prequel TV show that focuses not on Bruce Wayne but Jim Gordon, and finally the DCCU version that had a catastrophic punch-up with Supes right before the two bonded over their mothers having the same name (that is... still a thing that happened).
And that's just the live-action stuff. That doesn't even cover all the cartoons he's shown up in, everything from the awful 1970's Superfriends to the excellent The Animated Series in the 90's, Justice League, Batman Beyond, Brave and the Bold, the animated movies... but let's rewind back to Burton's Batman.
The year is 1992. After the raging success of the first movie, Tim Burton gets the greenlight for a sequel. It would be bigger, darker, and more epic than the first. Let's dig into Batman Returns.
The movie starts with the birth of Oswald Cobblepot, who is apparently so horrifying as a child that the nursemaid and butler run from the master bedroom and the parents later lock up in an enclosure less reminiscent of a crib and more of a pet carrier. This is before they decide that there's no way they can raise the little monster, and take the baby to the park and dump its carriage into an icy stream to be rid of it.
33 years later, a gang of circus rejects called the Red Triangles begin terrorizing Gotham at Christmastime, while corporate villain-with-good-publicity Max Shreck plans to turn the city's power surplus into a power shortage so he can profit off of it. But it turns out that the 'Penguin-Man' living underneath Gotham knows all about his misdeeds, and has him kidnapped by the Red Triangle and brought down to the sewers so the two can talk. Penguin threatens to bring to light all of the damning evidence that Shreck attempted to dispose of, unless he does something for the misshapen man- help him make his public debut, so that he may discover who he is and what became of the parents who attempted to dispose of him. Shortly after returning to his office from this meeting with the film's main villain, Shreck discovers that his secretary, Selena Kyle, has unwittingly stumbled onto his secret plan while pulling files for his meeting the next morning. He proceeds to pushes her out the window, leaving her to tumble several stories to her death against the grimy street below- but She Gets Better and stumbles home. Once there, and fed up with being a doormat, she suffers a mental breakdown and awakens to a whole new persona: the slinking, purring vigilante, Catwoman. Thus has the film set up Batman's greatest challenge yet- not one, not two, but three villains to conquer.
It's really hard to bag on Burton's vision of Batman, what with the art-deco wonderland that is Gotham and the gritty, worn-down feel to every street and set piece. If I do have a complaint, however, it is this: Batman has exactly two rules, and they are no killing and no guns. While Tim Burton follows that second rule to the letter, his Batman seems to have thrown out that first rule in favor of punchy cinematic action. Burton's Batman looks for the quickest way to dispatch foes, and sometimes he's either directly or indirectly responsible for killing people as a means to that end. It's... jarring.
There's a scene in the first movie where he causes an explosion that kills a goon, and he essentially causes the creation of the Joker by punching a gangster into a vat of toxic waste (he gets better... physically). In the beginning of Returns, we see the same sort of disrespect for human life, with Batman using the Batmobile to fling a couple of gangsters into a burning building and then turning it around to set another one on fire with the vehicle's afterburner. While sort of poetic (the third guy was running around setting things on fire, himself), it's still alarmingly out of character.
Furthermore, Returns has a few logic issues that are hard to overlook; for example, it's established in the Penguin's discussion with Shreck at the beginning that he's carefully covered his tracks to make sure the public knows nothing about the slimy stuff he's been involved with (including killing off a former partner), but if Selena Kyle hadn't survived the fall to the ground and become Catwoman, even a quick n' sloppy autopsy of the body would have cast suspicion onto Shreck for the secretary's murder. Shreck helps set up The Penguin as a candidate for mayor before even trying to get the current mayor voted out of office. Catwoman decides that Batman is a thorn in her side after only one meeting and tracks down The Penguin... somehow. She just sort of shows up in his office/the Red Triangle gang's hideout and it's never explained exactly how she found him. It feels like there were crucial context clues cut in favor of keeping up the pace of the movie.
Still, it's a great watch. Despite its issues, it's a slick, fun ride with a well-written, interweaving story and some cool ideas. Too bad that the studio cut Burton out of Batman Forever for making Batman Returns TOO dark, because while I enjoy that movie for its bouncy Riddler and zany plot, I would have loved to see what he did with Two-Face.
TL;DR: Maybe not the Batman the studio wanted, but definitely the Batman we deserved. It stands about on par with the original Burton Batman, which was pretty solid itself.
VIRTUES: Aesthetic design, engaging plot, well-handled villains, Alfred is delightfully snarky.
SINS: Weak fight scenes, plot holes are glossed over with nary a hand-wave, Batman straight up murders a couple criminals.
SCORE: 8/10
Final Verdict: I think this gets a place on my shelf.
Runtime: 2hrs, 6 Minutes
Genre: Superhero/Drama
Rating: R
Batman has gone through a lot of iterations. Like, a lot a lot. There's campy 1960's Batman, Tim Burton's late-80's-early-90's duology (and its quite, er, "remarkable" sequels), the realistic Nolan trilogy, the currently-airing prequel TV show that focuses not on Bruce Wayne but Jim Gordon, and finally the DCCU version that had a catastrophic punch-up with Supes right before the two bonded over their mothers having the same name (that is... still a thing that happened).
And that's just the live-action stuff. That doesn't even cover all the cartoons he's shown up in, everything from the awful 1970's Superfriends to the excellent The Animated Series in the 90's, Justice League, Batman Beyond, Brave and the Bold, the animated movies... but let's rewind back to Burton's Batman.
The year is 1992. After the raging success of the first movie, Tim Burton gets the greenlight for a sequel. It would be bigger, darker, and more epic than the first. Let's dig into Batman Returns.
The movie starts with the birth of Oswald Cobblepot, who is apparently so horrifying as a child that the nursemaid and butler run from the master bedroom and the parents later lock up in an enclosure less reminiscent of a crib and more of a pet carrier. This is before they decide that there's no way they can raise the little monster, and take the baby to the park and dump its carriage into an icy stream to be rid of it.
33 years later, a gang of circus rejects called the Red Triangles begin terrorizing Gotham at Christmastime, while corporate villain-with-good-publicity Max Shreck plans to turn the city's power surplus into a power shortage so he can profit off of it. But it turns out that the 'Penguin-Man' living underneath Gotham knows all about his misdeeds, and has him kidnapped by the Red Triangle and brought down to the sewers so the two can talk. Penguin threatens to bring to light all of the damning evidence that Shreck attempted to dispose of, unless he does something for the misshapen man- help him make his public debut, so that he may discover who he is and what became of the parents who attempted to dispose of him. Shortly after returning to his office from this meeting with the film's main villain, Shreck discovers that his secretary, Selena Kyle, has unwittingly stumbled onto his secret plan while pulling files for his meeting the next morning. He proceeds to pushes her out the window, leaving her to tumble several stories to her death against the grimy street below- but She Gets Better and stumbles home. Once there, and fed up with being a doormat, she suffers a mental breakdown and awakens to a whole new persona: the slinking, purring vigilante, Catwoman. Thus has the film set up Batman's greatest challenge yet- not one, not two, but three villains to conquer.
It's really hard to bag on Burton's vision of Batman, what with the art-deco wonderland that is Gotham and the gritty, worn-down feel to every street and set piece. If I do have a complaint, however, it is this: Batman has exactly two rules, and they are no killing and no guns. While Tim Burton follows that second rule to the letter, his Batman seems to have thrown out that first rule in favor of punchy cinematic action. Burton's Batman looks for the quickest way to dispatch foes, and sometimes he's either directly or indirectly responsible for killing people as a means to that end. It's... jarring.
There's a scene in the first movie where he causes an explosion that kills a goon, and he essentially causes the creation of the Joker by punching a gangster into a vat of toxic waste (he gets better... physically). In the beginning of Returns, we see the same sort of disrespect for human life, with Batman using the Batmobile to fling a couple of gangsters into a burning building and then turning it around to set another one on fire with the vehicle's afterburner. While sort of poetic (the third guy was running around setting things on fire, himself), it's still alarmingly out of character.
Furthermore, Returns has a few logic issues that are hard to overlook; for example, it's established in the Penguin's discussion with Shreck at the beginning that he's carefully covered his tracks to make sure the public knows nothing about the slimy stuff he's been involved with (including killing off a former partner), but if Selena Kyle hadn't survived the fall to the ground and become Catwoman, even a quick n' sloppy autopsy of the body would have cast suspicion onto Shreck for the secretary's murder. Shreck helps set up The Penguin as a candidate for mayor before even trying to get the current mayor voted out of office. Catwoman decides that Batman is a thorn in her side after only one meeting and tracks down The Penguin... somehow. She just sort of shows up in his office/the Red Triangle gang's hideout and it's never explained exactly how she found him. It feels like there were crucial context clues cut in favor of keeping up the pace of the movie.
Still, it's a great watch. Despite its issues, it's a slick, fun ride with a well-written, interweaving story and some cool ideas. Too bad that the studio cut Burton out of Batman Forever for making Batman Returns TOO dark, because while I enjoy that movie for its bouncy Riddler and zany plot, I would have loved to see what he did with Two-Face.
TL;DR: Maybe not the Batman the studio wanted, but definitely the Batman we deserved. It stands about on par with the original Burton Batman, which was pretty solid itself.
VIRTUES: Aesthetic design, engaging plot, well-handled villains, Alfred is delightfully snarky.
SINS: Weak fight scenes, plot holes are glossed over with nary a hand-wave, Batman straight up murders a couple criminals.
SCORE: 8/10
Final Verdict: I think this gets a place on my shelf.
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