Movie Review: Batman Returns

Batman Returns [1992]

Tim Burton's Batman Returns is the second live-action Batman movie, and makes the second part of a very tentatively-connected quadrology of Batman live-action movies before the live-action franchise was rebooted by Christopher Nolan. Batman and Batman Returns were grouped together as the two Tim Burton movies, and the subsequent two were lumped as "the campy bad ones". And I've watched the 1989 Batman movie a while back, and while it is definitely quaint by today's tastes, it's still a very solid adaptation of the Batman mythos is broad strokes. And its sequel, the 1992 Batman Returns does more of the same, with Michael Keaton returning as Batman, with Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer acting as the Penguin and Catwoman respectively -- two extremely memorable performances that have coloured the two characters' portrayals over the next couple of decades. Christopher Walken rounds off the movie's villains as the non-costumed evil politician/industrialist Max Shreck. 

And it's... it's an okay watch. There were a lot of fun performances, particularly by the always-hammy Danny DeVito's Penguin as a truly depraved animal of a man, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer, who gave a whole generation a leather fetish. Everything that Tim Burton did right in Batman is attempted to be replicated here, like characterizing Bruce Wayne/Batman as being as kooky in the head as the weird supervillains he fights, and adding a wee bit more zaniness to the supervillain battles. Tim Burton seems to thread this theme throughout his two Batman movies about the psyche of these costumed characters like Batman, Catwoman, Penguin and Joker, and just how much they differ from normal cops and robbers.

And, on paper, the movie seems to just be a generic superhero sequel. Batman faces off against not one, but two villains! How will he save the city? Of course, both Catwoman and Penguin's origin stories and personalities have been completely and thoroughly butchered (a common travesty done to a good amount of Batman's Rogues Gallery, sadly). The Penguin is given the backstory of being a hideous deformed baby who's thrown away and somehow lived and grew up after being adopted by penguins, a bit of a combination of Killer Croc's origin stories with some Morlocks thrown in. His big plan is to gain acceptance as Gotham City's new hero, and then have revenge by kidnapping (and presumably killing) every single one of Gotham's children. Somewhere along that line, vile businessman Max Shreck convinces Penguin to run for mayor. Catwoman's a beleaguered secretary who dug in a bit too much, gets thrown out of the window, survives by some Maybe-Magic, and returns with a homemade dominatrix outfit because being Catwoman is the only way she can feel alive. 

These two characters -- save for some key parts like their costumes and animal affinities -- don't really have much to do with how Penguin and Catwoman were portrayed as prior to 1992, although post-1992 portrayals certainly borrowed a lot from this movie. But the way these two characters acted are definitely in line with the whole "monsters within us" theme that Tim Burton basically tries to tell in this story. The Penguin tries his best to be accepted by society, making use of his whole tragic backstory to gain acceptance as Gotham's new hero thanks to an engineered 'save the day publicly moment', but each scene we see the Penguin in shows that he's basically as monstrous as his appearance. And it's not just his lack of social skills either, but it's how every conversation with Catwoman is steeped with sexual propositions, his random brutal bite of one of Shreck's secretaries, and his eventual flying off the lid as he proceeds with his plans to have his voiceless, faceless circus freak gang kidnap every child in Gotham City. Even his whole talk about how he'll only find solace with his penguins ends up being nothing but hypocrisy as one of his plans in the climax involves him somehow using mind-control devices on the penguins to have them be suicide bombers. 

Oh, and also he's played by Danny DeVito who just plays up the unbridled ferocity of this version of Penguin up to eleven, which is nothing if not entertaining. 

Catwoman, on the other hand, is a bit more problematic. I have no problems with Michelle Pfeiffer's portrayal of either Selina or Catwoman, as after her weird maybe-mystical resurrection she ends up living a double life seemingly for the thrill-seeker, and ends up falling in love with Batman and finding a kindred soul. And there's this underlining theme of trying to be herself, but that's problematic because her 'real self' is, well, Catwoman. Who here is way less of a career criminal, but a sexy, confident, leatherclad supervillain who's not afraid to end up going to murder Max Shreck for her revenge. Add a healthy dose of PTSD and psychosis, though, and Selina ends up being a far more manic version of the traditional character. Strip away the fantastic performance by Pfeiffer, though, and Catwoman is more of a foil for the characters around her more than anything else.

Secondary antagonist Max Shreck is likewise a foil to the other characters. He's more of a plot device than anything, though -- he's the "evil billionaire" equivalent to Bruce Wayne, he's the final goal in Selina's revenge quest, and he's Penguin's treacherous ally. Christopher Walken is always entertaining, but his character definitely felt ultimately unnecessary in an already crowded movie. At least, unlike the annoying reporter from Batman, he feels integrated into the story more than anything. 

Which brings us back to Batman. One of the cooler, more stylish shots in this movie is the brooding, silent Bruce Wayne doing nothing in a dark room until he quite literally comes to life when the Bat Signal lights up the sky, showing just how hollow "Bruce Wayne" really is without his obsession of fighting crime dressed as a giant bat. Batman doesn't actually get to do a lot in this movie, which comes with the territory of having to share scenes with Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman and Danny DeVito's Penguin, both of whom are fantastic scene-stealers... but Keaton turns in a neat performance, and we do get some neat parallels between Batman and the antagonists of this movie. Mostly Catwoman, with a good chunk of the third act with them going "oh, we could be together, but I have my cause and you are just unbridled passion", but ultimately the parallels are there, the movie recognizes how closely Batman comes to being a monster -- the movie just doesn't do much with it. 

Oh, and beneath all of these character analysis and the glorious weirdly-Gothic style that Tim Burton uses? There's a whole lot of insanity. We've got remote-controlled penguins, clowns fighting an armoured car, a helicopter umbrella, Penguin's big-ass giant robot rubber duck. I think it's this weird mixture of campy, quasi-surreal details and the weirder, darker tones that the movie has that makes Warner Brother panic and retreat into the safety of campiness with the next two Batman outings. Ultimately, though Batman Returns is a pretty damn enjoyable movie. It never gets as deep as the movie thinks it is, but it's still pretty damn enjoyable with pretty damn fun performances. The plotline of the movie isn't anything to write home about -- it suffers from a lot of pre-MCU superhero movie problems like spending too much time on villain origin stories, not quite enough time on the title superhero, and a third act that runs for way too long. Ultimately, though, a fun, weird movie that I am definitely glad to have rewatched.