Tim Burton's Batman was a cultural phenomenon. Not only was it the second highest grossing film of 1989 (falling just a bit short of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), but it also started a renewed interest in superheroes as lucrative film properties, kicked off the career of Tim Burton, and paved the way for better and more serious adaptations of the Batman property (namely the excellent animated series that could premier a few years later). Tim Burton, however, had mixed feelings about the movie. His animosity toward the final product plus the rather difficult production made him reluctant to return for a sequel. He was eventually persuaded by Warner Bros. to return, this time with the promise of total creative control. While the original blended elements of gothic fantasy and film noir, Batman Returns dropped most of the noir references in favor of bizarre and surreal imagery. In other words, Batman Returns is basically the first Batman movie crossed with the 1931 horror classic, Freaks. The movie succeeded at the box office, but the dark imagery made the merchandising element increasingly difficult. Parents group protested against the film's violent nature, limited the number of marketable action figures and cancelling a proposed Happy Meal tie-in with McDonalds. Even today, reception to this film is pretty divided, with some praising the darker style and others stating it became too weird too fast. I have to admit, this was the one I was most curious about revisiting. Does it hold up or are the naysayers on to something?
Batman Returns takes place shortly after the previous film (though the exact time in undisclosed). After killing the Joker, Batman (once again played by Michael Keaton) continues to clean up the streets of Gotham. 
He soon takes on two new foes, the Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). The Penguin was born with sever birth defects. His ghastly appearance terrified his aristocratic parents and as an infant, was abandoned to the sewers of Gotham, where he spent most of his living life. In the sewers, the Penguin stumbles onto some highly illegal schemes of corrupt business moguel, Max Shreck (Christopher Walken). The Penguin, intent on returning to the surface, blackmails Shreck into helping him make his return and be embraced by Gotham's citizens before hatching an evil plan.. After returning, he allies with Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, a once shy woman pushed to her limit (literally) after nearly being killed by Shreck (her boss). Reborn as the sensual feline-style vigilante, she and Penguin plot to stopping the Caped Crusader. With two supervillains and a league of psychotic henchmen taking the street, Batman hurries to discover the Penguin's evil plot and expose his evil intentions.
He soon takes on two new foes, the Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). The Penguin was born with sever birth defects. His ghastly appearance terrified his aristocratic parents and as an infant, was abandoned to the sewers of Gotham, where he spent most of his living life. In the sewers, the Penguin stumbles onto some highly illegal schemes of corrupt business moguel, Max Shreck (Christopher Walken). The Penguin, intent on returning to the surface, blackmails Shreck into helping him make his return and be embraced by Gotham's citizens before hatching an evil plan.. After returning, he allies with Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, a once shy woman pushed to her limit (literally) after nearly being killed by Shreck (her boss). Reborn as the sensual feline-style vigilante, she and Penguin plot to stopping the Caped Crusader. With two supervillains and a league of psychotic henchmen taking the street, Batman hurries to discover the Penguin's evil plot and expose his evil intentions.
Batman Returns is an oddity. This is, no doubt, one of the strangest and most bizarre sequels I've seen, not just because of it's strangely absurd art direction, but mainly because of the vast differences from the original. While the first Batman was more or less a traditional action movie with a stylistic edge, Batman Returns is an oddly structured ugly duckling story with elements of surreal fantasy. Throw in some gang members dressed like circus clowns, some amazingly grotesque make up effects, all clashing with blatant sexual overtones whenever Catwoman is involved, it's pretty freaking bizarre. I might have been able to accept all of that, but what really puts it over-the-top is the inclusion of Christopher Walken... lets be honest here folks, nothing out-weirds Christopher Walken (though I don't mean that in a bad way, Walken is one of my favorite actors). I'm not necessarily saying that any of this is inherently a bad thing. Weird can be good... hell, weird can be great. Tim Burton has made a career specializing in the bizarre and most of his movies turned out pretty awesome. Some of my favorite films of all time are very out there too, namely A Clockwork Orange, Videodrome, Pi, and many others. A film being weird is neither inherently bad or good, but there has to be more to it than just that.
What's frustrating about this movie is that parts of it are great while others are abysmal. As a matter of fact, it basically has all the same pros and cons of the first movie, only in greater scale. The style is something to behold, giving us an interesting introspective into the twisted mind of the director. 
Oh, it's insanely over-the-top, but the sheer artistic vision along with the undoubtedly daunting execution is hard not to admire. It also portrays a very sympathetic depiction of it's villain. The Penguin is an interesting character too, beneath the rage and hatred that's been building up his whole life, there exists a subconscious longing to be loved and accepted. It's an interesting depiction, as the movie doesn't force you to sympathize with the character right away, but nonetheless portrays him as a tragic victim of circumstance that is, at times, somewhat heart-wrenching. Danny De Vito really sells this role too. It's hard to think of another actor that could have been as well cast for this part (well, maybe Bob Hoskins). A short, stout, gritty man with a heart full of rage and anger... yeah that's De Vito for you.
Oh, it's insanely over-the-top, but the sheer artistic vision along with the undoubtedly daunting execution is hard not to admire. It also portrays a very sympathetic depiction of it's villain. The Penguin is an interesting character too, beneath the rage and hatred that's been building up his whole life, there exists a subconscious longing to be loved and accepted. It's an interesting depiction, as the movie doesn't force you to sympathize with the character right away, but nonetheless portrays him as a tragic victim of circumstance that is, at times, somewhat heart-wrenching. Danny De Vito really sells this role too. It's hard to think of another actor that could have been as well cast for this part (well, maybe Bob Hoskins). A short, stout, gritty man with a heart full of rage and anger... yeah that's De Vito for you.
As for what doesn't work in this movie... actually, pretty much everything else. Once again, Batman plays second fiddle to the villains, only this time it's even worse. Batman has been relegated to basically a mindless vigilante now, going around and actually killing most of his enemies (if you've read Batman comics, you know that in most interpretations, the Dark Knight has a very strict "no killing" rule). Most of his severely limited character development, like before, is triggered by an out-of-nowhere epiphany at the start of the third act. The only really interesting thing happening with Bruce Wayne is the romance between him and Selina Kyle. The two, both borderline-psychotic outsiders, have an interesting relationship as out-of-costume lovers and in-costume enemies. As standalone characters, however, there's just not much there. While Pfeiffer is incredibly sexy in that catsuit and definitely has fun with the role, there's just not much to her character. Catwoman has never represented much more than sexuality in the first place, and clearly they didn't feel the need to mess with that. Plus, once again the story just barely functions as a coherent narrative. Scenes barely connect while certain story elements are left oddly unexplored. For instance, there are some bizarre supernatural undertones to Catwoman's character, but they are barely explained. Wayne himself is barely explored, once again leaving his compulsory development for the third act. Out of all the things you would hope they would have address from the first movie, that was it... but no luck. It's one of those odd narratives that has some great elements but sloppy execution.
I've heard some people describe Batman Returns as a pretty good fantasy movie but a terrible Batman movie. That is actually a pretty fair assessment. It almost seems like Tim Burton was invested in telling 
the ugly duckling story of the Penguin but could have cared less about Batman himself. Hell, with a few minor re-writes, they could have easily make the Penguin a hero and Batman a villain. The whole thing actually rings quite similar to Edward Scissorhands, which Burton had ironically just finished directing before this. The plot just doesn't find a balance and, like the first film, the movie suffers for it. At the very least, the film benefits from the presence of the awesomely strange, Christopher Walken. Taking what was essentially a by-the-numbers corporate jerk, Walken brings his trademark eccentricities to the role and makes him very entertaining. How can anyone not love Christopher Walken... he's just plain awesome.
the ugly duckling story of the Penguin but could have cared less about Batman himself. Hell, with a few minor re-writes, they could have easily make the Penguin a hero and Batman a villain. The whole thing actually rings quite similar to Edward Scissorhands, which Burton had ironically just finished directing before this. The plot just doesn't find a balance and, like the first film, the movie suffers for it. At the very least, the film benefits from the presence of the awesomely strange, Christopher Walken. Taking what was essentially a by-the-numbers corporate jerk, Walken brings his trademark eccentricities to the role and makes him very entertaining. How can anyone not love Christopher Walken... he's just plain awesome.
Summing up... Batman Returns works in parts, but just becomes too freaking weird and off-beat to work as an entire movie. Its dark, strange, and incredibly creative, and for those with a sick mind (like me), it's enjoyable in a "what the hell am I watching" kind of way. Don't get me wrong, it never crosses the boundaries of a PG-13 rating, but it does push it to the limits. That said, Batman Returns is just too messy and uneven to truly work. In the end, it's just pretty average.
My Score: 2.5 out of 5!
No comments:
Post a Comment