Batman Returns (1992)

Many of my usual subscribers will recall my opinion of Tim Burton's re-imagining of The Caped Crusader in Batman (1989) and rightly wonder why I would bother at all to review its sequel.

Well, it certainly isn't because it's better.

This does have a unique slant for a superhero movie, though (TWO, actually).

For one thing, this is a Christmas movie. You know; jingle bells, deck them halls and all that stuff?

Definitely unique, but there's another thing that makes Batman Returns not only a bad sequel and a bad continuation of a storyline from three years prior, but proves it to be the most wrong-headed movie ever...

This is without a doubt the DARKEST "fun superhero" movie that could possibly ever have been made; both visually and psychologically.

That's a lot of build-up for a review but Batman Returns earns it. Believe me.

It's about here that the story kicks in: During the Holiday season, Batman (Michael Keaton) faces a group known as The Circus Gang and their mysterious leader The Penguin (Danny DeVito): a warped and deformed individual who is intent on being accepted into Gotham society by any means at his disposal. Even if it means unleashing his army of penguins equipped with rocket launchers.

Crooked businessman Max Schreck (Christopher Walken) is coerced into helping The Penguin not only discover his true identity but also pushes for him to become Mayor of Gotham to not only serve as a puppet for Schreck's own devious purposes but also work together to expose Batman in a different light.

There is a wrench in the works, however, when Schreck's secretary Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer) is thrown from the top of a building in order to cover for Schreck's plans for a power plant which will actually drain the energy from all of Gotham City for his own use. And, though she survives, something in her snaps and she transforms herself into a black leather whip-cracking mystery woman known only as Catwoman.

Now Batman not only must fight the repeated attacks on his good name by Schreck and The Penguin but also battle repeatedly with Catwoman, little expecting how all of their lives will intertwine - and just how closely connected he and she really are.

Max Schreck? Power-draining power plants? Rocket-launching penguins? I think it was about here that Bob Kane took the money and hightailed it to Tahiti; there sure ain't no recognizable story lines or carry-overs from any of the comics/graphic novels here. At least not for me, who actually went back and checked the graphic novels and comics up to 1992 just to make sure. So there, Bat-Geeks. Help me out here, though. These weren't recurring characters. Right???

What Daniel Waters and Samm Hamm (Hamm being a carry-over from the last movie) have done here is, from the looks of it, concocted something from bits and pieces of assorted notes scribbled on napkins, Post-Its and the backs of paper place mats from Denny's as they tried to imagine something closer to a graphic novel sensibility without actually having read any themselves.

This isn't even a story; this is an emo kid's wet dream. This is fan fiction for people who like to sit in dark rooms for hours on end. This is a nightmare at the clown factory.

...and speaking of clowns, did we really need The Circus Gang as part of the story to add anything more than some interesting visuals to the proceedings? As admittedly bizarre as it was to see gun-toting clowns tear out of a gigantic Christmas box or an evil organ grinder (Vincent Schiavelli!) mow down everything in sight with his bullet-spewing hurdy-gurdy or acrobatic baddies back flip and cartwheel all over the place while committing assorted mayhem, this is more akin to seeing what Sin City would have looked like under the direction of Federico Fellini.

(SIDE NOTE: there is one of the Circus Gang members known as Knifethrower Dame, who is played by female bodybuilder Erika Andersch. who is a dominantly beautiful and sleekly strong lady with a gaze so penetrating that it would melt steel. Not only does Burton choose to cover up that supple body of hers save for her ankles but also keeps her face perpetually in the shadows - so we cannot even see her when she IS on screen! If you're going to cast such a gorgeous creature in your film, why not use all of her assets? That's all I'm saying....)

While we're on the subject, what about Tim Burton? The last movie was apparently full more of studio decisions and casting conceits than any of Burton's craft. Oh, there was vivid imagery to spare, but nothing that reminded anyone of the wild sights in Pee-Wee's Big Adventure or BeetleJuice. So it would only stand to reason that, if the suits wanted to keep Burton as a director for the follow-up, they would have to listen to what he suggested and let him direct with his usual flourish and style. Thing is, Burton seems to be in a funk here and, aside from such directorial flashes as the obvious set-bound Gotham we see and a graveyard where The Penguin nearly knocks over a tombstone with his coat, all we notice about this particular vision of Burton's is how the dominant color-scheme is gray.

Black and gray. Even the snow isn't white. The color palate isn't so much muted as it is the contrast and brightness knobs turned down.

There's also an awful lot of darkness in the film itself, too. Not just the look of it but the tone: everyone has a mean streak in this film - Schreck berates and belittles anyone who comes into his field of vision, Penguin verbally molests any who dare look at him the wrong way, Catwoman verbally castrates two night security guards before bombing a department store - even Batman is seen as a tad sadistic here, torching one fire-breathing clown during an initial attack, and apparently taking delight in blowing up one evil clown by stuffing a time bomb down his pants!

I'm not against black humor myself, but when you combine it with the dark look of the surroundings here, all you feel is that these were based on the drawings scribbled around the corner of the notebook of that weird kid in the back of the classroom who always wears a hoodie, you never see his eyes and listens to My Chemical Romance all the time. That kid.

A word about the acting. If Keaton seemed to be more subdued than Jack Nicholson's Joker in 1989's Batman, that was to be expected. We're talking about Jack Nicholson, after all! Now without that kind of yoke to work against, Keaton still plays the title hero and alter ego Bruce Wayne with about equal aplomb. Noble glances off in the distance, narrow eyes to suggest inner torment and a subdued speech pattern that makes it seem like he's whispering most of the time. In other words, Michael Keaton is more of a cypher here than he was the first time out. At least he yelled a couple of times in 1989.

His co-stars are...well, let's just say that it seems in the casting office's desire to outdo such an ace actor as Nicholson in the villain part last time out, they decided what could be better than THREE villains to play off of?

DeVito first. He plays his Penguin as such a nasty pathetic beast with a few perverted tendencies when confronted with anything that has a female form, he can barely be considered a villain. In fact, he has more of a series of psychological hang-ups than The Joker did, and any followers of the Gotham City universe know that simply cannot be. And worse yet, DeVito is hidden under so much makeup and layers of prosthetic facial appliances that he can barely register a facial expression. A glower here, a grimace there, a kinda-sorta grin - too bad, especially from someone I KNOW has some of the best expressions in the world. Just watch Throw Momma From The Train for proof of that.

Michelle Pfeiffer - you know I love her. She's not only a top-notch actress and gorgeous to boot but can hold her own in action scenes, too. In fact, watch her scene as she transforms into Catwoman and ransacks her apartment. Look at her eyes, the multitude of frenetic looks that touch her face one after another. The psyche that hides under her Selina Kyle demeanor and her eyeglasses - it all demands a movie in and of itself (NOT one with Halle Berry, thanks anyway) and there are a couple of scenes with Selina and Bruce that succeed because of the undercurrent of her vocal inflections as she speaks to him. She's good, but just not good enough.

As far as Christopher Walken goes, he has proven he can pretty much get away with murder in any movie he's been in, especially when he plays the baddie. This has been put to the test before (A View To A Kill) and after (Kangaroo Jack) Batman Returns, but never before has a movie felt the need to hide such a wonderfully expressive man as he under fright wigs and heavy coats. He gets some wonderful speeches (as is par for the course for Christopher Walken) and a couple of tics sneak past the camera to let you know he's still Christopher Walken, but it still seems like he's too restrained. True, not as restrained as in A View To A Kill, but restrained.

There are token appearances from Michael Gough (Alfred) and Pat Hingle (Commissioner Gordon), who contribute very little other than token appearances, but we're also bereft of an appearance from Robert Wuhl or Billy Dee Williams; as scant and fleeting as their contributions were, at least they would have added enough presence in the darkness here to raise a smile of recognition.

Few to no smiles are to be found in Batman Returns and, in spite of the time of the season, no cheer - Christmas or otherwise. There is a lot of action this time around but it's to an empty service. What good does fighting against evil do if it bears no difference from the good that supposed to conquer it?

Look at how much I'm talking down Batman Returns, and then trying to analyze the whole enterprise is more akin to a psych eval as to what one looks for when it comes to superheroes. Remember in my Batman review when I mentioned about how our favorite superheroes reflects how we see ourselves? I have to wonder what Tim Burton et al thought of themselves during the making of this little beauty? Certainly sweetness and light were the last things on their minds, I'm sure.

Now don't get me wrong in all of this: I was a fan of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and they were far grittier and dug down into the dark, conflicted guts of the Caped Crusader with more aplomb than the two Bats entries I've reviewed thus far. Maybe it's about attitude. Maybe it's about style. Maybe if we combined the dark humor of Batman Returns with the flashy studio-mandated conceits of Batman we'd have something that could be enjoyed by the same audiences nowadays that look more for a reason why behind their heroes rather than a how or when.

Oops; almost got myself into a metaphysical corner there.

Suffice it to say, Tim Burton's $80 million dollar endeavor earned back over double and kept Bat fans entertained sufficiently. I guess. There's hindsight and all to deal with as well, you know....

This would be Burton's last time behind the Cowled One's camera; he took a production title for the next movie (Batman Forever) and some other things would change, too. As far as the Bat himself goes, he would continue to be a dark, brooding character as well.

Only, perhaps, never again quite as dark as he was here.

It's interesting to note that the last words in this movie are "Peace on Earth, and good will towards men...and women." - that, in a movie like Batman Returns, is the working definition of irony.