Batman Returns
Tim Burtonâs 1989 Batman was a long overdue shot in the arm for the Hollywood Comic Book Film (coming as it did after the Reeve Superman Series had long since played itself out), galvanizing the industry to slowly but surely get to the point where such movies are now cranked out with startling regularity to this day with all The Avengers films and their spinoffs, but yet Burton did what he did in such a simple yet effective way, highlighting primarily the vendetta between Michael Keatonâs Batman and Nicholsonâs Joker in such a way that almost all other characters (including Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent) were relegated to a sideline role so that Burton could focus on his two freakish main characters doing battle both psychologically and physically. Huge box office numbers would mean that Burton would be brought in to do it again, only this time with near total creative control of both the story and visuals. What was strange though, was that this time Burton envisioned a three way struggle of hatred and betrayal, but yet none of the three principles involved in this would actually be Keatonâs Batman, even as he received $11 million dollars to reprise his role and was even top billed here (unlike the first where Nicholson was), as it turns out instead that The Caped Crusader and / or Bruce Wayne would now be placed in a position where each of his nearly separate interactions with the other three main players would turn out to be crucial to the outcome of the plot. As far as whom from the legendary stable of Gotham City villains would get to go out there, Burton rather surprisingly (or unsurprisingly some would say) wound up choosing The Penguin, long considered for years to be a B (or even C) level villain in the comic books, until the 60s TV series cast Burgess Meredith in the part with all of his cackling, insane glory, and it was literally Meredith alone who (along with Frank Gorshin as Riddler) elevated the character into the higher and better known ranks of The Batman Roguesâ Gallery, a seemingly wealthy in his own right yet undersized crime boss who has an obsession with both birds and umbrellas as his motifs, always wearing a tuxedo and monocle. Still even then, there wasnât really THAT much to work with, so Burton boldly reimagined the character as an outright physical (and animalistic) freak of nature, born to rich parents who quickly realized even as a baby that he was a horrific monster and proceeded to toss him into the sewers, where he grows up to run his own criminal gang consisting of (asshole) circus type performers who are more content to cause violence and mayhem as opposed to carrying out planned robberies or anything of that ilk (and are led into battle by Vincent Schiavelliâs awesomely cool but underused Organ Grinder). Itâs also implied that he is a child murderer, with his ultimate master plan being to kidnap and murder all of Gothamâs first born sons apparently for all being born more ânormalâ than he was. Playing this most unsavory role we get Danny DeVito (who would have been perfectly serviceable in the âclassicâ version of the character) and this major Hollywood power player perhaps goes a little too far in sinking his teeth into the performance, playing the part in an abrasive, ghoulish manner all while dribbling black goo and replacing Nicholsonâs random insanity with an equally repulsive sexual libido which includes making tasteless puns about attractive women that he could never really get, and if thereâs one flaw in the movie, it is perhaps that DeVito and his fatsuit that he wobbles around in get a little too much screentime and development at the expense of both Batman and the other major players, most notably Michelle Pfeiffer giving the performance of her career as Catwoman, with her Selina Kyle being a meek, put-upon, and harassed secretary whom after surviving a murder attempt, is ârevivedâ by a horde of street cats (the scriptâs one hint at alluding to a possibly supernatural explanation for her abilities), and partially out of shame for allowing herself to be stepped on her whole life, suffers a complete psychotic break and becomes Catwoman, starting off as a pseudo crimefighter herself and then setting out to take down Batman along with any other MAN that tries to keep her down, and Pfeifferâs tragically mentally lost, powerhouse turn as she meets up with the billionaire Bruce Wayne and feels the instant connection with him as being someone else who also lives a dual life is pretty potent stuff, causing Wayne to feel that he has found that one in a million girl who is as mentally tortured as he is (keeping in mind that the secret of Keatonâs success playing Wayne / Batman was exactly that of being the edgy, borderline psychotic himself whose nocturnal activities were the result of him acting out his own grief over his parentsâ murder), even pondering the notion of giving up being Batman if he could stay with and take care of this one of a kind special girl. But Selina has other plans, in particular for her sleazy, murderous, billionaire boss played by Christopher Walken, whose Max Shreck is the oddest part of all, a character that was NEVER in the comics (although in the first draft of the script he was originally intended to be Dent), but who is portrayed as being the ultimate rich man behind the scenes who REALLY runs Gotham, including using his own power and wealth to shield Penguinâs criminal activities from the public while manipulating the media to build him up as a sad, âheroicâ figure so that he might run for Mayor and thus consolidate Shreckâs power in the city with his own ready made puppet in office. The fact that Walken seems to get an inordinate amount of screen time (and the fact that many would consider him to actually be the most âevilâ of the three main villains since he is the rich, powerful billionaire that âalways gets away with itâ) still belies the irony that his character is like a breath of fresh air to the whole mythos, especially when the three way dynamic gets even more intriguing when BOTH Penguin and Catwoman vow to get revenge on him, leaving Batman to now try and stem the rising chaos from the situation that results. Burtonâs taste for gothic like production design and depressingly moody atmosphere is at its absolute richest here, making his Gotham City into its entire own world while at the same time presenting a rather bleak, violent story that in the end basically killed any chance for him to do a third film (which also led to Keaton dropping out to be rather poorly replaced by Kilmer and original plans for Robin Williams to play The Riddler in Batman Forever to go south), but the daring vision shown here would still be eons ahead of anything Joel Schumacher could ever muster or even Chris Nolan with his more reality based take on the franchise. Other contributors include Danny Elfmanâs nearly pitch perfect score completely evoking the proper mood of the piece, Michael Gough again doing wonderful, understated work as Alfred, and an amazing, nearly mindbogglingly huge army of penguins armed with weapons when DeVito decides to invoke his ultimate solution of how to deal with Gotham. It all makes for a fantastically original and dark near masterpiece that shows the extent of Keatonâs two successful outings as The Dark Knight: the first being perhaps the single greatest comic book movie of all time, and the second being maybe the absolute purest, most undistilled, most definitive version of what one could call a âTim Burton Movieâ for all of cinema historyâŚ
9/10