BATMAN RETURNS - a review by J. Marty
Every summer, Hollywood makes like the Millennium Falcon and goes into hyperdrive. Movies of the sci fi/fantasy/action genre come through the pike in droves. Inevitably (and unfortunately), one of these movies is almost certainly what I like to call an "Achilles" movie. Everyone with a high school diploma knows who Achilles was. In Homer's "Iliad," he was the Greek warrior who was indestructible except for his heel. Though formidable, he could be downed as soon as someone exploited his weak spot (the proverbial heel). Tim Burton's BATMAN RETURNS is a great movie that just happens to have multiple Achilles' heels. I saw this movie in the theater with my family on Friday, July 10, 1992. I was eleven years old, and the movie just blew me away. It was one of the most spectacular experiences I had ever had. I didn't know at the time that the movie version contrasted sharply with the DC Comics slant on Batman, and I didn't care. I thought the movie was so much fun that I was drawing cartoons of the movie's characters and quoting the lines months after the movie left theaters. Now, eight years later, my view of this masterpiece has changed. It is still extraordinary good. But, as befits an "Achilles" movie, it has many minor flaws that, taken collectively, tarnish the film's luster considerably. Let's break this movie down:
PLOT (spoiler-free): This movie takes place at Christmastime (which is bizarre, considering that it was released at the height of the summer solstice). Unlike in the Bruce Willis movie DIE HARD, however, Christmas actually plays an important role in RETURNS. Batman (Michael Keaton) is back, and this time he's gotta contend with three menacing foes: The Penguin (Danny DeVito), an aquatic bird-man who wants to be the mayor of Gotham City (that'll be the day); Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer), a whip-cracking vigilante who is Batman's first major female opponent; and Max Shreck (the excellent Christopher Walken), a smarmy industrialist whose 18-century hairdo makes him look just like the James Bond villain from A VIEW TO A KILL (whom Walken also played; keep branching out, Chris). Good ol' Max, currently enjoying his status as "Gotham's own Santa Claus," plots to use his influence to get The Penguin elected mayor. Once that is accomplished, Shreck will make the helpless populace of Gotham bow before him by...no, I can't spoil it for you. It's just too campy and hilarious! Let's just say it's something similar to what Montgomery Burns (Homer's boss on "The Simpsons" would do). Meanwhile, Catwoman has a vendetta against Shreck because he...nope, once again you'll just have to find out by watching the movie. So she sets out to ruin him, only to have Batman on her tail. So she pays a visit to The Penguin and his nefarious Red Triangle Circus Gang (yeah, I know, it sounds cheesy, but wait 'til you see these guys!) and now The Penguin has to juggle his two agendas: getting elected and getting Batman framed for murder (and then murdered himself). The entire plot is now in place, and the rest of the movie is filled with a tangled labyrinth of loyalties and betrayals that most people under the age of 12 won't be able to understand (though the subplots do keep the narrative interesting!). No doubt about it, the plot of RETURNS is intriguing. Unfortunately, it is burdened by too many anomalies and flaws in logic. (Now we'll get to a few of the "heels" I was talking about) How could anyone, after being a recluse for three decades, become a seasoned politician after "rescuing" a baby and hooking up with some rich twit? How come the villain's henchmen always know where he is going to be, even when he doesn't tell them? And why, at the movie's climax, does The Penguin nearly drown and then magically arise from the water a few minutes later? (He must've been holding his breath really long.) Another problem with the plot is that it's much too complex, what with the entire cast of characters fighting amongst themselves to see who can steal the movie. Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne almost become bit players in their own movie as a cat, a bird, and an old man with white hair all upstage him. A little more digging around inside Batman's head would have improved RETURNS considerably. Unfortunately, Keaton just plays the character as a mindless, Rambo-style action Jackson who lashes out at the bad guys mercilessly. He even kills some of the members of the aforementioned circus gang along the way. This is a hero? Burton desperately tries to soften up the Caped Crusader toward the end, but it's a lukewarm effort. Batman ultimately seems to be only a little more moral than the villains - which brings us to...
CHARACTERS: Danny DeVito, why did you do it? Say it ain't so! Oh wait, I can't blame you; I can only blame the filmmakers who shoehorned you into this role. Burton and his team took the wonderful character of The Penguin and perverted him, changing him from a suave, handsome schemer into Jabba the Hutt in a tuxedo. DeVito appears in whiteface and black lipstick, with seal-like flippers for hands and a gut that is so large it's surprising he doesn't have a coronary. Plus, our dastardly villain has a penchant for drooling, eating raw fish, biting people in the face, and making off-color jokes. It's horrible! Burton apparently didn't take into account the simple fact that a good villain isn't just evil; he has to be appealing to the audience. Besides, I think it was a mistake to cast DeVito simply because of his short frame and girth. Many other great actors (Marlon Brando, for instance) could have played The Penguin with just the right mixture of savagery and gloomy introspection, nailing the frightening yet sympathetic performance DeVito was obviously aiming for. In all fairness, DeVito's Penguin is delightfully witty and over-the-top at moments - a pale shadow of Burgess Meredith's take on the character. I cannot say enough good things about Michelle's Catwoman performance, however. Easily the best player in the movie, she takes on a multifaceted character eagerly and ultimately succeeds. Anger, sadness, humor, sex appeal, raw physical power - you'll find all that and more in Pfeiffer's take on the movie's only major female character. Yet the characterization gets murky at times. You begin to wonder what actually drives Catwoman. Is she really out for revenge, or does she just enjoy being bad? And, like Batman, Catwoman is not a killer. (Watch the movie's end to see what I mean.) And did we really need to see her drinking milk straight from the carton or eating a live canary (a stunt obviously inspired by The Penguin's taste for raw fish)? Overall, though, she comes out on top and is the second-best Bat-villain of all (Jack Nicholson's Joker being number one, of course). Finally, we have the Shreckmeister. He's a great character, a stock villain for the audience to boo and hiss at. Unfortunately, he comes to dominate the movie a little too much. And that's not good, because for all his posturing he really isn't meaty enough to be the main bad guy. He's kind of pathetic, too. He gets kidnapped by The Penguin (twice!) and roughed up by both The Bat and The Cat. Interestingly, in the first draft of the movie's script he was supposed to be The Penguin's long-lost brother; that's a fascinating concept and it should have been played up in the shooting script. Not only would it have given Walken a "raison d'etre" for being in the film, but it would have also fleshed out Max Shreck and made him less of a stereotype. Still, Walken is tons of fun to watch. The rest of the cast is pretty much filler. Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Gough), Bruce Wayne's amiable butler and a welcome bringer of light to all the chaos in Gotham, sadly gets little screen time. Commissioner James Gordon (Pat Hingle) continues to be the bumbling old fossil he was in the 1989 film. Cristi Conaway plays a girl who dies because of Batman's incompetence, while Paul Reubens and Diane Salinger are The Penguin's heartless parents. I must admit I had a blast watching the antics of the Red Triangle Gang, though! Vincent Schiavelli, John Strong, Rick Zumwalt, Travis McKenna, and other talented performers (some of them real-life circus people) add a wickedly funny dimension to the movie with their freakish costumes and in-your-face attitudes. The scene where they surprise a crowd of Gothamites by boisterously leaping out of a giant Christmas present is simply priceless, and will have you laughing and quaking with fear at the same time.
OTHER STUFF: There were a lot of things in this movie I liked. The music was stirring and exhilirating thanks to the master composer Danny Elfman. The sets were impressive (wait 'til you see the smiling cat head!) and the special effects were much better than in the 1989 original. The costumes were likewise a joy to behold. Batman is a true dark angel in his black armor, and Catwoman's costume is simultaneously beautiful and dangerous. The Penguin sports his familiar top hat and monocle, though in many scenes he opts for a rather subdued look that didn't do anything for me. And, just as in the original, Burton fiddles around with the space-time continuum until Gotham City is a mélange of radically different eras, folkways, and sensibilities. In what other movie could you see people in 1940s fashions using computers and CD-ROMs?
FINAL THOUGHTS: I still enjoy BATMAN RETURNS as much as I did on that magical day in July. I've only seen it a few times since then, but a lot of the glamor and imagery remains ingrained in my consciousness. Sadly, though, I really can't give the same glowing evaluation of it now as I did when I was younger. It's a splendid work of art, but, like Achilles, a few heels keep it from being outstanding. Still, it is an exciting action/adventure movie in its own right and even tops its 1989 predecessor at some points. Can't wait to see it again!
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