BATMAN RETURNS
A film review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Tim Burton Writer: Daniel Walters Starring: Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, Christopher Walken, Michael Gough, Michael Murphy, Pat Hingle, Vincent Schiavelli, Paul Reubens
"Batman Returns" is probably one of the most ballsiest moves in Hollywood history: They took a formula that was dark but very light and made the film intensely dark and brooding. But of course, you have at your realm the bizarre Tim Burton who does one thing Hollywood's way then turns around and does what you're not supposed to do. For example: he made the brilliant "Ed Wood" and turned around and made an Ed Wood film, "Mars Attacks!" While this was probably his only mistake, it's still not a bad film and perfectly exercises what Tim's all about - being unique.
This is what he goes for with his sequel for the schweppervescent "Batman" from 1989 - a film where all the villains are sympathetic to some degree. The Joker wasn't a sympathetic character - just a wildly fun villain to root for. His villains are all reclusive, misunderstood people, some who do the wrong thing for a good cause. Bruce Wayne (Micheal Keaton, again) has apparently lost Vicki (maybe why he's brooding again) but he falls deeply in love with a girl, Selena Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer), who works for an evil industrialist, Max Schreck (Christopher Walken). Little does he know that Selena found out about Max's evil plans to do something bad and selfish with electricity and he threw her out of a window. She was a cat lover and becomes a catwoman after all these cats bite her wounds (I don't get it either). She has nine lives, is a tad insane now and constructs a tight leather costume for herself and carries a whip when she goes out at night to destroy Max Shreck and beat up thugs. But her real persona is in love with Bruce. But little does she know, he's Batman. This is the most intriguing subplot in any of the Batmans and is handled magnificently.
Meanwhile, the Penguin (Danny DeVito), a deformed man who was thrown into the sewers by his priggish parents (one of them being Paul Reubens) when he was an infant, has decided to rise and woo everyone so he can go into office and help Max Schreck do his dastardly deeds. He's seen as a sympathetic character because he's so reclusive and utterly ugly. He has legions of penguins and circus freaks at his side too, so he can war against Batman.
Tim Burton carefully constructs the story and adds his great psychological depth to the film. The fight scenes between Catwoman and Batman have whole new dimensions because we know that they will be fooling around as Selena and Bruce on a couch later on. When they find out, it's one of the most intense scenes in recent action hero history, as they are dancing with one another. And the action sequences are amazing to watch, although not as cool as the first one.
The acting is basically stolen by Michelle Pfeiffer. Yes, Michael Keaton rocks once again as Batman, and Danny DeVito is a great Penguin and Christopher Walken is at first laughable with his Eraserhead hair, but he also rules. But Michelle is just amazing. Every move is unpredictable, every line is said perfectly and she makes her character so seductive, she could make Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy look like Mr. Freeze. Her performance ranks up there with Jack Nicholson's in the first one.
This sequel dares to be different, dares to be dark and depressing and still has some of the great wit of the original. It also dares to have sympathetic characters and ends with one of them still lurking around (hopefully to be brought back). I highly reccomend this one for being fun and still very deep.
MY RATING (out of 5): ****1/2
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