This review/retrospective is going to be me talking about Batman Returns starring Michael Keaton as Batman, there will be spoilers but it’s a 21 year old film so if you haven’t already watched it you probably won’t, unless I interest you but I doubt it. I watched this when I was a kid and really liked it, probably my favourite Batman film; so when I was looking through the Blockbuster closing down sale for games I came across this and thought I’d see if it stood me to me watching it as an adult, because (god forgive me) I liked Batman and Robin when I was young, god I was wrong. But this was directed by Tim Burton and starred Michael Keaton who was amazing in the 1989 Batman. I was a bit disappointed afterwards though and I think a lot of that has to do with the ending. I enjoyed the main story even though I probably shouldn't it’s cheesy and the penguin is disgusting but I’ll get to that in a minute. The story was pretty much standard for a Batman film, you've got the main villain a secondary villain and a love interest that for some reason doesn't work out in the end, and somebody always ends up finding out that Batman is Bruce Wayne.
In this case we have Catwoman, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer as the secondary villain and the love interest. The Catwoman/Batman is always awesome if done right and was one of the good things about the Dark Knight Rises in my opinion. And this movie is no different, as in it is good the two could not be more different. Hathaway is a strong woman who steals as a way to get by but doesn't want to, more like Robin Hood. Pfeiffer, on the other hand, is rooted well and truly in the 1990s. She’s a vulnerable woman that is pushed too far by her male boss and transforms overnight into a gymnast, martial artist, whip expert, but in reality all she really needs is a man like Bruce Wayne to make her vulnerable again. This pseudo strong woman was stereotypical of the 90s so I won’t judge too harshly. The good aspect of this character is between Max Shreck, played by Christopher Walken, and Bruce Wayne she is strong and plays on the male expectations of her being weak and you do get the image of her being deranged and pushed too far. Maybe it’s just because I like the Catwoman character in general but she is one of my favourite characters in the movie.
Now we get to Penguin the main
villain. Danny DeVito does a good job of playing the Penguin but the character
is disgusting; eating raw fish, biting a man’s nose, being a pervert towards
every woman he comes across and constantly has something drooling from his
mouth. Penguin’s counterpart, Max Shreck delivers a boring performance and I
found myself not listening to his monotone dialogue. He’s more of a side
character and barely warrants a mention apart from he pushes Catwoman over the
edge, literally and figuratively, and he attempts to use Penguin as his pawn
and is too stupid to realize that Penguin really is in control.
Michael Keaton delivers a good
performance as Batman as well as a solid performance as Bruce Wayne, although
Bruce Wayne barely gets any screen time and hardly and dialogue, in fact most
of the dialogue is from Max’s monotone. However, this plays to the movies
credit as it shrouds Batman in more mystery. One of the only negatives of the
Dark Knight Series is we seem to know everything about Batman and everything is
discussed so Batman becomes less powerful.
Apart from the main characters none
are really of mention, Michael Gough as Alfred is good but the mayor remains
unnamed and has about 2 minutes of screen time, Commissioner Gordon gets the
same treatment, we barely see him. The “Ice Princess” is your typical damsel in
distress and Chip Shreck gets 1 or 2 lines.
My main gripe with this movie is
the story. For the most part it is okay, it is typical of the Batman series so it is relatively predictable but still enjoyable. The main problems I have is with the ending. One of the most important aspects of
Batman is his refusal to kill, however in this movie he blows up Penguins
“home” with him inside, and then moments later lectures Catwoman for wanting to
kill Max. The biggest “jumping the shark” moment is after this where Catwoman attempts
to commit suicide and kill Max by electrocuting them both. We see Max’s charred
remains (boring character with no redeeming qualities so no loss really) but
the twist is that Catwoman survives. Somehow. If anybody has an explanation
please tweet me (@AzizTalks). And that’s not mentioning Max shooting Catwoman 4
times, and not once aiming for the head or chest, it was like he was
temporarily possessed by a stormtrooper.
That’s my say on the film. I’d
give it 3/5, it’s not technically a good movie and some of the humour is good
and the development of Catwoman is good, but Batman gets barely any development
from the first film. I still can’t say that I didn't enjoy it and now I have it
on DVD I will definitely watch it again, maybe I just love Batman and I’m blind
to it. Let me know what you thought of
the film and my opinions on it via twitter (again its @AzizTalks) or comments.
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