Batman Returns

February 09, 2007

Batman Returns (1992) Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Christopher Walken. This film is the last Batman to be directed by Tim Burton.

When a corrupt businessman and the grotesque Penguin plot to take control of Gotham City, only Batman can stop them, while the Catwoman has her own agenda.

This was, until Batman Begins (2005) came out, my absolute favorite Batman movie. I still like Batman Returns but Batman Begins has pointed out that there is a still great Batman stories to be told. Batman Returns still has a mythic quality to it. However it looks as if it all takes place inside a sound stage. Probably because it was, but the new Batman feels more real as if the character is now in our world not a comic book come to life.

The film is still fun. I love Keaton as Batman and Keaton as Bruce Wayne. He is in many ways like Sean Connery is to James Bond, the definitive one. He was such a strange choice originally but he has that darkness in his eyes that makes you believe he was that little boy who had his childhood stolen from.

My big problem with the film in hindsight is that it started the two villains a movie gimmick that lead to the down fall of the Batman movies. In this film Burton spun a great tale involving both Catwoman and the Penguin that each Batman film that followed tried to duplicate. Pfeiffer is still incredibly sexy and still so brilliantly disturbed that I believe she really is walking that line between the light and darkness. Devito on the other hand is completely lost in his character, meaning you forget that it is Danny Devito under all that. He really became the Penguin thus totally immersing himself and suspending my disbelief for al time that he is under that hideous nose, this is the true sign of a great actor.

Batman Returns is still classic and the modern day Goldfinger in my opinion.