Batman Returns

BATMAN RETURNS

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: violence, sensuality, thematic elements

Rated:

Tim Burton does most of his movies in the same fantastic gothic style, from the morose, haunted exteriors to the dark underbelly of humanity. Much like Sleepy Hollow and many of his other achievements, Batman Returns is a sadistic, funny, and often entertaining glimpse into how he views the world of the illusive Bruce Wayne, and the crew of mischievous villains pitted against him in a battle for the heart of Gotham.

When a grotesque, disfigured child is born to a pair of snobby upper-crust socialites, the wealthy duo have no choice but to attempt to rid themselves of the scandalous baby. This is accomplished by taping him inside a basket and throwing it into the river, where it seeps down into the sewers. Years later, the malformed boy has grown into a psychotic fiend known as the Penguin (Danny DeVito). Determined to be accepted into society as a normal human being, he takes it upon himself to influence wealthy and corrupt businessman Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) into assisting his rise in power. Without much choice unless he wants to be snack food for the Penguin's group of loyal and attentive circus performers, Max stages and elaborate kidnapping of the mayor's child in order to give Penguin the credit of coming to the rescue.

Max's corruption is evident to no one outside the office, but his emotionally abused secretary Selina (Michelle Pfeiffer) happens to discern a little too much of his business ambitions. Rather than go through the stress of paying her to keep silent, Max simply throws her out an upper story window, little knowing that her empathy with felines will grant her cat-like abilities sufficient enough to provide him with a problem, and draw the attention of Batman (Michael Keaton). Little does Batman's alternate identity know that he's falling in love with the very same coy female by day as he is battling at night. The result is a very dark film with powerful psychological strings attached that is more about the villains than the heroes. Indeed, we don't even see much of Bruce Wayne outside the bat suit.

Burton has done a good job creating an atmosphere that is cool enough to counter the corny plot twists and lines that abound in the script. Walken's diabolical Max storms about in spats with wild white hair. The Penguin is so grotesque and repulsive that you cannot help being fascinated with him. And Catwoman is, well, the cat's meow, with enough purring charm and a slightly wicked side to make her the most memorable character of the litter. As is par for the course in most of these hammy early films, there are a lot of flat jokes and quite a bit of sexual innuendo. Penguin desires Catwoman, who refuses to have anything to do with him, and prefers battling Batman on darkened roofs and seeing how many of her nine lives she can use up in the meantime. She stalks around in black leather with a whip, and trades innuendos with her co-stars.

Selina and Bruce get rather frisky on the couch before each realizing that to go much further would reveal various combat scratches and bruises, so they take a rain check on lovemaking. There is an abundance of violence, from explosions and kidnappings to individuals being stabbed, kicked through windows, flung from rooftops, and smacked around. Penguin spits up black blood just before he dies. Someone is electrocuted, leaving only a smoldering corpse. Gunfire is traded on occasion. I must admit, corny as it was at times, it was also a lot of fun, a flick that you wouldn't go to any great lengths to watch but was enjoyable as long as it played. The premise intrigued me, and the characters were nothing if not complex. I almost wish they would hire Burton to do further prequels.