Back when I first saw Batman Returns, I was disappointed. I remember feeling like this story wasn’t as well paced. The sense of surprise was lessened. The action wasn’t as remarkable. Of course, my impression of the movie has changed, especially when I compare it to the first Batman.
I think that last time I saw this, I was more impressed. I liked how manic things seemed. The fantastic costumes, the holiday aspect combined with the gothic mayhem. It was impressive. I think I’ve reached a happy medium with this one.
It’s a supremely uneven movie. It takes characteristics of the first Batman, and stretches those ideas further in both directions. I reached this conclusion late in this viewing, like in the last 15 minutes or so. I was focused on some of the script elements, and how I would have a difficult time writing something like this.
(Side explanation. I was thinking of a scene where the Penguin appears on the surface, having “rescued” a baby from an acrobatic criminal clown. The clown grabs the baby, and flips down into an open manhole. Even though this scene is a set-up, I find this really difficult to believe. Not the flipping around, even if he’s carrying a baby. What I find hard to believe is the idea that people would be crowded around an open manhole. The escape route into an open manhole is just too difficult for me to fathom writing something like that.)
I realized that this movie has a wide range of very comic-book moments. The Penguin’s gang bringing out a massive present, and all of the gang exploding out of it? The entire army of penguins? The car that Penguin uses to control the Batmobile? It’s campy, almost like the Adam West Batman, but it has a layer of grime on all of these elements, which helps to identify it as Tim Burton’s work.
The other direction is also pulled in. The darkness of the movie gets a bit darker. The Penguin is much more grotesque than the Joker was in the first one. Not just by virtue of being an uglier character, but his plan seems much more evil. The inky stuff pouring from his mouth is a fantastic touch. The style of fat that they made him is remarkable; he’s a very lumpy type of fat, which is much less endearing than the Burgess Meredith-type of rotund design.
There’s a higher body count. Batman does kill people, but he does it with a type of detachment that makes it easy to ignore that he’s doing it.
The plot is more tricky to follow than most kids would be able to enjoy - Shreck building an unnecessary power plant as part of a scheme to bilk money from Gotham.
The biggest failing that the movie has is a lack of focus on Batman. Keaton does a fine job, but there’s just not that much to work with. Most of the movie is taken up with all of the other characters. Batman isn’t a focus so much, he’s used as a mirror for Penguin and Catwoman, and to a lesser extent, Shreck. It’s a bit of a disappointment that he doesn’t play a bigger part.
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