Batman Returns

When we remember that some of the biggest cinematic disasters were often the result of a generous budget combined with unbridled ambitions of unrestrained filmmakers, the second part of Batman is in absolutely ideal conjunction to become a tangled madhouse that buries the entire series. What Burton has created is indeed a definition of a tangled madhouse, but the whole thing is shot with such endearingly distracted mania that after a while you forget about the film full of minimax snow and rocking tombstones in a city that is about 100 meters wide but probably three-quarters of a kilometer in height, without liking it. Burton here acts like a child who got a huge LEGO Batman building set, but he plays with it his own made-up crazy stories, in which he does whatever he wants with everyone. Almost a musical theatricality, relying on an agreement with the viewer (50 people symbolize the whole city) and a complete resignation from any rules of reality are indeed against all my principles and values, but I'm too drunk to care (meaning there are battle penguins). (2024-02-09)

If you want to make an adaptation of classic comic books, the biggest problem is how you want to deal with the fact that it was consumable material for the working class, basically commercial junk. They were naive stories with superheroes and villains, who look highly inappropriate in today's setting. Even though the action aspect is great in Nolan's trilogy, it seems out of place with its pathos and serious image. The vast majority of comic book adaptations suffer from schematism and an attempt to please the teenage audience. They try to impress, and they rely on effects. Burton's Batman is playful, visually polished, has a unique style and unmistakable poetics, and it is original and perfected to the last detail. Most comic movies have a problem with overkill, whereas this Batman is irresistibly ironic, evidently not taking itself too seriously. I don't think it's just the best Batman film, but also one of the best comic movies overall. Overall impression: 90%. (2019-02-24)

Together with the first two parts of Nolan’s trilogy, this is the best cinematic Batman. Burton’s visual style works better than in the previous one – probably it’s really fitting for the Christmas period, Burton has always been good at finding moral filth and darkness behind a snowy facade. DeVito is great as The Penguin, delivering a solid balance between caricature and a real threat hiding in the sewers and wearing bizarre costumes, and the story also has room for another (semi-)antagonist, the splendid Catwoman (with the magical face of the most beautiful actress of her generation). Batman is only one part of a balanced triangle of characters, he only reacts to the actions of the other two (and it’s the only one with pure intentions). The character of Christopher Walken is also important and brilliant, he’s the one who brings everyone together. The final confrontation was bit a silly and the drama is not very effective, but everything is compensated by the clever relationship structure and an inimitably morbid comic-book style accompanied by Elfman’s music score, a joy to watch. 85% (2020-12-21)

A Batman movie? Only this one. That’s because a celebration of fascist aesthetics, cut with art deco perfection, is a union of love. This is refined filmmaking with an admiration for the perfection of sculpture. This is the story of Catwoman and The Penguin. In the early 1990s, Hollywood was refreshed by a very interesting wave that drew inspiration from the 1930s, and as kindly as the remakes were with their return to the roots of Universal's classic monsters, Burton's team understood where to get the true delights. If they needed something comic for the decadent world of New Expressionism, they chose the Ice Queen, inspired by 1940s clowns such as Betty Grable. They clearly defined the beginning of bad taste and the end of goodness. I love Michelle Pfeiffer for her ambivalent Selina and Danny De Vito for the bird-like Oswald. Michael Keaton definitely entertained here more than he did in the first film. If you have a soft spot for Batman Returns, feel free to pick up the 2 DVD release. (2009-02-03)

I like Tim Burton, but he should never touch comic books again. Besides, he didn't choose very good actors. Michael Keaton annoyed me from the beginning, Danny DeVito's Penguin is not a villain, but a desperately bizarre character, and Michelle Pfeiffer is a rather discouraging example of how to ruin the cult character of the series with Catwoman. And even though Danny Elfman's music is great and saves the atmosphere and to some extent the whole movie, this combination doesn't fit me at all. Depression and grotesqueness in a redrawn gothic setting do not equal a quality spectacle for me. I would rather watch the overacting duo of Jim Carrey-Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever. (2007-03-25)