In the first “Batman,” the dark knight is described and thought of as something of an urban legend. He hides in the shadows, is mistaken for something of a myth, and only arrives to instill justice when the police are outnumbered. In “Batman Returns” Batman is basically the police. You assume for a massive political event in the first twenty minutes of the film, there’d be barricades and strong police force, but Penguin is able to pretty much wreak havoc with the Red Triangle gang, while the streets are left in tatters with no police around. Only does the order get restored when Batman arrives and Commissioner Gordon is left to thank Batman for saving the day while the police are seemingly sitting with their thumbs up their collective butts.
For a movie about a city under peril, Burton features the most incompetent understaffed police force in cinematic history, and “Batman Returns” takes one step further in demystifying the legend of Batman. This time Tim Burton ups the ante by providing Batman with three villains, all of whom are on film to take away screen time from Batman effectively. As was evident in the first film and is made more apparent in the sequel, Burton and his writers have no idea how to portray Bruce Wayne’s life, nor do they understand or want to depict Batman as a character who can stop the lunatics that hide in the darkness. Tim Burton is in love with his villainous trio that wreak havoc on Gotham city from the inside and out. The film begins with the introduction of the Penguin, we then meet Selina Kyle, we focus on evil politician Max Shreck, and zero in again on Penguin.
Only after Burton has established his villains and their back stories, does he opt for Batman’s entrance and it’s uninspiring. When we first see Bruce in “Batman Returns” he’s just sitting at his desk in the darkness looking off in to space until he’s blasted with the Bat symbol (with various spotlights surrounding his house that no one ever questions). Never a more sharp gesture of the inability to give Bruce something to do than merely having him sit around for no apparent reason. As is mentioned above, Batman basically does the work for the police while Commissioner Gordon chases after him blubbering about his heroism, and most of the officers who work for Gotham are hopelessly inept. Batman mainly plays fourth fiddle in his own film, looming in the shadows and hopelessly falling prey to a plot against him, as the villains take center stage here.
Penguin is this time a twisted mutant and transformed in to a Burton creation so tailored to Burton’s sensibilities I’m surprised he isn’t trademarked. The Penguin is merely just a copy of Burton’s Jimmy the Hideous Penguin Boy, a deformed formless penguin mutant and it shows. Along the way Penguin’s journey is muddled and not very interesting at all. He wants revenge on humanity because his parents abandoned him. I think. And then that is completely derailed in favor of a political plot from Max Shreck to turn Penguin in to the mayor to allow him a chance to build a power plant. I think. It’s all so crisscrossed and convoluted at times. Meanwhile Penguin’s own resources become very questionable. I could never understand why he’d lead the Red Triangle gang when they seemed better suited for the Joker, and I never figured out how he garnered so much explosives and machinery.
And in an age before the internet, where did he get the plans for the Batmobile? Selina Kyle is also transformed in to a Burton creation for better or for worse as an S&M zombie draped in black leather who is murdered by Shreck and brought to life by cats because–well, just because. She also gets some kick ass martial arts abilities to boot. Who knew cats understood the arts of self-defense? To her credit, Michelle Pfeiffer seems to have a blast as this perpetually aroused psycho who doesn’t mind serving as an anti-hero for most of the film, and Pfeiffer is incredible as this new Catwoman. She steals most of the film away from every character on-screen and sadly, her journey for revenge and justice is more compelling than Bruce’s own.
Burton never seems to understand if he himself is taking the material seriously or not. He depicts Penguin as a deformed monster one moment but finds him lusting after fish the next. He shows Batman as a dark crusader, but in one scene shows us that Bruce apparently has an entire closet filled with many identical Batman suits on hangers along with identical boots. Har har? And whenever Selina is about to die, she always manages to fall in to some cat contraption that’s meant to be quirky, I’m assuming. In either case, “Batman Returns” watches much better than the first film and there’s plenty of interaction between Batman and his villains this time around.
The sub-plot between Bruce and Selina is engrossing and I cared about their tragic romance that would inevitably end in tragedy and bloodshed. “Batman Returns” is a step up from “Batman” but not by much, unfortunately. Once again Tim Burton doesn’t seem interested in featuring Batman for the majority of his whole film and cuts through the problem by supplying Batman with three villains, all of whom take of the running time with their own journeys and back stories while the Dark Knight is mainly a spectator. However, the film succeeds in entertainment value and Michelle Pfeiffer gets credit for introducing me to puberty, so it’s still a film worth re-visiting.