Batman Returns

Christmas nights will neve be the same in Gotham City.

A couple of years ago (I think) I did a review about Batman Returns, but it wasn't really that good, so I'm giving this great film the review it deserves for good. After the huge Batmania the first Tim Burton entry in the world of the Dark Knight had, it was only natural that Warner Bros. gave Burton the chance of expanding the DC Comics character universe, a universe that soon became Burton's own Batman universe. 

Back in the early 80's the original Batman movie project had a lot to do with the 60's Batman TV show. Producers wanted to update the original series into a movie featuring The Penguin, Catwoman, Two Face and almost every rogue Batman had to deal with, but as Tim Burton got into the project he turned the original idea into shreds and gave us the Batman of a lifetime. However, when Batman Returns came out, critics from all over the world weren't that pleasant anymore. There were purists, and there were Burton fans, and Batman Returns kind of became their battlefield for nonsense idiotic discussions.

Gotta go to work.

I'm really going to try hard not to praise this movie as the ultimate masterpiece my inner self think it is. I've long thought it was my favorite of the four 90's Batman movies (and maybe I even like it more than the Christopher Nolan Batfilms). However, I'm quite aware that Batman Returns has more to do with Tim Burton's own take on the character rather than, being a respectful film that stays true to the comic book. This movie, is Tim Burton's Batman, definitely. However, the sequels Batman Forever & Batman & Robin weren't really that bad, I mean, at least you could have fun with them as they sort of took the character back into the 60's vintage mood Batman had on TV. Of course, Joel Schumacher is quite a different film maker. I believe he's got a pop art vision on his mind all the time, while Tim Burton is always looking for the opposite: darkness within.

The antagonists steal the show.

Even though there are a lot of small flaws in the last aproach Burton had on the DC Comics legendary character, Batman Returns is still a great film, especially if you're a Burton fan, as Batman Returns has just as much in common with The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Edward Scissorhands (1990) as it does with anything else in the Batman universe.

The film begins strongly, with the Cobblepots having a baby. We see their dismay--people walk out of the birthing room with horror on their faces, ready to vomit. Later, they have the baby in a small cage. Finally they take it out for an evening stroll and dump it in the Gotham City River. The baby ends up becoming Batman classic villain The Penguin (played as if it was written for Danny DeVito himself).

Meanwhile, Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) is the film's "evil capitalist", comparable to Grissom (Jack Palance) in Batman. He is planning on duping Gotham City in various ways, and we see him emotionally abusing his secretary, the timid Selina Kyle (Michelle Pfeiffer). When Kyle discovers one of the nefarious plots, Grissom tries to get rid of her, but she is rescued by cats, becoming Catwoman. It is important to say that most of the comic book films based upon Batman, do hold strong criticism towards the way our society constantly behaves. Max Shreck does exist in our dayliving, and plots like becoming a monopoly and exploiting your workers are nothing but the ugly truth, a thing to keep in mind my friends.

Why doesn't Bill Gates become Batman in real life?

While all of this is going on, The Penguin, who has long been only rumored to exist and who is thought to be dangerous, begins a scheme to be presented to the public as a good guy, despite having less than benevolent, ulterior motives...

Before re-watching Burton's Batman films this time, I didn't remember just how little the films are about Batman (Michael Keaton). It's almost as if Burton didn't feel the character was interesting enough to focus on. The focus here is much more on the villains, especially The Penguin. Batman doesn't appear very often, especially in the beginning of the film, and surprisingly often, we're watching him watching The Penguin.

Although some viewers necessarily count the above as a flaw, I can't say that I do, even if I'd like to know more about Batman and follow his story more. The villains' stories are interesting, too, and as an "origin story" for two major Batman villains, Batman Returns is already more than complex in terms of plot.

However, there are some character problems that I do count as a flaw. The Penguin has a cadre of circus performers who do his bidding, but even though they're frequently on screen, we never get to learn anything about them. Burton has a core of very interesting characters that could have had a deeper meaning through the film but it just seems, Burton didn't have enough time to use them more properly.

I'm Catwoman, hear me roar!

For that matter, he hardly has space to explore Catwoman. The film plays as if Catwoman may have been as developed and featured in as many scenes as The Penguin, but that cut of the film would have been 4 hours long. So the bulk of the Catwoman scenes had to be excised. Of course, all of this barely leaves any room for Batman. Burton has Batman turn very dark in the public's eye in this film, and unusually, he never bothers to resolve this. As far as we know, at the end, Gothamites still think that Batman is a murdering lunatic. That's an interesting development, but unfortunately it ended up being dropped between this film and the next. 

As for the script, although there are minor problems including some non-sequiturs and bizarre decisions (in terms of logic) made by characters, it's clear that Burton and writers Sam Hamm and Daniel Waters are not exactly trying to tell a traditional story. A lot of the dialogue is pun-oriented, but often this is fairly subtle and/or complex (of course, sometimes it is very blatant or transparent, too). It helps to look at Batman Returns as a more "poetic" film, as I believe was the intention. This also carries over into more general plot and directorial decisions--plenty of odd character actions, including from minor characters, are done in service of a general mood or style, and that style works very well.

The Grand batmobile is back!

If you were to look for a word to define Batman Returns mood, then definitely "Dark" is the easiest way to sum up Batman Returns in a word, and whether that's a positive or negative depends on your disposition. Anyone who knows me knows that I love dark. So for me, Burton's style largely transcends the flaws in the plot and the script. In many ways, Batman Returns is like an insane, campy horror film, with beautifully eerie production design. Like Batman, Burton is still making many references to other films, but instead of Vertigo (1958) and Star Wars (1977) (well, there's still a slight Star Wars reference), he invokes films like Nosferatu (1922) (including that "Max Schreck" was the name of the actor who played the Dracula-like character there), Motel Hell (1980), the aforementioned Freaks, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) (which has a surreal, dark edge to it) and zombie films--made most explicit in The Penguin's final scene.

Here's the movie trailer:

And as I wrote above in the first paragraph, this time I'm giving you the review Batman Returns  deserve, I'll give you some tasty bonuses.

The first bonus is a 9 minutes walkthrough of the original NES Batman Returns game (which I was luck enough to get it by 1992's Christmas) The game was awesome, you could really feel like Batman when fighting goons to make your way to defeat Catwoman and the Penguin. Graphics and music were amazing considering the limits a Nes technology could deliver.

The second bonus is perhaps, the greatest videogame ever made about our dark crusader. Batman Returns, Super Nes edition. The guys in Konami made the ultimate beat 'em up. The game has everything! from astonishing graphics, to kickass action and pretty cool background music too. Fortunately, if you got rid of your Nes and SNes you can still get a kick playing this games through amazing emulators, available everywhere through the internet.

But, what about some fun facts about the production of Batman Returns? well, here's a list of official information gathered from several places:


After the success of Batman, Warner Bros. was hoping for a sequel to start filming in May 1990 at Pinewood Studios. They spent $250,000 storing the sets from the first film. Tim Burton had mixed emotions from the previous film. "I will return if the sequel offers something new and exciting," he said in 1989. "Otherwise it's a most-dumbfounded idea." Burton decided to direct Edward Scissorhands for 20th Century Fox. Meanwhile, Sam Hamm from the previous film delivered the first two drafts of the script, while Bob Kane was brought back as a creative consultant. Hamm's script had Penguin and Catwoman going after hidden treasure.


Burton was impressed with Daniel Waters' work on Heathers; Burton originally brought Waters aboard on a sequel to Beetlejuice. Warner Bros. then granted Burton a large amount of creative control, demoting producers Jon Peters and Peter Guber to executive producers. Dissatisfied with the Hamm script, Burton commissioned a rewrite from Waters. Waters "came up with a social satire that had an evil mogul backing a bid for the Mayor's office by the Penguin," Waters reported. "I wanted to show that the true villains of our world don't necessarily wear costumes." The plot device of Penguin running for Mayor came from the 1960s TV series episodes "Hizzoner the Penguin" and "Dizzoner the Penguin". Waters wrote a total of five drafts.

I'm not afraid of any bird or cat. I like dogs though.

On the characterization of Catwoman, Waters explained "Sam Hamm went back to the way comic books in general treat women, like fetishy sexual fantasy. I wanted to start off just at the lowest point in society, a very beaten down secretary." Harvey Dent appeared in early drafts of the script, but was deleted. Waters quoted, "Sam Hamm definitely planned that. I flirted with it, having Harvey start to come back and have one scene of him where he flips a coin and it's the good side of the coin, deciding not to do anything, so you had to wait for the next movie." In early scripts Max Shreck was the "golden boy" of the Cobblepot family, whereas Penguin was the deformed outsider. It turned out that Shreck would be the Penguin's long-lost brother. Max Shreck was also a reference to actor Max Schreck, known for his role as Count Orlok in Nosferatu.


Burton hired Wesley Strick to do an uncredited rewrite. Strick recalled, "When I was hired to write Batman Returns (Batman II at the time), the big problem of the script was Penguin's lack of a 'master plan'." Warner Bros. presented Strick with warming or freezing Gotham City (later to be used in Batman & Robin). Strick gained inspiration from a Moses parallel that had Penguin killing the firstborn sons of Gotham. A similar notion was used when the Penguin's parents threw him into a river as a baby. Robin appeared in the script, but was deleted due to too many characters. Waters feels Robin is "the most worthless character in the world, especially with [Batman as] the loner of loners." Robin started out as a juvenile gang leader, who becomes an ally to Batman. Robin was later changed to a black teenager who's also a garage mechanic. Waters explained, "He's wearing this old-fashioned garage mechanic uniform and it has an 'R' on it. He drives the Batmobile, which I notice they used in the third film!" Marlon Wayans was cast, and signed for a sequel. Wayans had attended a wardrobe fitting, but it was decided to save the character for a third installment.

My pussy wants some milk.

Michael Keaton returned after a significant increase in his salary at $10 million. Annette Bening was cast as Catwoman after Burton saw her performance in The Grifters, but dropped out due to pregnancy. Raquel Welch, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lena Olin, Ellen Barkin, Cher, Bridget Fonda, Madonna and Susan Sarandon were then in competition for the role. Sean Young, who was originally cast as Vicki Vale in the first film, believed the role should have gone to her. Young visited production offices dressed in a homemade Catwoman costume, demanding an audition. Geena Davis and Brooke Shields were each offered the role of Catwoman, but both of them turned it down. Burton was unfamiliar with Michelle Pfeiffer's work, but was convinced to cast her after one meeting.. Pfeiffer received a $3 million salary ($2 million more than Bening) and a percentage of the box office. Pfeiffer took kickboxing lessons for the role. Kathy Long served as Pfeiffer's body double. On Danny DeVito's casting, Waters explained, "I kind of knew that DeVito was going to play The Penguin. We didn't really officially cast it, but for a short nasty little guy, it's a short list. I ended up writing the character for Danny DeVito." Names thrown out who were considered to play The Penguin include Marlon Brando, John Candy, Dustin Hoffman, Bob Hoskins and Christopher Lloyd.


Marlon Wayans was signed on to play Robin in this movie and Batman Forever - he even went through costuming for the five minutes that he appeared in the script. But when the script was re-written and Joel Schumacher took over as director, the role went to Chris O'Donnell. Wayans was paid for both movies.

Want more? Well, here's the original Catwoman transformation scene, which featured an extended Selina Kyle's parents message:

And last but, not least, "The Bat, The Cat & The Penguin" a 9 minute making off:

Ok, ok, I'll give you one last cup of tea, the ultimate Batman Returns making off:

And here is part II: