Burton versus Batman

Rating: 9/10 (2 March 2008)

Tim Burton is in essence an expressionist film-maker, disinterested in dimensions of character and obsessed with Gothic scope, opting for style over substance incessantly throughout his career. However, with his style being so poignantly endearing, I, like many moviegoers, forgive all the countless flaws that can be found in many of his movies and become engrossed in what are essentially, one hundred million dollar art films.
It's almost embarrassing for me to see a poetic, emotionally involving spirit within the second installment of a mediocre franchise, especially when that franchises target audience are half-witted 15 year old boys. Batman Returns should have been every bit as commercial as its predecessor, ensuring box office draw and cheap (in actual fact, very expensive) thrills, being entertaining without ever truly involving its audience. Had this been the result, then Tim Burton would have surely been required to direct a third installment. Instead, Burton delivers something that can only truly be defined by the phrase, 'out there'.
From the melancholy opening in which a high society couple throw a prison-like bassinette containing their newly born deformed baby into a river, it is clear that Batman Returns, ain't no picnic at Buckingham Palace. Cut to thirty three years later, during a political speech made by bad guy business tycoon Max Shreck (sinisterly portrayed by Christopher Walken), the Red Triangle Circus Gang attack Gotham City. Batman (Michael Keaton returning to the role) makes his first appearance sporting a new logo, eventually saving the day. Shreck is soon kidnapped by the circus gang and black-mailed into endorsing the political return of the baby, now a fully grown Penguin man (Danny DeVito in hideously perfect make-up), whose motives for return are suspicious only to Batman.
Meanwhile, Shreck attempts to off his nosey and awkward assistant Selina Kyle (played perfectly by Michelle Pfeiffer who quite frankly deserved more recognition for her performance) who transforms into the deliciously sexy and psychotic Catwoman, out for revenge and harbours, for some unexplained reason, a deadly vendetta against the Dark Knight.
Batman Returns is bleak. The production design is breathtaking, delivering a cold haunting Gotham City with an even more apocalyptic feel than its predecessor. Danny Elfman's score supports the film brilliantly, ranging from invigorating to tragic. The tone and direction of the whole film itself is intensely brooding, shot like a sad nightmare, Burton's direction overshadows what is in fairness a diabolical screenplay with an almost totally irrelevant plot and yet at the same time perfect for Burton's visual style of film-making. And whilst Burton's action sequences struggle for exhilaration, the real excitement lies in the directional choices displaying the fall of each of its main characters, the Penguins demise, the Catwoman's mental state and Bruce Wayne's lonely destiny.
Warner Brothers hated it whilst critical and audience reaction was mixed. After all, they wanted a Batman sequel, not a weird, somewhat ghastly horror movie, in which a deformed psychopathic orphan attempts to kidnap and drown a batch of babies, all-the-while vomiting what can only be described as green mucus. The production company wanted an audience friendly feature, something for the McDonald's clan to promote their happy meals with, not a movie of dire irredeemable characters, including a sexually repressed secretary who is pushed from a skyscraper and revived by a gang of cats awakening her from unconsciousness by chewing on her bloodied ice cold fingers.
It's easy to understand the mass disappointment that followed the release of Batman Returns. The film never felt like a Batman blockbuster. It is questionable if Burton really knew who Batman actually was or even if he cared about the character as much as he cared about the film fitting in with his usual themes of beautifully haunting art direction and misinterpreted, lonely characters who rarely conform with societies standards and expectations. This is why Burton failed to create a great Batman film. He did however; create a nostalgic and stunning, ballsy piece of cinema that remains a personal and nostalgic favourite of mine.
This may not be a great Batman movie. But it is a great Tim Burton film.