Stylistically intoxicating, if you can get by the intense darkness.

Rating: 7/10 (7 July 2012)

Basically, the downside of this film, to me, is how dark and depressing (and at times, disgusting) it is. This is one of those examples where whatever shortcomings the story and/or character development may have, it is nevertheless an addictively compelling work of visual art, and it works on that level alone. The plot is not bad, but it is not really what drives Batman Returns. The cast is very good, I think. Keaton is IMO underrated as Batman, DeVito and Pfieffer convincingly portray twisted criminal insanity, and Walken is crucial in giving the film a greater level of complexity.
Again, the visual look is a wonderland of Tim Burton-isms. The icy winter setting, whimsical penguin commandos and circus crime gang, incredibly cool Batmobile and Batmissle vehicle sequences...there are just so many things to capture the imagination.
The problem, of course, and it is a significant problem, is how dark this film is. It is scary, violent, sometimes gross, and ultimately depressing. Batman should be dark and thought-provoking, but this one reaches prohibitive degrees of darkness. It is definitely not appropriate for family/children, and arguably may not really have much redeeming value for adults, either. (The whole issue of which was kind of responsible for the much different excesses of the Joel Schumacher films.) Batman Returns is like one of those really weird paintings that may qualify as works of genius art, but which may not be worth looking at, just the same.