A Dark Christmas Knight

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2000)

Batman Returns is a perfect film to watch during the holiday season as the winter/Christmas atmosphere that Burton creates for Gotham City is wonderful. It's weird that Warner decided to release this as a summer film. It doesn't fit.
What's even weirder, when you consider the content of this film, is that it was aimed at families. An upper-class couple throws their mutant baby down the sewer, a socio-phobic billionaire dresses up in leather as a flying rodent, a lonely secretary has a mental breakdown and dresses up in leather as a feline, and said grown-up mutant baby freak runs for political office while being backed by a Trump-like business tycoon hungry for more power. Not to mention the S&M subtext that Tim Burton somehow managed to get away with. His eccentric visual style fits this film best, and is the height of his career, IMO. This is Tim Burton at his Tim Burtoniest.
This is a true live-action incarnation of the comic-book character and Burton really should have stayed with the series to keep it on the correct course before it crashed and burned. Batman Returns is not as grown-up and straight-faced as the Dark Knight, but it's more atmospheric, and I just prefer the oddball character development here and Nolan's movies took themselves very, VERY seriously, almost to a fault. They are often depressing to watch while Burton's approach, and the animated series that it inspired, continues to resonate and find new fans.
Darker and more violent than the first movie, the sense of Gothic pathos reaches a new high. I was quite keen on Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, he displayed the right balance of weirdo loner and cool crime fighter. Michelle Pfieffer is amazing as Catwoman (much sexier and more 'realistically' cat-like), she wears that leather outfit better than the embarrassment of Anne Hathaway, who was simply appalling. Danny DeVito is so convincing as the Penguin that his scenes become a little disturbing to watch. Special mention must be made of Christopher Walken, who is brilliant as the spooky Max Shreck if you think you recognize his Chip Shrek it's none other than Butterfinger from Hudson Hawk (fitting, as co-writer Daniel Waters is the man responsible for turning that movie from an adventure heist into an absurdist comedy).
Sam Hamm returns to pen the screenplay, this time without being restricted (and sabotaged) by writers strike deadlines and it's a stronger film with a better assortment of characters, chemistry, and dialogue. He even manages to get in a subtle dig at the shortcomings of the rewritten 1989 screenplay by criticising Alfred for letting Vicki Vale into the Batcave - something Alfred would never do but was necessary for fixing structure problems.
Danny Elfman's score is also even better than it was first time round. His powerful and engaging themes define the Batman universe better than any other composer. No offense to Hans Zimmer, who made some wonderful stuff for Nolan's movies, but Elfman gave Batman a sonic aura that became world renowned and it will always be THE defining Batman sound. This movie is the Batman phenomenon at its Zenith. Stick to the animated series and forget the following sequels. Christopher Nolan brought integrity back to the series, but before Schumacher destroyed it, Burton gave the original series integrity too and I miss this twisted fairy tale incarnation of the character.
An essential Christmas film, and my favorite Batman adventure.