Tim Burton's work of art

Rating: 9/10 (18 March 2012)

Tim Burton is one of the most talented directors ever and this movie is a piece of art. It says things on many different levels, I will tell you what I read from it:
Penguin is a character as disgusting on the inside as he is on the outside (he is evil but we feel for him because of his tragic past and maybe think he is not the one to blame or that he might have good in him (don't judge book by its covers). We are actually manipulated like the people of Gotham that bought into his sad story from the newspapers. Here is the statement about what power the media and appearances have over us.
The truth of the matter is, penguin has no morality in him as he is truly selfish and wants only to satisfy his own needs. Those are revenge, power, lust, etc. while violating the rights of others, so the definition of what we call evil.
Some would say these are animal like tendencies and animals are generally more oriented towards themselves rather than being altruistic. Penguin at the end actually denounces his humanity and claims he wants to be an animal (a penguin).
But at the end before he dies, we feel sorry for him because he is suffering. He was a human being after all and we feel compassion for another human being. Not because he was good, but because he was - human just like us. And we understand him, his lust for power or just lust or revenge are emotions understandable to us humans and we can relate to that and so we feel sorry for a fellow human.
And the actual penguins at the end...maybe there is more to animals than we humans give them credit for? Maybe they feel and know things we only think humans could feel or know?
So the Penguin character represents more than one thing like: appearances are misguiding, humans and animals are not so different, and all that leads to us questioning our knowledge about this world of ours in general which leads us to admit how great mysteries of life are unknown to us.
I also feel this movie establishes "good" and "evil" as actual forces of universe where Penquin abides by the laws of evil and Batman by the laws of good and so they clash in an inevitable battle. Because one Tim Burton's freak (Edward the Scissorhands) was good, but the other freak (Penguin)was evil. So being a freak has no actual say on whether you are good or evil, it is who you are inside that counts.
I wouldn't do this movie justice without mentioning the title character, the Catwoman or Shreck or saying something about the music or the way Tim Burton tells the story visually by showing it in short scenes or frames where the music score follows perfectly - but now I did mention it. I feel this movie is a true work of art among Batman movies and among movies in general.