One of the greatest movies ever!

Rating: 9/10 (31 December 2006)

This is definitely one of the best movies ever! I wish Burton had directed the next Batman movies instead of Schumacher, because Batman Returns is not ridiculously shallow or campy like the Schumacher Batman films (though Batman Forever was somewhat okay).
The strength of the movie comes from the characters' psychological depth, Danny Elfman's music,and the visual look and atmosphere of the movie. All the actors were BRILLIANT; they did a really wonderful job and should have received Oscar and awards and stuff. However, at times, it seems that the plot line is not exactly consistent. For example, Max Shreck wants to drain the energy from Gotham City, but this is not given much attention to later in the movie. Fortunately, this did not in any way ruin the movie for me.
The Penguin was rejected by his parents and thrown into the river. In return, he plans to murder the first-born children of Gotham. There are Biblical references in his storyline, such as those just mentioned. Selina Kyle turns from a mousy person to the confident and independent Catwoman and unleashes her repressed rage. Throughout the movie, her mind starts to deteriorate (symbolically, along with her costume).
The Penguin and Catwoman are characters that you feel very sympathetic for. Their actions may not be moral, but you feel sorry for them and their twisted minds. It's very interesting that the true villain in Batman Returns is Max Shreck, who is the most normal of the three villains, which shows that a normal, everyday, and common human being can be a selfish cruel manipulator.
A second interesting idea is the theme of duality. There's Bruce and Batman, Selina and Catwoman, politician Cobblepot and Penguin, and publicly popular Shreck and metaphoric vampire. One of my favorite lines is when Bruce says to Selina, "I mistook me for someone else."
Another very interesting idea is that the three villains mirror parts of the title hero's psyche. The three of them show what Bruce/Batman would be like if he had gone the wrong way. One of the characters' lines is, "To destroy Batman we must first turn him into what he hates the most. Namely, us."
Penguin is a twisted version of Bruce. They are both orphans. Like Bruce, Penguin wants revenge for the loss of a normal childhood, but he unleashes his anger on innocent people. Selina is fed up with the injustice in her life and wears the mask of Catwoman to do something about it. She becomes a more destructive version of the vigilante Batman and strikes back at society. Max Shreck is a business man like Bruce, but is very dishonest, selfish, and manipulative in order to achieve his goals. In the debate of Max's proposed power plant, Bruce represents the good side.
All this character depth shows how brilliant and thought-out this movie is. I wish Burton had directed the third movie. He would have done an excellent job with Riddler and Two-Face.