Disturbingly Depressing.

Rating: 5/10 (14 May 2013)

Batman Returns was a major disappointment to me. When I saw the first Batman in this series, I loved it (mostly due to Jack Nicholson's performance as the Joker). The thing about these original Batman movies is that they put the majority of the focus on the villains. The Joker was a complete show maker in the last one, but this one includes Danny DeVito as the Penguin, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Cat Woman. While both actors did a good job, the two different stories of the Penguin and Cat Woman did not make a good combination. The Penguins story was depressing which added gloom to the story, and Cat Woman's story was disturbing which added darkness to the story. Put them together and you have a movie that's disturbingly depressing (or Depressingly Disturbing which ever you prefer.) Batman himself was played for the last time by Michael Keaton. A lot of people were mad when Keaton didn't return in the last two films for this series but personally I was OK with it. It's not that I think that he's a bad actor, as much as I think that he wasn't a convincing Batman (he doesn't look the part for starters). The rest of the acting was good. Particularly Christopher Walken as Max. He did a great job. I just don't think that a movie that doubles up on negative emotions is a good way to get buyers. And so thus, after one successful movie, the Batman franchise began to fail.