The Bat, the Cat, the Penguin

Rating: 5/10 (3 January 2010)

Batman is pitted against the demented, ravenous Penguin, a pitiful, orphaned psychopathic freak who once went on a baby-killing spree, and a "power" hungry capitalist villain Max Shreck. As the two criminals plot to gain domination over Gotham City, Batman must plot to stop them.
As the film starts, you can tell the tone will be immensely darker than that of the first. Although darker doesn't necessarily mean better, in this case, it's true....only for a moment. I was never impressed by the first film. It struck me as entirely uninteresting and boring, for the most part. In this film, I was, more or less, interested at whats going on. The first hour was pretty good because there are some great things going on, especially with the new characters introduced.
However, it started to go down again. After the hour mark, I found myself disinterested because everything starts getting repetitive all over again. Maybe the only Batman films I'll ever enjoy are Christopher Nolan's reboot and its sequel. This time, the film has mostly everything bigger, with more villains and more action. The action scenes still seem second-rate to me. However, like before, the production design is great. I like the look of Gotham and the costume designs for the three character, Batman, Penguin, and Catwoman, largely thanks to the great Stan Winston.
Michael Keaton started to grow on me in this sequel. I found him being more comfortable in his role as the title character. Danny DeVito is almost flawless as the Penguin. You'll probably never see him like that ever again. Michelle Pfeiffer is just great as the sexy Catwoman. And Christopher Walken, well, he was just decent among those actors.
Although much darker and interesting at first, the film slowly loses its steam halfway, sputtering to a convoluted mess near the end. I kid you not, there were so many things and threats going on in the end that it was ridiculous! Bigger is certainly not better in this film. Tim Burton, I know you can do better than this.