Visually impressive...but that's it

Rating: 6/10 (11 February 2007)

The Pengiun (Danny DeVito) and evil millionaire Max Schreck (Christopher Walken) team up to rule Gotham City. Batman (Michael Keaton) tries to stop them. He also has to deal with Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) who has ideas of her own.
Dark and pretty sick sequel to the 1989 "Batman". For starters the villains are pretty silly. DeVito is in an obvious fat suit as the Penguin and his character is needlessly grotesque. Walken sleep walks through his role (as always). Pfeiffer REALLY tries (and looks great in that costume) but her character goes all over the place and acts real strange (even for a Tim Burton film). Keaton is miscast--but he IS good. The movie is filled with stupid one liners which come out of nowhere and seem totally out of place in this context. The tone of the movie keeps switching gears--from comedy, to action, to horror, to romance--erratically. Also Batman kills two people (!!!), little babies are kidnapped and/or put in danger, the sexual aggressiveness of Catwoman is REALLY strong (for a PG-13 movie), the Penguin bites somebody on the nose and people are casually killed left and right. The story also ceases to make sense at certain points and goes barreling out of control by the end. I mean--penguins with BOMBS on their backs invading Gotham City? Come on! Director Tim Burton seems only concerned about production design and special effects. They are impressive (especially Wayne Manor) but swallow the story and the actors. Also the constant dark tone and cruelness really wears one down after a while. I kept watching but the darkness of this one was really too strong--this deserved an R rating.
This was a big hit but parents who saw it with their children were (understandably) outraged and bombarded Warner Bros. with letters and calls. Because of that Burton had no hand in "Batman Forever" (the next movie). I do think Batman movies should be dark but not at the expense of characters and plot lines. And did Burton really think it was wise to have so much violence in a film children were going to see? And Batman should not kill. I give this a 6 for production design alone. Don't let little kids see this.