"Don't Bother!"

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2005)

Burton returns as well as Batman and in doing so abandons any pretence of real story telling in favour of a retro-expressionist exercise in psychological damaged character study. Even the production methodology replicates the old studio constructivism of pictures made in Germany's Weimar Republic and its clear that you're looking at a sound-stage the entire time which if anything just heightens the sense that you're occupying a complete fantasy world, superbly realised but lacking in the subtleties of plot that would have made it a more complete experience. As it is the visuals are stunning and its a more technically accomplished, more confidently directed picture than its predecessor but for all that it lacks the unpredictable edge of Jack Nicolson's Joker or the epic scope of Anton Furst's sets, here replaced by some accomplished design by Bo Welch. Its rare for a studio to give a director as much latitude as Burton got here but there's an argument to say that he ran too far with his own vision as the sacrifice of story and the creation of a film with such a dark and foreboding centre made him an easy scapegoat for the movie's apparent under-performance at the cash registers. Burton may have got his own way but his inability to properly balance the material and propensity to over-egg the pudding produced an ugly reaction in the studio, Joel Schumacher. A shame because Returns is a perfectly watchable, occasionally brilliant instalment, it just doesn't quite work as comic book entertainment.