The Beginnings of Bad Sequels

Rating: 5/10 (26 June 2003)

Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. Cool. Keaton reprising Batman. Also cool. Danny DeVito...waitaminnit: why is Danny DeVito in this movie? why is there an additional "big bad," thus taking away from the character development between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle? This is the inevitable simple equation that every comic adaptation proves, but Hollywood either doesn't care or isn't smart enough to catch on: 1 superhero + 1 supervillain = great movie, while 1 superhero + X supervillain(s) = bad movie. Superman and Batman prove the first half of this equation. Superman 2 is an example of a rare exception (as there are to all rules); however, it had Superman 1 to help build up Zod as a nemesis. X-Men barely survived it. All subsequent Batfilms died as a result of it. Too many characters to focus upon requires either 18 hours of footage or the elimination of characters. You can't build characters without scenes of them. You can't have scenes of them if you have to have scenes of the other 13 characters in the film. Pfeiffer as Catwoman is the only saving grace of this film.