"i am the light of this city... and i am its twisted soul"

Rating: 7/10 (6 March 2017)

The second trip to Burton's Gothic Gotham maintains much of what I loved from the first. Burton's Gotham is again wonderfully realised in all its German Expressionist inspired glory. This time it's dusted in a Dickensian Yuletide snow. This is however a bleak midwinter.
While the first Batman was full of comic book revelry; the second deals with far more complex themes, is much darker and feels a whole lot more Burtonesque. Dealing with hefty themes of childhood abandonment, psychological duality, corruption, greed and a whole lot of death.
Danny Devito manages not to be irritating as the penguin; grotesquely deformed; abandoned as a baby by his rich parents at a young age. A deliberate mirroring of Keaton's Batman who also lost his parents at a young age. Keaton seems a lot more stoic in the sequel; a more traditional chisel jawed hero. Christopher Walken's Max Shreck (name pinched from German Expressionist classic Nosferatu) is well, Christopher Walken his usual mercurial self. The standout turn is definitely Michelle Pfieffer, nailing both Selina Kyle and Catwoman's dual natures with such a deft turn; elicits the biggest laughs, wrings the most emotion and is sexy as hell.
Critically dismissed as far too dour in 1992 I wonder if the critics would have been so harsh if they'd had to sit through Snyder's study in Grey that is BvS first? Personally I think it's almost as good as the first Batman. Very different films, Returns feels far more personal to Burton and a more mature adult work. The first Batman though has Nicholson dancing to the music of Prince blasted from massive boomboxes. No contest really.