I get why people have mixed feelings about this movie; and I stand by those who love it.

Rating: 8/10 (10 May 2018)

Batman Returns is one of the edgiest mainstream 90s blockbusters you'll EVER see. It's got so much edge that the film was unsuitable for McDonald's planned Happy Meal tie-in promotions for the movie so they cancelled those plans. So how does this film compare to the multitude of Batman films after this one came out? Pretty good I'd say. Even against Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy it's still a solid movie in itself. Where Nolan got the crime and neo-noir aspects of Batman down-pat, Burton accomplished for the Gothic overtones present in a lot of the classic Batman stories.
Batman Returns is not exactly a feel-good superhero film: its villain, Oswald Cobblepot, is a misfit who was thrown into a river left to die (by his parents), and Selina Kyle turns regular woman into crime-fighting-and-committing vigilante by night. And Batman is still that same tormented orphan we've all come to know and love through the years.
Batman Returns is a dark Batman story but its Gothic imagery compliments the story and direction, even if the style sometimes out-performs the story to some extent. Flawed but good I'd say. 4/5 stars.