The best Batman film

Rating: 8/10 (21 September 2009)

Although not necessarily the most successful of the Batman films, this has always been my personal favorite. Despite its chilly Christmas setting, the film was released in the middle of a very hot summer. I was spending some time in Arizona, and going into an air-conditioned theater to watch this frosty film was like a blast of relief. The movie itself combines dark humor and wild visuals, Burton's very best big budget film.
Batman (Michael Keaton) does indeed return, with a pair of villains to face this time -- abandoned child Oswald Cobblepot, aka the Penguin (Danny DeVito) and the less nefarious and more ambiguous Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer). DeVito's Penguin is at the same time less anarchic than Nicholson's Joker from the first film, and more of a threat to Batman because his schemes are more calculated and his political sensibilities more refined. As for the Catwoman, she and Batman strike up a kind of sadistic affair that's paralleled by the hesitant courtship between their alter egos, Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle.
DeVito is an excellent actor and a good choice for the Penguin, but his performance just can't match the kind of charm that Nicholson had in the first film. It's really Pfeiffer's sexy latex-draped Catwoman that makes the film. There's moments of great wit, like when she looks down at her ruined "claw" with an expression that suddenly takes her back to her secretary days (err... "executive assistant"). There's also a nice performance by Christopher Walken (with the rather not-so-subtle homage name of Max Shreck) as a greedy crimelord. He gets more time to develop this outside villain than Jack Palance had in the first one, and brings a lot of moments of great humor to the relationship with the Penguin. You almost start to like him by the end, but his score with the Catwoman must be settled.
The theme of the film is, once again, duality -- but it works somewhat better than the first film, because the relationship between Catwoman and Batman is more natural and compelling. I also like the one scene with the Penguin and Batman where Penguin accuses Batman of being jealous, "you're not a real freak." Really great ideas that are well developed in the interplay between these 3 bizarre personas and their alter-egos.
As for Burton's direction, it's much more relaxed and distinctive in this film compared to the first one. A new Gotham set was built for Burton on the west coast (the first one was done in England), and the settings and style are more picturesque, dark, and expansive. You can tell that he had just done "Edward Scissorhands" and was really feeling his oats when he did this one, at the top of his game trying to top his previous effort. A lot of people, maybe Jack Nicholson fans, might disagree, but I thought that he got the tone and everything just right for this film. It's not too serious but it's also not too goofy; rather than alternating moments of seriousness and camp we get in the first film, this one has a more consistent tone as well.