The best of the bunch

Rating: 8/10 (27 October 2002)

For anyone who claims that this film doesn't live up to the original, I strongly advise them to actually go back and watch that film- then be shocked by the desperately slow pace, complete lack of action and unengaging character interaction. While Batman Returns is by no means a perfect film, it must be remembered that this was a major summer blockbuster- and as such, it is surprising just how dark the whole thing is.
Keaton is excellent, although slightly underused- De Vito does just about as much as he can to invest the Penguin with some sort of character- Pfeiffer just about convinces- and Christopher Walken is as sinister as ever. The action set-pieces are completely overblown, but fantastically exciting, and the slightly downbeat ending perfectly complements the legend of the Dark Knight.
In retrospect, the Batman series as a whole has never been anywhere near to approaching greatness (the least said about the last two films, the better), but at least Burton did make a great Batman movie. If Darren Aronofsky is going to re-invent the series, he'd do well to look at this film before the others.