Simply, a wonderful blending of evil clashing with evil clashing with would-be 'just' to produce an interesting character piece on top of a high octane ride.

Rating: 8/10 (12 February 2010)

In Burton's revisiting of the Batman franchise following his 1989 escapades, he delivers a film better than the first, in that it is more mature and spreads out to accommodate the progressions of its three predominant characters. In being given more to do, Burton essentially produces a film that is of a higher quality; doubly able to deliver on fronts of character as well as pay close enough attention to the power struggle going on within the place its set, as corrupt business'; faux politicians and sociopathic civilian inhabitants of Gotham City seem to vie with one another under the careful watch of the film's lonely, somewhat socially inept, billionaire protagonist Bruce Wayne, alá Batman.
The film will see a variety of characters, three of which are bound in not only their power struggle but also by way of having their names linked to the animal kingdom, interact and form respective bonds as the future of a bustling city hangs in the balance. Two of the film's four central characters are monsters, one a slick and handsome business tycoon named Max Shreck (Walken) with the other a foul, thrice-decade sewer inhabitant named The Penguin (De Vito). This, as the two that complete the quartet struggle with their own issues of violent mask and costume-clad alter-egos which clash with quiet, lonesome and restrained 'by day' personas in Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne/Batman and Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina Kyle/Catwoman.
The film begins with a grandeur and quiet frightening opening, that of a disfigured baby being born and consequently disposed of by the parents, a nasty sequence in which they head out into Gotham City park in the dead of night avoiding contact with other parents of newborns and tossing the kid over a bridge into a canal. As we watch it float down the various waterways which lead to the sewers, the camera lingers on this baby's cot as we observe it through long pipes and steel barred drain entrances as it drifts, seemingly harmlessly, down the rivers of the city and into the sewers. We are given time to ponder to ourselves what foul, household cat eating beast lies inside. When get a first glimpse of the creature in its adult years, it is by way of an expressionistic shadow, furthering a sense of the uncanny.
Indeed, many years later Max Shreck sits in a conference room delivering a talk to some of his business cohorts. His business, simply entitled 'Shreck's', has its HQ based in a high-rise building amidst the others, looming ominously over Gotham; his company's logo on the very top, spinning around and around insinuating the power in the numerous directions the company has in the holding of its power over the city. This, as models of the same logo lie strewn around other Shreck infused buildings. The logo is of a smiling animal, but there is a degree of unsettlement in its features, most certainly echoing what the owner of the organisation is like and has in store for those that dwell in the city – like Shreck, it is a face that seems to mean well but whose true intentions are much more sinister.
Working for him is Selina Kyle, an individual who makes it very obvious she lucks out on men and life in general. Upon being present during Shreck's talk, she attempts to join in with the suit-clad, ego driven businessmen in making a suggestion but is promptly put back in her place with a cruel put-down from Shreck plus a statement which enforces her domesticisation, despite her shortcomings, in that she makes "a Hell of a cup of coffee". Kyle maintains a seemingly odd relationship with her mother by way of the messages she leaves on her answering machine, while the numerous stuffed animals and child's toys scattered around her room maintain the odd aura. When a chance event leads her back to Shreck's office, she accidentally dominates her surroundings by way of ingenuity in cracking Shreck's password to some top secret files; files that reveal acts of a criminal nature – the consequent punishment for this act of attempting to 'become big' within the office environment is death, instigated by Shreck. Essentially, an event that tips her over the edge and by way of some alley cats; the uncanny rejecting of her previous image as well as a little black magic; becomes the powerful and somewhat man hating creature of Catwoman.
The Penguin, in setting up a false rescue of the mayor's child, ascends to the surface with Shreck as his companion when a blackmail plan arises. What you flush, Penguin flaunts – an idea of things coming back to haunt you when you don't rid your life of them correctly. Despite having this pointed out to him, Shreck makes a similar mistake by only assuming Kyle to be dead when he attempts to kill her, only for her to return and cause chaos. Penguin embarks on a mayoral campaign after winning over the city as this myth becomes reality, but while everyone is fooled, Wayne isn't and there's a superb scene in which Penguin goads Batman for having a direct approach in conversation despite hiding beneath a mask – there's a moment of realisation when Batman makes it known he's guessed what Penguin's up to, and that he too has a mask on in the sense he isn't the person he says he is, despite, again, the direct approach in reaching out to all the inhabitants of the city. The film's blending of character with a distinct sense of dread as these power-mad people threaten to consume an already bleak looking world actually comes across as quite interesting as certain images of a disturbing nature and individual scenes of menace keep it grounded from reaching too far out to children. The film is to date, of all the contemporary Batman films, my favourite.