For all its problems, Batman Returns is still an awesome Batman film.

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2013)

I'll go ahead and say it, Batman Returns is my favorite Batman movie. As much as I love Nolan's Batman films such like 2008's Dark Knight for making more sense and realistic. I like how fun Batman Returns is. Yes, it's campy, creepy, and the plot makes little to no sense, still it's a lot of fun for me. Don't get me wrong, Nolan's films are superior movies over Tim Burton's mediocre films, but there is something about Batman Returns that get me watching all the time when it's on, TV. I think it's because it's feels like a creepy comic book movie. For me, this isn't supposed to be remotely realistic, this is a straight up fantasy. It has that old school horror movie feel to it. I love the Danny Elfman score, the cinematography, the set design, the ghoulish and semi-camp German Expressionism tone. I can see why it was too frightening for children to the point that parents got rid of the Batman Returns Happy Meals and didn't allow the kids to watch it. There were serious WTF moments in the film that pretty damn dark like Penguin (Danny Devito) eating a man's nose, a baby being abandon, sexually depraved dialogues between the Penguin and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and countless deaths. But seriously did any of these children ever see The Dark Knight? I have to say that, pretty scary and violence as well. Honestly, it's the parent's choice to allow their kids to watch it or not. Thank God, my parents allow me to see it because it's the film that made me a fan of Batman. This movie is messy, nonsensical and heavily flawed and I still love it. The movie starts out Penguin being abandoned by his parents because of his physical deformities when a child, he then tries to rejoin humanity with the help of a businessmen Max Shreck (Christopher Walken), who then uses him as a part of his plot to allow his business to continue to operate free from government oversight by asking him to become mayor after the city start to sympathize him for what his parents did to him. What the film does wrong, is make him a villain outright without much character development. Rather than getting abused and tossed aside just at the moment when he almost begins to believe that perhaps he is capable of being respected and that people may not be so bad, the film makes him deranged, terrorist and the monstrous psychopath bear little resemblance to the savvy, anti-heroic thief or the neutral informant businessman of the comics. If only they had the betrayal by the city folks drives him insane and he tries to destroy the society that spurned and abused him would make an excellent movie rather than Penguin looking like a monster dimwit with his multiplies fails plots like getting revenge on Gotham socialites by abducting and killing their infant or blowing the city with penguin carrying missiles. As much as I like Christopher Walken and his President Andrew Jackson's hairdo, the story could have done without his character. I know Shreck is the bad-guy of the film that needed to put Selena on her quest for revenge and track towards insanity. You can easier fit Penguin in that role. The best part of the film is the conflict & romance of Selena and Bruce that should had been the main focal point of the film. Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) and Selina Kyle. Pfeiffer and Keaton both give great performances, and their on-screen chemistry is excellent. If the main focus had been on developing their relationship it would have been a great movie. As it is, just a handful of short scenes together simply didn't cut it. The sequence with Bruce and Selena at the party was the best scene in the film. The conflict and chemistry between the two draws you in, especially when watching Selena's own problems with mounting insanity. Still, don't know how she became a master of kung-fu. I love Michelle's catwoman more than Anna Hatchaway in 2012's Dark Knight's Rises. As much as I love Michelle, Anne Hathaway comes the closest to portraying Catwoman from the comics as far as the movies goes. Still, Michael Keaton was the best Batman. The mischaracterizations of Batman from the first film are carried over and amplified here. Batman is murderous, and remorseless. True, Batman originally carried a gun and killed, but that aspect of the character didn't survive the first year of an 80+ year run, and is not really a valid interpretation of the character anymore. Batman doesn't murder people. Thank God, Marlon Wayans wasn't portraying Robin and Robin was cut out. The inconsistent tone of the film also works against it. Burton presents a very bleak, grim, nihilistic serious story, where the good guys aren't that good and the bad guys are monsters. He them loads the film with absurdist camp set pieces, but plays them straight and seems to expect the audience to take them seriously. This causes the tone to shift wildly, and the audience ends up laughing at things meant to be taken seriously and taking jokes at face value. Artistic license is one thing, but these characters got the worst of the Burton treatment, and both characters suffer for it in a major way. Overall: I agree Batman Returns had flaws. Batman Return has a somber tone punctuated with ridiculousness, but it's watchable. I can't say the same with its follow ups: 1995's Batman Forever and 1997's Batman & Robin. Those movies nearly ruin batman until Nolan step in with 2005's Batman Begins. Still, glad Tim Burton didn't made another Batman after this.