"I was their number one son and they treated me like number two."

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2014)

My brother and I walked out of the theater in 1992 feeling like our souls had just been crushed. We had both loved Batman so we eagerly anticipated its sequel and we came away disappointed by what seemed like a bloated mess of a sequel with too many villains, too much humor, and no clear focus. We also both hated the Max Shreck character played by Christopher Walken and felt he was just in the way of things. Time has altered my opinions on this film a great deal but I include my initial teenage reaction for comparison. I still feel it's a flawed movie and one that often feels more like a director's cut than your average edited-down theatrical release. As a whole, I'm not sure the narrative of the movie is at all times clear and a lot of that does have to do with juggling several plot lines and main characters. I'm still not entirely convinced Christopher Walken is necessary to the movie at all, though like most people I do enjoy his performance. Which is kind of my opinion on Batman Returns in a nutshell: there's a lot to enjoy but on the whole it's a movie that could stand a good trimming.
Michael Keaton is a very good Batman. Perhaps the best ever. But once again, the focus is on the villains. Danny DeVito's Penguin is gruesome and miles apart from his comic book counterpart. I never really had a problem with this as I always thought the Penguin was a lame villain anyway. At least DeVito's is scary. There's also a good deal of dark humor to be had with him and some camp value, such as his assault on Gotham with penguins mounted with missiles. That part's admittedly more adorable than exciting, though. Michelle Pfeiffer's sexy Catwoman has become an iconic movie character in her own right; the standard by which all other Catwomen are judged. So far they've come up short. She has many of the movie's best lines. Christopher Walken is amusing in that Walken way as an original character for the film, Max Shreck.
Even more so than the first film, Tim Burton creates a film full of amazing visuals and eye-popping special effects. At times decidedly campy, it never crosses the line that Joel Schumacher's repulsively gaudy films did. The only real problem with the movie, like I said before, is that it feels overstuffed with ideas and characters. While I believe Max Shreck could have been eliminated and the movie would not have been hurt at all, I think you could have kept him and still helped the movie out by editing some scenes down and quickening the pace a bit. Still, it's a fantastic sequel with great style and atmosphere. Memorable character and set designs, special effects, and good performances all around. It's too flawed to be considered Burton's masterpiece (at least in my opinion) but it's also too impressive to be ignored.