A Bit Too Dark, Gloomy and Bizarre

Rating: 6/10 (4 February 2017)

Born so deformed that even his parents don't want him, a young baby is hurled into the sewers of Gotham City in the hope that he will die. But, incredibly enough, he is taken in by some penguins who live right there in the sewers and grows up into a repulsive creature known as "the Penguin" (Danny DeVito). And his first action is to kidnap the wealthiest man in Gotham City by the name of "Max Shreck" (Christopher Walken) and blackmail him into helping him rediscover his roots--or at least that's what he wants people to believe. But Max isn't the type who is easily controlled and instead attempts to manipulate him for his own evil schemes instead. At the same time Max Shreck's secretary "Selena Kyle" (Michelle Pfeiffer) happens to stumble upon a secret file that Max has which details an illegal scheme he is planning and she ends up being thrown out of a skyscraper to her apparent death. But she is somehow revived by some stray cats and having now gone totally insane decides to take her revenge upon Max as a costumed villainess called "the Catwoman". Needless to say, Gotham City isn't big enough for 3 such villains and it's up to "Batman" (Michael Keaton) to somehow save Gotham City from all of them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that a dark and gloomy atmosphere is almost a prerequisite for a "Batman movie". However, this film probably went a bit too far in that department-and it got even more dark and gloomy the further on it went. Additionally, I didn't especially care for the rather bizarre ending either. Those issues aside, I thought all of the actors just mentioned performed credibly enough with Danny DeVito probably standing out the most in my opinion. Likewise, although I still believe Julie Newmar was the best actress to ever be cast as "Catwoman", I must admit that Michelle Pfeiffer wasn't too bad. But that's just my opinion. In any case, given all of the previously mentioned good and bad points I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly above average.