Batman Returns
 DJHufford  rates it:    Community rates it:
   260 of 534 readers found this review helpful.

Ah Sequels. We all love to hate them. Luckily, all of them are not that bad. This one in particular, is actually quite entertaining. Warner Bros. did the most logical thing they could do, and actually brought back Tim Burton for this one. They also managed to bring back Michael Keaton. They managed to round out the cast with a truly stunning Michelle Pfeiffer, The ever diabolical Chris Walken, and everyone's favorite fat guy, Danny DeVito.

Chris Walken is one of my top five favorite actors. And this movie did nothing to diminish that legacy. He was outstanding as the millionaire villain, Max Schreck. No relation to Nosferatu. They don't really get into his background, and his role in Gotham City, but we learn he is really powerful. Kind of an Anti-Bruce Wayne. He has all of the money, and none of the morals. His ultimate goal is to build a power plant that the city does not need, in order to make even more money.

Enter Danny DeVito. He plays Oswald Cobblepot, or Penguin. His parents abandoned him when he was a baby, and he ended up being raised by penguins in a sewer? Yes, apparently in Gotham City penguins live in the sewer. Don't think too hard about that concept, it'll make your brain hurt. Somehow, he has gained control of a local gang. He decides he wants to come back into society from the sewers, so he stages a kidnapping of the Mayors baby. This is only so he can rescue it and become a hero. During these exploits, Schreck decides that Cobblepot would make an excellent patsy. So he recruits him to run for mayor.

Enter Michelle Pfeiffer. This was the early nineties, and she was still hot. She played Schrecks lowly secretary. That is until he pushed her out the window. And then cats started gnawing on her. Suddenly, she is now the Catwoman. And for some odd reason that's not really clear, she is both attracted to, and disgusted by Batman. She lusts after him, all the while trying to kill him. She's very conflicted. For reasons unbeknownst to anyone in the film, she decides to go into a partnership with the Penguin. Together, they work on framing Batman.

This plot is cheesy, implausible, and quite honestly almost laughable. But yet it works. Tim Burton is truly brilliant in that he took this drivel and made it into a decent movie. He went with the same big and bold theme he went with in the first one. Everything is dark and larger then life. I would dare say this one actually had a better script then the first one. The dialogue was much better and wittier in this. It had more of adult themes then the first. I would have liked to see them dive more into Batman's past, but I guess that was left for a later script. *See Batman Begins.

One thing that is easily overlooked in the Batman movies is the choreography of the fighting. They really are quite stunning and fun. I think the Batman vs. Catwoman fights we see in this movie are about some of the best in the entire series. But Batman is about so much more then just fighting. He's also got these wonderful toys. This movie introduced us to the Bat-Glider and the Bat-Boat? The Bat-Boat would actually come back for a reappearance 2 films later. These toys make for wonderful visuals, but something confuses me. In the first movie, Batman wrecked the Bat-plane. In this one, he wrecked the car, the glider, and the boat. What happens to these as they wreck? Does he just leave them on the street? Does the Bat-tow truck come and retrieve them? I'd be really interested to have an answer to that one.

All in all, you couldn't ask for a better second chapter to this series. Sure there were a lot of plot holes and implausibility, But isn't the Batman myth a little far-fetched to begin with? The only really disappointing thing about this whole movie is that Michelle Pfeiffer never got naked. Surly they could have added a shower scene. Or even a scene showing her getting into her catsuit. But no, Burton decided not to grace this film with nippley goodness. But that's minor. If you loved the first one, you will find this almost equally enjoyable.

Added:  Wednesday, September 13, 2006

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