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DustyReviews: [PSA] Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.
Rating: PG-13
Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Bob Kane (Batman characters), Sam Hamm (story), Daniel Waters (story & screenplay)
Stars: Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, Christopher Walken
Release Date: June 19, 1992
Run time: 2 hours, 6 minutes
This review contains spoilers. Proceed accordingly.
THE PLOT:
via wiki:
In Gotham City, two wealthy socialites, dismayed at the birth of their malformed and feral son Oswald, discard the infant in the sewers, where he is adopted by a family of penguins. Thirty-three years later, during the Christmas season, wealthy industrialist Max Shreck is abducted by the Red Triangle gang (a group of former circus workers connected to child disappearances across the country) and brought to their hideout in the Arctic exhibit at the derelict Gotham Zoo. Red Triangle's leader, Oswald – now named Penguin – blackmails Shreck with evidence of his corruption and murderous acts to compel his assistance in reintegrating Oswald into Gotham's elite. Shreck orchestrates a staged attempted kidnapping of the mayor's infant child, allowing Oswald to rescue it and become a public hero. In exchange, Oswald requests access to the city's birth records (ostensibly to learn his true identity) and identifies Gotham's first-born sons.
Shreck attempts to kill his meek secretary, Selina Kyle, by pushing her out a window after she inadvertently uncovers his plot to build a power plant which would covertly siphon and hoard electricity from Gotham. Selina survives, returns home, angrily crafts a costume and adopts the name Catwoman. She returns to work confident and aggressive, catching the attention of visiting billionaire Bruce Wayne. As his alter ego (the vigilante Batman), Wayne investigates Oswald, suspecting that he is connected to Red Triangle. To eliminate opposition to his plant, Shreck convinces Oswald to run for mayor and discredit the incumbent by having Red Triangle wreak havoc throughout Gotham. Batman's efforts to stop the gang eventually bring him into conflict with Catwoman. Selina and Wayne begin dating, while Catwoman allies with Oswald to disgrace Batman.
On the night of the city's Christmas-tree lighting, Oswald and Catwoman kidnap the Ice Princess (Gotham's beauty queen) and lure Batman to the roof above the ceremony. Oswald pushes the Ice Princess to her death with a swarm of bats, framing Batman. When Catwoman objects to the murder and rejects his romantic advances, Oswald attacks her and she falls through a glasshouse. Batman escapes in the Batmobile, unaware that Red Triangle has modified it; this allows Oswald to take it on a remote-controlled rampage. Before regaining control, Batman records Oswald's derogatory tirade against Gotham's citizens. He plays the audio at Oswald's mayoral rally the following day, ruining his image and forcing him to retreat to Gotham Zoo. Oswald forsakes his humanity and embraces the name Penguin, initiating his plan to abduct and kill Gotham's firstborn sons to avenge his own abandonment.
Selina tries to kill Shreck at his charity ball, but Wayne intervenes and they inadvertently discover each other's secret identities. Penguin crashes the event to kidnap Shreck's son, Chip, but Shreck offers himself instead. Batman neutralizes Red Triangle and stops the kidnapping, forcing Penguin to deploy his missile-equipped penguin army to destroy Gotham. Batman's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, overrides the penguins' control signal and redirects them back to Gotham Zoo. As the missiles destroy the zoo, Batman unleashes a swarm of bats which makes Penguin fall into the contaminated waters of the Arctic exhibit. Catwoman arrives to kill Shreck, rejecting Batman's plea to abandon her vengeance and leave with him. She is shot four times by Shreck, seemingly without effect, because she claims to have two of her nine lives remaining. Catwoman electrocutes Shreck, causing a power surge which apparently kills them both; however, Batman finds only Shreck's charred remains. Penguin returns, but dies of his injuries before he can attack Batman and is laid to rest in the water by his penguins. Sometime later, while Alfred drives him home, Wayne sees Selina's silhouette but finds only a cat (which he takes with him). The Bat-Signal shines above the city, as Catwoman looks on.
My Review
This is a movie that should not have worked. The plot is bonkers. The primary antagonist was raised by *penguins* in the Gotham City sewers, yet learned perfect English and at some point became the head of a dangerous circus-themed crime syndicate. The gray area character developed super powers... somehow... after being thrown from a window and bitten by a bunch of cats that somehow resurrected her. Despite this being a Batman movie, there was very little actual Batman. The movie was not just dark, as is the nature of Batman stories, but it was grotesque, with Penguin really being quite revolting. And yet, this movie was actually pretty good.
There are two primary explanations for why this movie works. The first is that Tim Burton is a genius for visual media. Instead of trying to ground a comic book story in the real world, he brought a comic book world to life with his cinematography. Burton's Gotham does not feel like the real world, but it looks like *a* real world and his creation was captivating to behold.
The second reason this movie works is that Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer completely committed to their roles. The only way to make me buy into either of Burton's villains was for the actors playing those characters to believe, too, and they clearly did. You watch this movie and almost forget how absurd it all is because you begin to feel as though you are watching actual people, deranged though they may be.
I also wouldn't Christopher Walken's performance as Max Shreck to get lost in the shuffle. He's a perfect corrupt Gotham City industrialist, from his voice to his hair. His line about pushing Selina out of a higher window, if she gives him trouble, was one of the best lines of a film filled with great one-liners.
Keaton was once again great as the brooding billionaire with a dark side. One particular thing I noticed about this performance was how he's always playing Bruce as somewhat distracted - so much so that he struggles to be in the present even when he wishes to be. This is brilliant in that it works as a disguise, because it is difficult to see an absent-minded and word fumbling billionaire as the hyper-aggressive and decisive Batman. It also just rings true to the audience for someone leading that type of double life. Of course he's not completely present when he's playing the role of Bruce.
In addition to the film's visual brilliance, Danny Elfman's musical scoring was once again iconic. More than three decades after it was composed, and after many, many more Batman film scores have been made, Elfman's music is still probably the go-to for the character. Just pull this soundtrack up on YouTube, or Spotify, and tell me if it doesn't put you into the mood to experience a Caped Crusader story. The theme works today, just as well as it did three decades ago, and it would have undoubtedly worked well when Bob Kane created the character.
Batman Returns is far from perfect. As I mentioned above, the story asks its audience to do a lot of suspending of disbelief. Neither Penguin nor Catwoman's origins make a lot of sense. Penguin's backstory does not make much sense, either. While it may have been true to Burton's vision for the character, the icky disgustingness of Penguin was hard to watch. I found myself wishing at times for less of a monster and more of an intellectual Tammany Hall type of bad guy. On the whole though, the flaws did not take away from my experience by too much.
This is, on the whole, a really good comic book character story, with two particularly memorable and well-acted villains. I found myself disappointed when the credits rolled to know that we never see Burton do anything else in this universe. Keaton's Batman was excellent and I am even more happy about his potential involvement in future DC films than I was previously. If you haven't seen this one in a while, I recommend it.
What do you think about Batman Returns?
Bonus question: Is Batman Returns a Christmas movie? It's set during Christmas. The characters attend Christmas events.
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