Batman Returns: Goth Gone Wild
Batman Returns, Warner Bros. (1992)
By Nick M. W.
Starring: Michael Keaton (Bruce Wayne), Danny DeVito (Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin), Michelle Pfeiffer (Selina Kyle/Catwoman), Christopher Walken (Max Shreck), Michael Gough (Alfred Pennyworth)
Written by: Bob Kane, Daniel Waters, and Sam Hamm
Directed by: Tim Burton
I hadn’t seen Batman Returns since sometime way back in the mid-90s, late at night on HBO. With its 30th anniversary here, I felt compelled to make my own return to a movie I loved when I was 10, for a character I dug throughout my childhood. Tim Burton’s Batman came out the summer before I started second grade in 1989, and I caught a bit of Batmania that flared up in the few months leading up to that movie’s premiere. The only version of Batman I’d ever seen before Michael Keaton donned the cape and cowl was Adam West running around in light blue pajamas, looking wack and unfit, like someone who might be a victim of crime instead of fighting crime. Sure, dude pushed a sweet ride and snapped off some corny puns with Robin, but that version of Batman wasn’t badass. Tim Burton changed that. His Batman was mysterious; he intended to strike fear in criminals, an ominous vibe—something Bob Kane wanted for those movies, and it’s something that other versions of Batman since have modeled. After 1989, Batman became The Dark Knight to me.
“Is that a burrito I smell?”
Batman Returns, Warner Bros. (1992)
It worked. Burton had a massive hit with Batman, and Batman Returns raked in some dough for Warner Bros., too. It’s still entertaining, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up with these movies. “Nostalgia” is powerful; it blurs the past just enough to make the cold reality a bit warmer and more welcoming. Tim Burton’s Batman movies were good Batman movies at a time when they were the only game in town. Since then, there have been several better versions of the same story that relegate Batman and Batman Returns to a campy escapade, even though these movies were once considered too dark.
It’s not all “rose-colored” nostalgia, though. There are legit things that were done right in Batman that were Batman Returns nailed and improved. The art direction (Tom Duffield and Rick Heinrichs) and the set decoration are outstanding. Gotham City manages to be grimmer than its previous iteration, turning downtown into a gothic inspired Christmas nightmare. Wayne Manor feels haunted, as if Thomas and Martha Wayne’s ghosts wail through the halls.
Bob Ringwood and Mary Vogt did amazing work. The Red Triangle Gang could be mistaken for extras in American Horror Story Carnival. They’re creepy. It’s a departure from the Member’s Only jackets and black fedoras sported by the Joker’s henchmen in Batman, which seem to reject the rest of that movie’s 1940’s art deco aesthetic. The costume work fits the mood, right down to the painted stitches on that latex catsuit, which was a tremendous look on Michelle Pfeiffer.
Danny Elfman’s main title for Batman became the iconic theme for the Caped Crusader throughout the early-90s Batmania. He and Tim Burton had a thing for a minute before it went south for them. It’s hard to separate each creator’s work from the other’s because of their synergy, and it’s impossible to separate Elfman’s work on both Batman movies from those flicks. I want to hear that crescendo right as the Bat Signal hits the night sky.
All the stars in Batman Returns shine. Keaton’s mysterious version of Bruce Wayne, the man who lives in a castle and keeps an Iron Maiden handy as a secret entrance, conveys the torment of his past and the weight of being Batman; DeVito, the freak version of Penguin, another “outcast/misfit” Tim Burton character, is bonkers. DeVito looks like he’s having fun waddling around the set, completely unrecognizable (except his voice); Pfeiffer gives this supernatural spin on Catwoman an edge she has lacked in every other iteration. She’s dangerous in Batman Returns. Michael Gough was the best Alfred to serve Bruce although Michael Cane gave him a run for his money; and Christopher Walken’s Max Shreck is a cross between Nosferatu and Donald Trump. It’s wild!
Batman Returns doesn’t stick the landing, though. The grizzled 40-year-old version of me had no time or sense of humor for the missile launching penguins, but that’s not the only folly in the final act. The entire climatic sequence feels lazy. At no point in the movie does the Penguin or the Red Triangle Gang feel like a threat to the city—definitely not like any of the villains in Chris Nolan’s trilogy felt, or even Paul Dano’s recent portrayal of Riddler. When the Penguin finally reveals his master plan for revenge on Gotham’s elite, it should have been met with a “whomp”.
It’ll probably be another quarter century before I return to this movie, but Tim Burton’s blockbuster sequel, a gothic fantasy adventure flick masquerading as a superhero movie, is still a fun way to burn a couple of hours.
