In Defense of Batman Returns
Categories: Blogs
Written By: Eric Jensen
Mark and I were talking recently about various Christmas movies we’d like to watch. We talked about all the obvious ones, of course, but we were also coming up with some movies that take place around the holiday but don’t immediately spring to mind when you’re thinking of Christmas movies. I brought up the movie Batman Returns, which is set at Christmastime and uses tree lightings as set pieces and mistletoe as a plot device. Mark agreed that it undeniably fit the criteria we were looking for, but he added: “I don’t really enjoy watching Batman Returns at all.”
That’s a fair statement, granted, and I essentially agreed with it. We’re talking about a Tim Burton film, after all, and that’s always something to be wary of. Even so, when I was in junior high there was a period of several months where I’d watch either Batman, Batman Returns or Batman Forever every day after school, in lieu of doing homework or making friends. Eventually I grew out of my Batman phase. I mean, I still have Batman sheets, but I’ve hardly seen those movies at all since middle school. So I decided I’d give Batman Returns another look.
And hey! It’s a lot more entertaining than I remembered. It’s not like it’s Citizen Kane or anything, but it has enough there to make it a little fun. It has more than people give it credit for, I’d say, and that’s what’s important. It’s certainly the best of that run of four Batman movies (the three mentioned previously and Batman and Robin, if you can even call that a movie), and while that’s a little like saying it’s like passing the smallest of four kidney stones it’s still saying something.
So I’ve decided to go to bat (GET IT?), however tenatively, for Batman Returns. Give it another chance, people. You may well like it better than you remember.
And consider that evil supervillain the Penguin has big frizzy hair and wears a top hat, making him sort of a dumpy Slash. That alone is worth the price of admission.
Plus, hey, Michelle Pfeiffer.
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November 25th, 2007 at 1:06 am
I’ll grant that Batman Returns could certainly be better than I remember it–I, too, haven’t seen it in about ten years, literally.
But better than the first? That’s a bold statement. Frizzy-haired Danny Devito or not, the first one has Jack Nicholson, Robert “King of the Wicker People” Wuhl, and Bob–Bob! The Joker’s Number One Guy!!
But let’s get serious here. What say you about Batman Begins? Because everyone I know really thought it was the cat’s meow, but those are the same dopes who raved nonstop about how great “Transformers” was, just because they knew they were supposed to like a movie about Transformers. I saw it, and the only word I can think of to describe it is “Alright.”
May 16th, 2011 at 10:42 am
O.K. so I’m a comic book guy. As a comic book guy I like the first much better. In my opinion it wasn’t a good idea to start a Batman franchise by KILLING THE JOKER!!! Because the Joker is like the opposite side of Batman’s coin so anyone that follows is nothing but a downhill slide unless it’s done really well. They made even one step further by making the Joker the killer of Bruce Wayne’s parents in the first film so you weren’t going to top that drama. So in a way the first movie was the first flaw with the second movie. Secondly why did the Penguin have to be deformed and disgusting? In the comics he was short and fat and I guess you could call the long nose a deformity but his hands were normal and he was well dressed with normal clean teeth. Also his henchmen were more Joker-ish than the Joker’s. He also seemed to just pull blueprints for the Batmobile out of his ass. I mean seriously how did he get those!!! Frankly most of my problems with the movie revolved around the Penguin. He was unnecessary and the story of a woman (Catwoman) taking the law into her own hands and going to far and Batman’s moral dilema in trying to justify his stopping her crusade while continuing his own (WITHOUT KILLING EVERYONE BY THE END OF THE MOVIE) would have been a much better and more mature story.