Batman (Michael Keaton) has to take on The Penguin (Danny DeVito) and Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) and an army of circus clowns, and missile-packin' penguins and...
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I really like Batman Returns. I don’t care if this damages my geek cred. I don’t care that the plot makes absolutely no sense, I don’t care that Batman is hardly in the film and it doesn't really phase me that when Batman is on screen, he does some rather un-Batman like things (ie: strapping a bomb to someone and throwing them into the sewer to blow up). You can’t even chalk this up to adolescent nostalgia. I was in second grade when this PG-13 film came out. I don’t think I actually saw it until at least 1995.
What I love most about this film (besides the dark/subversive humor) is the degree to which it embraces practical effects. When you really think about it, this was the last big blow-out for practical effects. Literally everything is hand-made. Exactly one year later Steven Spielberg and his digital dinos would change everything. Three years after that Burton himself wholeheartedly embraced digital technology with Mars Attacks! And though he’s made some good films since, they seem to be fewer and far between. Barring his masterpiece Ed Wood, this was the last stand for the Tim Burton we all fell in love with. Le sigh…
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