Watching Batman and Batman Returns back to back, I find myself realizing all over again just how good Michael Keaton was in the role. Now that Keaton is 58, I can't help but imagine him in a live action version of The Dark Knight Returns.
But that'll never happen.
I'm also realizing just how good the script was for this film. With The Penguin and Catwoman, this film set the standard for how to juggle a primary and secondary antagonist, not just a villain and a henchman. I never think about this film in that way, and I can't figure out why. If I ever teach a screenwriting class again, I might point to this film for the balance alone.
No film has done this better, before or since. For me, the writing is the best reason to look at this film. This is how you juggle villains. Sam Raimi, I'm mostly looking at you.
And then, right around the 1:40 mark, this film starts to go wrong.
* We get penguins with missiles on their backs, and Batman gets a bat hovercraft...or something.
* A convenient female robotic announcer begins to explain much of the rest of the story over an underground P.A. system(?) rather than show us.
* The Penguin temporarily escapes his underground lair in a gigantic, motorized monster truck/rubber ducky. Which climbs stairs.
* Batman, who wears obvious black makeup under his mask, suddenly loses his black makeup when he unmasks for Catwoman. A glaring continuity error, but probably the better choice.
I try not to think about this stuff because the first 90 minutes are so well done. This movie is almost as rough as the first one in execution (continuity errors, obvious stuntmen, etc.) but the first 90 minutes (and maybe the last 10) are as solid as writing gets in a superhero film.
Burton and Keaton walked away from the franchise after this. So did a lot of fans, until Christopher Nolan came along.
We can thank the brilliant Daniel Waters (Heathers) for the positive merits of the script. I'm not quite sure who's to blame for the third act, but I distinctly remember those penguin soldiers and the bat-hovercraft being heavily marketed on the side of happy meal boxes. Coincidence? Let's not forget that the first Batman franchise wrote the book on merchandising tie-ins. However, it backfired a bit with Returns. Too dark whined parents and interest groups. And that's why WB didn't invite Burton back for a third trip to Gotham City. Shame.
ReplyDeleteI've grown to appreciate the last act of this because of the sheer loopy Tim Burton-ness of it all. He was somewhat restrained in the first Batman, then once that did well, he pulled out all the stops and unleashed his bugnuts circus freak aesthetic all over Batman Returns. I stopped expecting it to make sense once I made peace with that.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of Burton's Batman is that Burton and his cohorts fully embrace the notion that in order to do what these characters do, you've got to be (pardon the pun) bat-sh*t insane.
Actually, the thing that bugs me most about Returns is that Batman's sadistically out of character in a couple of places. Stuffing a bomb down a baddie's trousers and dropping him into a manhole? That's way beyond the pale for Batman, no matter how crazy he is.
One interesting touch among many in this film: In the background of the masquerade scene, you can briefly see a guy wearing a very close replica of Lon Chaney's Red Death costume from The Phantom of the Opera.