THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Batman proved that the stories of superheroes can be ongoing entertainment onscreen. Due to its surprise success at the box office, a sequel was abound.
PLOT
Batman Returns takes place in the holiday season. Gotham City is attacked by the disgraced troupe known as the Red Triangle Gang, but are stopped by the dark knight detective. Philanthropist millionaire Max Schreck gets abducted by the gang and is taken into the sewers meeting their leader, Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin. He has been living with sewers, raised by actual penguins when his abandoned him due to his deformity. He blackmails Schreck into helping him return to the surface, which he ultimately accepts. When returning to the surface, he kills his secretary Selina Kyle by pushing her off the window. He does so because she found evidence of his power plant being designed to drain the city's energy, bringing it to his control and become an untouchable figure in the progress. Little does he expect that she gets revived by a group of cats. With her new life, she dawns the persona of 'Catwoman' and plans to get revenge. Oswald makes his presence known by rescuing a baby from a staged kidnapping attempt. Now having the media's attention, he requests access to the Hall of Records to find his parents, only to discover that they passed away. When the Batman himself Bruce Wayne sees him on the news, he grows suspicious of him. Within his research, he does discover that Red Triangle Gang shut down due to children going missing during their performances. When he later has a meeting with Max to oppose the plant, he meets Selina for the first time and both become instantly attracted to each other. Surprised to see her alive, Max decides to have Oswald run for mayor and have the current mayor discredited by allowing Red Triangle Gang continue their chaos. When Batman intervenes, he does meet Catwoman who destroys one of Schreck's businesses. They do fight each other which ends with both of them injuring each other; Batman injures Catwoman with a capsule that burns her skin after she stabs him with her one of her nails. She does meet the Penguin after this and both agree that the caped crusader should be killed in order for their schemes to continue. While Bruce & Selina begin dating, Penguin abducts and kills Gotham's Ice Princess, framing Batman for the act. He also has the Batmobile sabotaged until the hero undoes the damage. From there, he even tries to kill Catwoman by causing her to fall into a greenhouse when she turns down his advances. The next day, Bruce is able to destroy his image by playing audio of him disrespecting the public through the public speakers. This causes the villain to return to the sewers and begin his evil plan. He intends to abduct and kill every first born son in Gotham City, as revenge for what happened to him. Bruce attends a charity ball hosted by Schreck and sees Selina again. When she reveals her intent to kill him, they both unintentionally reveal their secret identities. Just as that happens, the Penguin announces his plan to the public once he kidnaps Max. When the Batman discovers this, he acts quickly and succeeds in saving the children of Gotham. Oswald however has another trick up his sleeve by having his penguin army bomb the city. However, the Bat and his butler Alfred (Michael Gough) are able to jam their signals and order them to return to the sewer. Penguin tries to kill him, but fails when he falls through a window into the swer's toxic waste, which takes his life. Max does break free from his confinement, but Catwoman arrives to get revenge. Batman begs her not to kill him, but he shoots them both just as he pleads. Bruce is only knocked out of wind due to his body armor. Selina however gets back up with the adrenaline rush in her and kills him and herself through a stun gun's electrocution. It causes a massive explosion and Selina's remains are nowhere to be found unlike Max's. Some time after this, Bruce finds a black cat as a farewell gift from the woman he loved. The film ends in a cliffhanger showing a surviving Catwoman watch the Bat Signal appear in the sky.
THOUGHTS
Since I enjoyed the first film so much, I knew that I was going to enjoy this too. So I wasn't too surprised of how much fun I had then and I still do now. This has been an entertaining sequel that is on par to the original because Tim Burton is able to keep this universe immersive by fairly maintaining it to be a grim fairy tale. While I miss hearing Prince, at least Danny Elfman stuck around to deliver another fantastic score. As a sequel, it does ante things up like the action because whenever Batman is kicking more ass than before, he has your attention. Speaking of which, the main reason this movie has held up as good as the predecessor is that while we see a hero return to maintain order, scenes were stolen by villains that have become just as iconic as him, all played excellently by a stellar cast. Michael Keaton is just as good as he was the first time around, a humble man that has to be vicious to protect the city he cares about. This time, his limits are tested when he has to deal with three different threats. And after all of it, his will remains intact. What stood out the most about him this time is that he wants to be happy and share that with someone he cares about. Since he broke up with Vicki Vale, Selina felt like a second chance and he fell for her anyway because he seems to respect her independence. Sadly, their love was not meant to last, but that does not mean that they won't stop loving each other. Enter Michelle Pfeiifer who becomes unstoppable. While many actresses have their own flare to the character, no one pulls it off like her. Pfeiffer is the one that makes her an icon because she is a temptatious person who breaks from her shell to stand up for herself and make her own rules. She falls for Bruce because she admires how he takes notice of her in a good way, while everyone else looks down on her. They are truly polar opposites that connect because she enjoys the pain she causes, while he does not. She left him because she knew it wouldn't last, that he would keep trying to stop her doing what she wants and she didn't want to be controlled. She liked who she was and didn't want to change. We may have not see these two characters again as the franchise continued, but seeing her look at the Bat Signal shows that despite the decision she found wise to make, she will always watch over like she know he would for her. While The Joker does it best at tearing shit up, it's easy to forget he's not the only one good at it. Danny DeVito is downright remarkable as the psychotic Penguin. Much different from being a mob boss like the comics regularly depict him, this is an aristocrat who wants the world to suffer like he did in any means possible. He did not deserve to be abandoned, but it does not excuse how vindictive he was to the world. While he was smart in his own right, he wasn't the only one full of schemes. Christopher Walken succeeds in making Max Schreck a figure that is silent when ruthless because no one notices when he cripples the city. This is someone who had the power at his will and misused it deeply. In one way, he is Bruce if he took another alley. With him and Penguin gone, it's easy to say that the city will never go through a struggle like this again. Even though I’ll always appreciate this movie for what it is, it doesn’t excuse some issues I found whenever I re watch it. First off, I understand that Selina has to be first approached as a ditz to set up her transformation as Catwoman, but what made her think it was a good idea to open protected files? That mistake was asking for trouble. And how come not a single cop when down the sewer when the baby was abducted? The scheme relies on Penguin not getting caught and if he wanted to maintain his martyr image, he should’ve killed the clown to prove himself as a (false) protector. And how did he get to the surface without climbing a ladder? Did the duck have a seat booster that rose? Because that would’ve been cool to see how that worked since we technically don’t. I want to like Penguin’s array of umbrellas, but there is no way one can let him fly like a mini helicopter. That is defying logic and it doesn’t work like it would for other films in this genre. I even respect his plan to sabotage the Batmobile, but how did he get the blueprints? Did he find it in the sewer like Max’s incriminating documents? If so, he should’ve bothered saying that. And why didn’t Max replace Selina with a new assistant if he thought she died? Of course he doesn’t want people to know he killed her, but it’s not like he can’t hire someone immediately. I then wonder how the hell did the actress not recognize Penguin? He’s trending for crying out loud, on the news back to back running for mayor? Yeah she might not watch the news, but she has to recognize him off of at least the ads all over Gotham. I then wonder how else would Batman be framed if the Batarang wasn’t confiscated. Because if there wasn’t an alternative, destroying his martyr image would’ve taken longer. And how were the streets empty when the Batmobile got sabotaged anyway? They can’t be empty that long, because how do you think there’s nightly muggers? It kinda would have been hilarious to see the clown gang chase someone away for passing by. Also, why didn’t Batman save the actress if he could glide? It’s not like he couldn’t do it. If that was the case, he even could’ve jumped for it and used his grappling hook. And lastly, what evidence does he have on Max to put him away, we see that he’s dirty and Batman knows it, but we don’t see him gain any evidence because he mostly focused on ruining Penguin’s plans, fighting Catwoman and being in love with Selina. If he found the documents Penguin had, then that should’ve been shown as well. Other than that, this movie still remains interesting. In short, Batman Returns is a good sequel for feeling just as nuanced as the first one. If you love the predecessor, then don’t waste any more time and see this too.
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