BATMAN RETURNS

Batman Returns (1992)
Grade: B
Directed by TIM BURTON
Starring: Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Michael Gough, Michael Murphy, and Cristi Conaway
PREMISE: Batman struggles to protect Gotham city from a trio of miscreants, including a corrupt businessman, a deranged secretary, and a sadistic cripple who calls himself Penguin

RATED PG-13 for blood and violence, disturbing images and some strong sexual content

WOW. Two weeks after being underwhelmed upon my first viewing of the original Batman, I'm truly impressed by the gumption of the script, filmmakers, and actors in the first sequel, 1992's Batman Returns. Adding Batman icons Penguin and Selina Kyle, this is not only a more complete and more engaging movie than the original, but, given the depth of Penguin's fury/hatred/sadism and the darkness of some of his schemes, this movie actually seems kin to 2008's The Dark Knight, the current (and, possibly, eternal) measuring stick for not only Batman movies but superhero movies in general. While a lot of the action is still rather subpar, the characters etched are top-notch, the jokes are funny, and some of the schemes are impressively frightening. Built around an unforgettable performance by Danny DeVito, Returns is an impressive piece of entertainment that, despite some cheesy touches, maintains high entertainment value right up to a shocking and slightly off-kilter last ten minutes.

Plot: Thrown into the sewer by his parents as an infant, the disfigured man who calls himself Penguin (DeVito, in a towering performance) has already made his presence known to the citizens of Gotham. In fact, constantly circulating throughout papers is the question of whether or not the Penguin is a good guy, the same question that is ever being asked about the Batman (Michael Keaton). Penguin would be fine with just being a terrorist, but when he meets a local billionaire business tycoon (Christopher Walken), they come up with a plan. They arrange for Penguin to 'save' the mayor's baby from a kidnapper in public, thus painting a picture of him as a humane white knight. Soon, Penguin (whose real name is Oswald Cobblepot) is running for mayor of Gotham, if only so that, if elected, Walken's Max Shreck can have his environmental enemies eliminated, and Penguin can have Batman eliminated. As his popularity grows, Penguin finds ways to portray Batman to the citizens of Gotham as a murderer and a terrorist, forcing him into hiding. But there's someone else after Shreck, someone who might just be an ally for Batman: Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer), a slinky crime fighter whose real-life alter ego might be falling for Bruce Wayne.

What Works?
The key to Returns is DeVito's fantastic performance as Oswald/Penguin. Having disguised his easily-recognizable face, voice, and body, DeVito makes Penguin an unholy terror, a bosom buddy of sorts to Heath Ledger's anarchist Joker in Dark Knight. By turns cunning, perverted, playful, and just plain old nasty, Penguin is a villain for the ages. He cares about no one, he's up for anything, and he's driven, all the time, by the memory of his abandonment by his now-deceased parents, a relationship he can never rectify.

DeVito dominates the film, but Keaton and Michael Gough (as Alfred) continue to prove effective in their mix of gathering wisdom and low-key wit, and Burton's camera proves absolutely brilliant--one early sweeping sequence plays like a theme-park ride, recalling great cinematography before CGI became such a big part of the trade. And the plot is genuinely interesting. Bringing in real-life angles like committees who went Shreck and his poison-spewing power plants out of business, and the public's fascination with a decidedly-different sort of character in Oswald. Not to mention a funny scene in which a pair of image consultants try to give Penguin professional advice on how to more effectively campaign for the office of mayor ("research shows our voters prefers fingers to flippers, so...").

What Doesn't Work?
Well, first of all, I want to know what's portrayed in the comics about the ends of Selina Kyle, Max Shreck, Penguin, etc..., because what's presented is just shy of a train wreck. Punting entertainment value out the window going the uber-sadistic route, Returns falls flat on its face in the last ten minutes after building up quite a head of steam over the previous hour-forty-five. And, like its predecessor, Returns has Batman equipped to handle anything-his car has a gadget specifically meant to knock out people on stilts, and he carries around handheld napalm explosives-which strains credulity if, like me, you forgot to suspend disbelief at the door. Also, Walken is in full-on sleep mode here, and I'm just not sure what to make of Pfeiffer. She makes Selina/Catwoman intriguing, but she plays it so utterly deranged (both as costumed vigilante and elsewhere) its hard to take seriously.

Content: Returns has the same dark spirit as its predecessor, but it gets a little darker here. People falling to their deaths, people being electrocuted, blood spewing from a bloodied nose, the violence and mayhem is dark and sometimes unsettling. Also surprising is the amount of straight-up suggestive verbal interplay by Catwoman and the Penguin in one peculiar scene. Again, it's nothing the modern action fan hasn't scene, but it's enough to make parents consider watching this one before they let their young kids watch.

Bottom Line (I Promise):
As played by an unrecognizable Danny DeVito, Penguin immediately joins the supervillain Hall-of-Fame with a brilliant showing, one that makes this film more akin to Nolan's gritter Batman films. Dark, funny, sexy, this iconic sequel to the original Batman isn't without flaws but is a rich, rewarding experience.

Batman Returns (1992)
Directed by Tim Burton
Based on Batman characters created by Bob Kane
Written by Sam Hamm and Daniel Waters
Rated PG-13
Length: 126 minutes