“Bat-Mania” took the world by storm when Batman came out in’89, and it still had plenty of steam behind it when the sequel, aptly named Batman Returns, hit theaters in 1992. Tim Burton returned to direct, and Keaton and Gough returned as Batman and Alfred respectively. Danny DeVito joins the cast as the Penguin, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, and Christopher Walken as Max Shreck. Despite a sequel being a sure thing, several ideas were scrapped, reworked, scrapped again, and reworked again before we got a finished product.
Catwoman was more or less guaranteed from the beginning. Early on, Two-Face was slated to be the major villain but by the time the first draft of the script came out, he was relegated to a bit part that would become a bigger threat in a later film, only to be pushed out altogether as the Penguin was perceived to be the next “big bad” in line after the Joker. Max Shreck was invented purely for the film as a way to link the 3 leads – he was a business contemporary of Wayne, the Penguin’s handler, and Catwoman’s number 1 target. Robin was also set to make his debut, though it was generally agreed that there were already enough characters in the film at that point.
Burton was given an increased amount of creative control over Batman Returns and as such he wanted to distance this film from the ’89 movie as much as possible. It is commonly cited that only a single reference to the previous film is included – the mention that Vale is Wayne’s ex – but there’s another that we’ll get to when we get to it. Burton was not overly concerned with following comic lore and had no issue with breaking existing convention if he thought it would make for a better cinematic experience. This is the main reason Batman’s overt “no kill” rule is not established.
The final result is a very dark film, feeling a bit like a feverish nightmare. The images are visceral and unnerving and it all has a very surreal quality to it. Sometimes it’s so over-the-top that it would be comical were it not so terrifying. Batman remained fairly grounded, but the sequel definitely treads unknown waters by cranking up the intensity. Let’s remind ourselves what makes this arguably the most divisive of all Batman films.
Gotham City, Christmastime. Pee Wee Herman – er, Paul Reubens – stands by the window with his stylish cigarette holder (a nod to Meredith Burgess) while his wife screams in childbirth from the bedroom. The home is ornate and richly decorated for the holidays. Midway down the hall a doctor seems frozen with shock and confusion. The father (Reubens) enters the bedroom and lets out a shriek of his own.
Their composure returned, the man and wife down their martinis with an eerie stoicism as they gaze upon a cage-like box on the floor, violently rocking around. A nearby cat is snatched up through the bars. The couple looks at each other resolutely; whatever reservations they may have had no longer burden them. They hurriedly make their way through a snowy park with a black baby carriage, pausing once they reach a bridge. After one final check of their surroundings, they lob the basket into the icy waters below where it floats gently downstream.
As the opening credits begin, the basket continues its journey into a large storm drain. It eventually makes its way further and further underground, through progressively darker and narrower canals, under waterfalls and down steep slopes until it finally comes to rest on a shallow shelf where it is greeted by a cadre of emperor penguins.
Thirty-three Christmases later, Gotham streets are abuzz with holiday magic. The annual tree-lighting is about to begin, and the kid selling newspapers on the corner can be heard going on and on about alleged sightings of the “penguin man from the sewers” all over Gotham. Indeed something does lurk just below the feet of the unsuspecting Gothamites, wrapping his “flippers” around grates as if in a prison, surveying the world above.
High above the ground business mogul Max Shreck is meeting with the mayor in hopes of fast-tracking the construction of a new power plant despite the mayor’s insistence that they already plenty of power and then some to spare. Shreck tries to convince him that growth will outpace this projection, but the mayor again declines and tells Shreck that he’ll have to go through the usual red tape to get it done.
Selina Kyle, Shreck’s mousey assistant / secretary, had hitherto been serving coffee to the businessmen. She pipes up saying she has a suggestion but quickly back-pedals and says she has more of question. Shreck pokes fun at her impropriety, the table gets a chuckle, and they all head down to the lit tree at the behest of Chip, Max’s son. Selina is embarrassed beyond belief and chastises herself for her outburst.
On their way to the tree, Shreck seems to suggest that he could initiate a recall regarding the mayor’s election but the mayor confidently retorts that he has no candidate or real issue to run with. Everyone then puts on their polite faces and the mayor steps up the mic, introducing Shreck as “Gotham’s Santa Claus” to the cheering crowd. Max fumbles around for a moment and upon realizing he forgot his speech, tells his son to remind him to take it out on “what’s-her-name.” At the same moment, Selina realizes the same. She grabs his notes and begins making her way to the street.
Max bounces back with a short, humble speech about wanting to “give back” to the city that he’s found so much luck in. All the while our underground buddy has been keeping watch of the time, and just as the speech wraps, a huge gift box appears behind the crowd. The mayor assumes it to be Max’s doing, but he is quick to deny it. It suddenly bursts open as all sorts of clowns and circus-like performers burst forth, a group that we’ll soon know as the Red Triangle Gang. These masked gangbangers turn the event upside down and the Bat-signal is activated.
Selina reaches the street just in time for the attack. She is nearly a victim though Batman appears in a nick of time to save her. She tries to thank him but true to form she exudes massive amounts of awkwardness. We’re treated to a few moments of the Batmobile taking out the oddly-armed circus gang with an array of gadgets, and I’m pretty sure a couple of those guys were “inadvertently killed” by the Batmobile’s anti-personnel measures. A group of clowns attempt to capture Max specifically, though Chip jumps in front of them and insists that his dad save himself. Shreck hesitates, but his cowardice prevails and he makes a break for it. However, once out of sight and assumes himself safe, the sewer grate drops out from under him and somehow deposits him directly into the Penguin’s lair.
In case it isn’t obvious, the vicious little baby that got thrown in the river 33 years prior grew up to become “The Penguin.” He lives with this weird troupe of criminal circus performers and a whole lot of emperor penguins, courtesy of the derelict Gotham Zoo and specifically the “Artic World” section within.
The Penguin – diminutive, rotund, dirty, crass, immodest – wishes to be respected and adored in the world above and wants Max to help him accomplish this. When Max claims he has no reason to assist him, the Penguin draws attention to the fact that anything that ends up down the drain ends up him possession. His first exhibit is a container of toxic waste from one of Shreck’s so-called “clean” manufacturing plants and that there’s tons more of it. Max is unflinching. Penguin then produces damning paperwork that Max had thought was shredded, though as the Penguin put it, all it took was “a lot of tape and a little patience.” Max is still unmoved.
Finally the Penguin whips out his coupe de grace, the hand and forearm of one Fred Atkins, a previous business associate of Shreck’s who Shreck claimed was on extended vacation. The little sewer man claims to have additional parts as well. This seems to be the tipping point for Max who now agrees to help orchestrate the Penguin’s re-emergence.
Selina comes home to an empty apartment save for her cat. A slew of depressing messages populate her answering machine – a couple of desperate calls from her mother, a guy who she was going on a Christmas getaway with cancels on her, and the last one is from herself, reminding her she has to go all the way back to the office to prepare for Shreck’s meeting with Mr. Wayne in the morning.
As she thumbs through a filing cabinet later that night, Max returns from his underground excursion. She describes in great detail all the prep work she’s done, obviously eager to please and even impress her boss. She mentions accessing his protected files by way of guessing his password and inadvertently reveals that she’s found the gimmick behind Shreck’s supposed “power plant.” Selina describes it as a capacitor that draws power and stores it, rather than something that creates additional power. This is obviously a secret Max wants to keep hidden, though his purpose behind wanting such a contraption is as of yet unknown. It is too late by the time Selina realizes just how she’s overstepped, genuinely terrified, she promises to keep the secret and consents to being bullied because, as she puts it, “it’s not like you can just kill me!” With a calculated coldness he replies, “actually, it’s a lot like that.”
Selina is sick with fear as Max edges closer with a menacing glint in his eye. Just as the tension crescendos be breaks character with a joking smile. Selina’s relief is immediate but before she can finish her sentence Max pounces, shoving her through the window where she falls several stories to her presumed death. However, this is Gotham City… Shreck saunters off, cool as a cuke, while Selina’s body grabs the attention of dozens of stray cats. They flock towards her, encircle her, one of them even begins gnawing at her fingers. After a bit of twitching her eyes pop wide open.
She re-enters her apartment in a scene mirroring her previous return home but this time things are quite different. She seems to be in a trance, dropping her belongings and making a mess when feeding her cats. Once again she plays her messages, and once again her overbearing mother has called. She mentions something about Shreck’s (the department store that Shreck is mostly closely associated with) and Selina loses it, trashing her small living space. Her destructiveness leads to a burst of creativity. Using her sewing machine and whatever else is lying around – mainly some kind of vinyl / pleather jacket – she fashions a skin-tight suit with a cowl resembling that of a cat. Selina also gives herself retractable “claws” to complete the “Catwoman” image. As the camera pans out, we see that the neon letters on her wall that once spelled out “Hello There” are a little different. The “o” and “t” have been smashed, leaving behind an ominous warning: “Hell Here.”
The following day the mayor gives an impromptu speech vowing to crack down on crime and ensure that an attack like that of the Red Triangle Gang the night before doesn’t happen again. Speak of the devil, one of those clown-faced goons pops up, snatches the mayor’s newborn child from its mother’s arms, and hops straight down an open manhole. Anxious onlookers hear a shuffle, followed by something like, “take the baby, don’t hurt me ugly penguin man!” and a few seconds later, the Penguin uses his little platform to literally ascend with the infant.
Shreck’s plan was working. The press were already crowding around this novel aberration, and Penguin was doing his best to appear humble and timid. He respectfully requested some space so that he could find out who his parents were and perhaps understand why they did what they did. The Penguin spends all day at the Hall of Records with the entire affair becoming a major press event. Bruce is at first sympathetic, probably due to his own parental issues. However, as the day wears on, Bruce does more and more digging into these traveling freak shows and their connections to missing persons. By nightfall he is skeptical and believes that the Penguin already knows who his parents are. Alfred all but accuses him of being paranoid, though Bruce’s research leaves him more and more concerned.
The Penguin emerges sometime in the evening or night, has a big dramatic fall-on-knees moment in front of his parents’ grave, and addresses the excited crowd. “I am a man!” he proclaims. He has determined that he is one Oswald Cobblepot and reasons that when his parents saw a “shiny flipper” holding a rattle instead of “five chubby fingers,” “they freaked.” (I’ve always found this statement strange – he doesn’t exactly have “flippers.” The shiny black part is just a pair of gloves. His hands are deformed with his outer 3 fingers on each hand fused, but they’re still very much flesh and bone.) Despite his parents’ fear of him, he makes a show of publicly forgiving them (even though both are deceased).
The crowd is enamored by the Penguin’s gentleness and lack of need for bitterness, anger, or retribution. They praise his positive attitude and it looks like the guy is on the verge of becoming a role model.
Nearby a woman walks alone. Her would-be attacker snatches her down an alley but before he can follow through Catwoman is on the scene. She says some snarky shit about his small weiner, lands a couple of blows, and then slashes up his face with her new “claws.” The woman attempts to thank her fellow female but Catwoman damn near attacks her, accusing her of making it “too easy” and hoping that the Batman would come to her rescue. She officially identifies herself as Catwoman and then flips off into the night.
Bruce and Max meet the next morning about that ol’ power plant and Bruce echo’s the mayor’s sentiment – we’ve got enough power, dude. Again Max plays the, we’ll grow faster than you think card. Bruce stands firm, causing Max to get a little testy, implying that the plant will be built one way or another. Bruce concedes that such a thing may be possible now that Max has a crime lord (Penguin) in his back pocket. This really pushes his buttons and he issues the half-threat that were his assistant at the office she would’ve already escorted him out.
Max’s face is full of shock, a hundred questions, and even a little bit of fear as Selina ambles into view. The neurotic and uptight assistant has been replaced by a freer, more confident woman. Bruce remembers meeting her as Batman the night before. He evidently has some instant attraction to he, tripping over his own words so badly that he doesn’t seem to notice the tense, unspoken moment she shares with Shreck. Bruce notices the injuries on her head and hand, and Shreck takes the opportunity to jump in and ask if she hurt herself on her ski trip and if that’s why she’s back early. Selina flirts with disaster a little bit by claiming not to have total amnesia by playfully recanting odd childhood memories, but admitting that “last night” was a total blur.
NOTE: There is a bit of a time flub going on here. If we go by most of the dialog, the first night depicted in the movie is the lighting of the tree, the Red Triangle attack, and Selina’s “death” and transformation. Following that night would be the morning where Bruce and Max meet. It looks like this was the original plan, and that the entire day and night spent with the Penguin’s introduction was originally slated for a later point in the film. My guess is that they wanted to work the Penguin’s introduction in earlier, so they added an extra night in there. It doesn’t really affect anything aside from a few lines of dialog, so no real harm done.
Bruce and Selina seem primed for a future date; meanwhile, Chip, who is aware of his dad’s cold-blooded murder questions what to do about the resilient secretary. Max seems unconcerned, rhetorically asking, “who’d have thought Selina had a rain to damage?” He then delivers one of his best lines of the film while still speaking to Chip and adjusting his tie, “if she tries to blackmail me, I’ll drop her out a higher window.” I daresay Walken channels some inner mafioso to give the line some extra punch.
Later on Max visits the Penguin, who for the time being is held up in the upper levels of some building in the city with a few members of the Red Triangle. He urges the grotesque little man to come downstairs for a surprise, though it apparently the Penguin is in the middle of something important and doesn’t wish to be bothered with Max’s schemes. It turns out that the Penguin has a master plan of his own but that’ll come a little later. Max coaxes him downstairs with a raw fish; Penguin devours it about as disgustingly as possible as he descends the stairs to an applauding crowd.
The next stage of Max’s plan involves issuing a recall and putting the Penguin up for the position of mayor. Penguin doesn’t seem too keen on the idea but finally agrees after Max lists the various perks that will become available to him. This downstairs office is basically campaign headquarters, and various workers attempt to make the uncouth man-bird a little more palpable to the public. These early efforts are a total failure and show what a degenerate the Penguin really is; he chomps down on a guy’s nose for virtually no reason. All that’s left is to create a reason for the recall…a relentless onslaught by the Red Triangle oughta do it….
The attack begins that night, with lots of bombs and fires and general property damage. Batman does his best to clean up what he can, which includes flat-out killing a dude by stuffing a bomb down his pants, eventually running across Penguin for their first face-to-face meeting. Their conversation about who’s going to win this whole thing is brief due to none other than…Catwoman!…flipping into frame. The 3 animal-themed, issue-ridden, 30-somethings exchange glances, giving Catwoman time for a quick “Meow” before Shreck’s Department Store explodes behind her. While everyone else was dealing with the circus freaks, Selina was busy picking up her whip over in “Sporting Goods” and getting some practice in. She then broke the gas line and made her way outside just in time to bump into her fellow cosplayers.
The ensuing explosion precluded the ability of anyone to ask anyone else any questions, and instead offered Catwoman a chance to escape upwards. Penguin uses one of his fancy parasols to give chase while Batman uses his tried and true grapnel lines for his method of upward mobility. The Penguin presumably escapes to less fist-fighty shores, but the Bat and Cat begin trading blows. Catwoman even gains the upper hand at one point, holding Batman high above Gotham by the strength of her whip. Always prepare, Bats throws some kind of glowy blue thing at her which shatters against her arm and gives Batman enough of an opening to get his feet back on solid ground. Then it’s Catwoman who nearly slides off the roof, though Batman pulls her back up. They share a strange moment perched together on a narrow ledge until the lady in black sinks her claws into Batman. He reflexively punches her, sending her sailing off the roof and straight down into a large truck full of kitty litter. She lets the vehicle carry her away and Batman chooses to head home and lick his wounds.
Over at Penguin’s campaign HQ, the corpulent sewer-dweller denounces the current mayor’s ability to keep the city safe and officially announces his intention to vie for the spot. He makes his way to his quarters upstairs where Catwoman is waiting for him. The entire exchange is pretty difficult to watch because of how over the top and unnatural it is. Between Catwoman trying to act like both a literal cat and a temptress, and the Penguin with all of his grunting and groaning and making a bee-line for lube…I guess it’s supposed to be funny but it is goofy and embarrassing and unnecessary. She almost eats a bird, he almost kills a cat, she begins to “take a bath,” doing that thing where a cat will lick its paw and then rub its paw on its face…
Anyway the gist of it is pretty simple. Catwoman wants to team up with Penguin to rid Gotham of Batman. Apparently she feels rather slighted after he “napalm-ed” her arm (not napalm) and knocked her off a building (this doesn’t make much sense). The Penguin lets her in on a plan in-progress to take remote control of the Batmobile and blow it up. Catwoman warns him against this course of action, elaborating that turning Batman into a martyr will bring about even more challenges. Instead, she proposes that they bring him down to their level, framing him before disposing of him.
Bruce watches a televised announcement by the Penguin, asking the mayor to come for a re-lighting of the Christmas tree tomorrow night. He also openly wishes for Batman to attend in order to keep the peace.
During daylight hours Bruce and Selina run into each other on the street. Bruce seems to be doing some Christmas shopping while Selina stares at her reflection in a window and asks herself, “why are we doing this?” Bruce notices her less-than-stellar mood and invites her over to watch the tree re-lighting on TV at his place. Selina declines, so Bruce counters with an early dinner to which she agrees.
The pair chats fireside for a while before Bruce starts trying to go into “duality” and all that. Here is where we get our first of two references to Batman, where Bruce mentions his ex-girlfriend Vicki. Apparently it didn’t work out because Vicki just couldn’t handle his 2 sides. It isn’t long before they start getting intimate, but wandering hands threaten to dredge up old wounds – literally. Bruce flinches in pain as Selina’s body weight presses against his abdominal injury, and Selina does some calculated squirming to keep Bruce’s hand from brushing over her “napalm” (not napalm) wound. Commissioner Gordon then appears on TV, holding a bloodied Batarang found in the Ice Princess’ room…but no Princess in sight.
Bruce and Selina are both eager to get to the event, though neither wants to hurt the other’s feelings. Each of them have an awkward but humous conversation with Alfred about what to tell the other.
Batman is the first to arrive at the party, just in time to hear the mayor try reassure the citizens that everything is being done to keep everyone safe and so forth. He manages to find the Ice Princess but is ambushed by Catwoman. A quick scuffle ensues where Batman utters the iconic, “eat floor!” line, but Cats is able to escape with the hostage. Bats gives chase and find the Princess precariously positioned on the ledge. She claims that the crazy cat lady let her go, but Batman approaches cautiously. Penguin pops up and throws out an umbrella much like a spear (“Lawn dart!”) which opens and releases a swarm of bats. These throw the Ice Princess off balance, and Batman just isn’t quick enough to reach her. The end result is that the Christmas tree of Gotham is re-lit thanks to the Ice Princess landing on the switch, and the crowd looks up to see Batman at the edge, logically jumping to the conclusion that he simply shoved her off of the roof. Oh right, it probably doesn’t help that the tree was rigged to release even more bats on the unsuspecting crow when the tree was re-lit.
Gordon and a couple of unis make it to the roof and the unis immediately open fire – Gordon manages an order of “hold your fire!” about 6 or 8 shots too late. He falls to a lower rooftop that just happens to be where Catwoman is milling around because she’s able to pounce on him as soon as he lands. They have another strange psycho-sensual moment where Catwoman basically says “I like you” as she pulls out some mistletoe. “Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it, says the Bat on his back. “A kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it,” retorts the Cat. I guess this is supposed to me some hard-ass reply, but I don’t see it. Seems kinda corny if anything.
She then proceeds not so much to kiss him as she licks him…yeah more cringe cat shit that I think someone thought would elicit some kind of fetishistic response…I don’t know. We then get a taste of weird-ass Gotham cat-lore; Batman is apparently the second man to kill her (Shreck being the first) so technically speaking she’s got a whopping 7 lives left. Batman reiterates that he had been trying to save her. Catwoman then points out that he just now “tried to save” the Ice Princess and perhaps he should retire. There are some ham-fisted feminist undertones here that I think are uncalled for but the encounter is brief. Catwoman tries to recreate their previous encounter by stabbing him again but alas! The Bat has adapted (a nice touch) and her “claws” can no longer penetrate the Batsuit. He glides off into the night.
Catwoman and Penguin rendezvous with Penguin ready to celebrate their victory. Catwoman chides the little man for killing the Ice Princess. “I thought you only wanted toscare her,” she says. “She looked pretty scared to me!” replied the bird, followed by a cruel and indifferent cackle. With all of the vulgarity he can muster, he wishes to consummate his partnership with Catwoman. Completely revolted, Catwoman spells it out for him, “I wouldn’t touch you to scratch you.” Enraged, he manages to hook his parasol around her neck as it turns into a micro-helicopter. I guess the idea is that it goes up up up until Catwoman can no longer breathe or either runs out of juice and crashes. Doesn’t matter though; she frees herself within a moment or two and falls through a glass ceiling into a rooftop greenhouse, then shrieks loud enough to break whatever glass didn’t break during her fall. According to my math, now she’s down to 6 lives.
Batman makes his way back to his vehicle. Penguin reveals himself on the small screen built into the dash and takes control of the Batmobile from a remote location. Those circus performers must’ve been crazy tech-savvy to pull something like this off. The Penguin uses the opportunity to chase down pedestrians and cause some spectacular vehicular damage. He also can’t resist bragging about how beautifully his plan has been going so far. Being the smart cookie that he is, Batman decides to record this virtual confession. Fortunately Batman is also able to locate the foreign dongle and remove it. He continues to outrun the police and we’re treated to another awesome feature of this Batmobile: its transformation into the “Batmissile.” The sides peel away so that the entire vehicle is only as wide as the cockpit, the wheels fold in to accommodate, and it allows our hero to squeeze through tight spots.
Safe at home, Alfred remarks on the need of repairs for the Batmobile, citing security as a major concern. Bruce makes a lighthearted dig at his surrogate father, “Security…who’s the one that let Vicki Vale into the Batcave?” And there is reference number 2, as well as what I believe to be a humorous acknowledgement of something that the “real” Alfred would’ve never even considered.
When we rejoin Penguin he is extremely distraught over Batman’s survival, but Shreck assures him that the ploy has been successful. The waiting crowd has lost faith in both the major and the Caped Crusader and are primed to back Oswald Cobblepot as Gotham’s new leader. Penguin begins his speech, but Bruce and Alfred have other plans. From the Batcave they manage to jam the frequency that the Penguin is using and replace it with pieces of the recording taken from the Batmobile. Specifically the line, “I played this stinkin’ city like a harp from hell!” continues to repeat over the PA and the crowd immediately turns on him. Shreck publicly abandons the bird with a casual shrug. Penguin loses it as the crowd chucks lettuce and tomatoes at him, though he’s able to pop off rounds from his machine-gun-edition umbrella and scamper off. The police chase him through a park but for some unknown reason seem unable to catch up. A moment later a familiar footbridge comes into view, the very bridge where this creature had been abandoned to die some 33 years prior. Penguin clumsily topples over the edge to evade the encroaching officers, somehow finding his way back to his duck transport thing and then returning to his home in the disused zoo exhibit.
One of the circus lackeys congratulates him, “great speech Oswald!” and is promptly clocked in the face. “My name is not Oswald! It’s Penguin! I am not a human being! I’m an animal! Cold-blooded!” (A curious assertion to be sure. Birds are actually the only animals other than mammals which are endothermic, i.e. warm-blooded. Is this just a careless writing error? Or is it supposed to illustrate a random gap in Penguin’s knowledge? Or was it just supposed to fit with the fact that penguins live in cold climates?) Penguin requests his “lists” and then begins passing something out to what remains of the Red Triangle while he explains the big plan.
Through a coordinated effort, while all the rich parents are attending Shreck’s masquerade ball, the Penguin’s henchmen will kidnap all of Gotham’s first-born sons (a trait shared by the Penguin, naturally) and these children will then be tossed in the dark, cold waters of Gotham’s sewers to drown. These “lists” are what the villain has been accruing surreptitiously ever since that day spent in the Hall of Records. It explains all of his vague references to “other stuff,” his reluctance to devoting his time to becoming mayor, and his apparent over-reaction to Catwoman noticing some names on a list. The goal, according to Penguin, is for the children to suffer just as he has suffered, but this motivation seems flimsy at best. Firstly, the kids will die, they won’t spend 33 years growing up in the sewer. It’s the parents who will ultimately suffer.
Secondly, whether the children or the parents are the intended targets, neither have any bearing on the progenitor of his own suffering. I can’t tell if this is just bad writing or if the whole idea is that Penguin just wants to hurt people and this is the closet thing to a legitimate reason that he can contrive.
One of his goons expresses some uneasiness over kidnapping sleeping children and then drowning them – Penguin shoots him dead without hesitation. It’s a solid reminder not to let any sympathy we might have for the Penguin and his unfortunate circumstances get in the way of the fact that he is one bad dude.
(But seriously, if your boss orders you to kill multiple children, where do you think you’ll get by expressing even the slightest bit of trepidation over the task? If said boss has no qualms with murdering babies he definitely won’t be thinking twice about ending your life as well. Better off to just nod your head and feign compliance until you get the chance to split.)
Bruce arrives at Max’s party, conspicuously the only person we see not wearing a mask. Shreck finds him and the 2 jab at each other a bit. Bruce congratulates him on almost making a monster into the mayor though Shreck suggest that the real power rests within him. Bruce continues to mosey around looking quite lost until he finally spots Selina, who ironically, is also not wearing a mask. (I’ll touch on the symbolism here a little later on.) They slow dance together and Bruce admits that he only came to see her. Selina is flattered and a little surprised, though ultimately decides to come clean and confesses to Bruce that she’s actually here for Max. Nonplussed, Bruce begins to stammer about the pairing of Max and Selina. As soon as Selina realizes she’s given off the impression that there is some sort of romantic element between her and Max she’s thrown into a mild hysteria. To clear up any confusion, she retrieves a small pistol from her garter belt. Bruce tries to conceal the firearm as he realizes her intention to kill Max.
Selina’s sanity is rapidly cracking as she urges Bruce not to stop her. She believes Max deserves to die and suggests that Bruce also knows what a horrible person he is. He tries talking her down but she appear disinterested, instead focusing on a bundle of mistletoe that the couple is currently passing under. “You know,” she says nonchalantly, “mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it.” Bruce is beginning to have trouble keeping his own desires in check. “A kiss can be even deadlier…” he trails off. The blood drains from Selina’s countenance. “…If you mean it,” Bruce slowly finishes the line. “Does this mean we have to start fighting?” asks Selina nervously. “Let’s go outside,” answers Bruce.
But before the pair can exit, Penguin crashes the party from underneath, informing the elite Gothamites that his troops are currently gathering up their defenseless first-born sons. Penguin has come to nab Chip personally, though at Max’s insistence, Chip is allowed to remain and his father – uncharacteristically admirable – takes his place.
With Max now locked in a cage in the Penguin’s artic den, the Red Triangle “Organ Grinder” is above ground, driving a sort of “train” filled with cages of small children. Unbeknownst to him, Batman is on his trail. The Organ Grinder’s small monkey companion makes his way back to the Penguin with a note from Batman, informing him that the children will be unable to attend. This makes 2 plans in a row foiled by Batman, and Penguin is pissed. Time for Plan B’s Plan B, which evidently is to kill fucking everything.
He gathers his actual penguins in some kind of amphitheater-like structure, each of them adorned with a harness, a rocket, and a little helmet. He issues orders – not really sure how the penguins understand them – but the current order of business is for his animal troops to march to Gotham Plaza and then fire off the rockets. According to a random woman who functions like a countdown computer, projected casualties are 100,000.
While all this is unfolding, Batman is continuing to do his thing in style. In Act III of Batman he went airborne in the Batwing, and now in the sequel he takes to the tunnels of the underground with the Bat-Ski Boat. This large machine navigates the narrow passages with ease, both honing in on the Penguin’s exact location and tapping into the frequency guiding the actual penguins. With Alfred’s help, the penguins reach Gotham Plaza but fail to fire off their rockets, and are instead directed back towards the zoo. As the Bat-Ski Boat closes in, the remaining circus freaks abandon Penguin, forcing him to escape on his own. He uses his duck to get out of their, but some precise timing with the Bat-Ski Boat sees it crash through a wall and “decapitate” the mechanical duck.
Penguin is at the end of his rope. Batman draws his attention to a device in his hand, and the would-be mayor notices that all the penguins are now back at the zoo. He swings his parasol-sword wildly at the Bat and actually manages to get the remote. I’m not sure why, but he presses the big red button, causing the rockets that each of the penguins are carrying to fire off. The zoo quickly fills with explosions and Penguin is knocked through a window, back down into the shallow water of his layer, seemingly dead.
It’s about this time that Max grabs the little monkey that possess the key to his cage. As he steps out, he is caught around the ankle with Catwoman’s whip. She is more than ready to kill him but Batman ziplines on in there and tries to talk her down. Max tries to thank him but gets the big old face palm from Bats and a, “shut up, you’re going to jail.” Catwoman, disshelved and unhinged, is still very much out for blood. Batman peels off his cowl to appeal to her as Bruce Wayne, reminding her of how simple it’d be to just turn him in and go home, together. She nearly relents, but gives Bruce a quick scratch before telling him that she’d never be able to forgive herself.
Max, who is just now putting all of this together as he discovers who Bats and Cats truly are, injects a little bit of dark humor into things here at the end. First he gives Selina a firm, “You’re fired!” Then he asks why Bruce Wayne is dressed up like Batman. And Selina, frail and frazzled as she is, belts out, “Because he is Batman, you moron!” Rather unexpectedly, Max comes out with a deadpan, “not anymore” and shoots Bruce before taking aim at Selina. She recounts her previous deaths at the hands of Max, Bats, and Penguin, and wonders if Max has enough bullets for the rest of her lives. One, two shots ring out. “Four five…” she counts off. One, two more shots. “Six seven…” The gun is empty. Batman composes himself just in time to watch Selina kiss Max with the stun gun between them while she grabs a high voltage cable just above her head. Sparks fly and machinery crumbles and it takes a moment for it to all calm down.
And then, like a foul, bloated zombie, the Penguin rises from his watery grave, while viscous black blood oozes from his nose and mouth. He creeps towards Bruce, preoccupied with digging through the rubble left by Selina. The Penguin grabs a parasol and aims at Bruce…but it’s a “cute one.” The unmasked Batman watches this grotesque thing lumber ever closer, but apparently Penguin is getting a little too warm and requires some ice water before he can properly murder Bruce. He collapses face first near the edge of the water. A moment later, 6 large penguins enter the chamber and like avian pallbearers, sort of slide Penguin’s body back into the cold waters from whence he came.
As the exhibit continues to deteriorate around him, Bruce soon uncovers the charred remains of Max Schreck, looking a lot like Tony from Batman except with eyes. Selina, or any trace of her, is nowhere to be found. If you’re keeping up you know she’s still got one life left.
.
Not long afterwards Bruce would catch a glimpse of something outside the car window. He asks Alfred to stop and rushes into the empty alley. And it is in fact empty. Just as he turns to leave a small black cat rubs against Bruce’s leg. He takes the cat back to the car, and he and Alfred wish each other a Merry Christmas. In one final scene, the camera pans upward from the streets of Gotham. The Bat-signal appears. Normally we’d catch big man pop into frame at this point but wait, no, it’s Catwoman! Is she Gotham’s newest vigilante? Or is she there to settle an old score? We may never know. We won’t ever know. This last scene was tacked on just before the public release after test groups responded unfavorably to the ambiguity of Catwoman’s status
after she killed Shreck. So the studio called in a stand in (that is not Pfeiffer in the final shot), got a nice shot of the back of head, and stuck Gotham-by-night in the background.
So that’s a wrap. Batman has returned. Successful? Enjoyable? Worthwhile? Let’s talk about it.
Before really getting under the hood of Batman Returns I think it’s necessary to understand how truly dark and bleak and visceral this film is. To quote one of Roger Ebert’s sentiments about the film, “the PG-13 rating is a joke.” While it is fair to say that there’s a fair bit of camp and purposeful exaggeration present, these aspects don’t somehow negate the darker aspects; if anything, they work to highlight these moments by contrast. This might be the closest thing we have in mainstream cinema as of right now that fits a superhero story into the mold of a horror movie, or at least something very similar.
Ebert would also go on to mention that children were being led from theaters in tears after watching Returns and funnily enough, I can attest to that first hand. I was 7 years old at the time and well-acquainted with the ’89 film, so it seemed only natural for my mom to take me to see the sequel one Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I remember feeling uneasy as soon as it became evident that whatever was in that little box snatched up the family cat. Penguin himself is quite a sight as well, especially on the big screen, but I was pretty good at separating fiction from reality even at that age, and I at least internalized that, as gruesome as Penguin was, he was not real. He was a guy dressed up to look like this.
I remember my anxiety really ramping up about the time Selina came home for the second time, after she’d been pushed out the window. The way she slovenly drank the milk from the cartoon and poured it all over herself, the total freak out where she started smashing everything “cute” in her apartment and jamming stuffed animals down the garbage disposal…this is what really started to break me. This was a regular woman smashing up regular stuff, not some costumed megalomaniac wielding a death machine. I’d also been amply softened up by the preceding scene where creepy-ass Christopher Walken victimized poor timid Michelle Pfeiffer. The cats gnawed on her bloody fingers and her eyes rolled back in her head…
My mom was aware of my discomfort. I did manage to survive a few more minutes under the assurance that we could leave if I wanted to and it would be OK. Shortly thereafter Catwoman has her first outing as Catwoman, and she rescues a young lady from a random thug. She runs her claws down the man’s face and then across (like ‘Tic-Tac-Toe’) and even though it isn’t a very gory scene cat scratches are something I could very much relate to at that age. I told my mom I’d had enough and we left. I don’t think I was quite in tears as per Ebert’s observation, but I was close enough.
In some ways, these things that made Batman Returns an inappropriate children’s movie really helped it solidify its place as a memorable and evocative superhero movie. I believe that the underlying incongruency was that all this darkness and insanity and visual spectacle were done because this was a Tim Burton film, not because it was a Batman film. Of course the world of Batman can be dark and unnerving, disturbing and provocative, weird and nightmarish, but I think the majority of what we see in Batman Returns is “Burton-flavored” darkness / weirdness / whatever rather than “Batman-flavored” darkness / weirdness / whatever. In fact, you can build a pretty clean stylistic bridge between Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas using Returns. (Yes I know Edward Scissorhands is in the middle of all that, I’m just much less familiar with it.)
So, barring the fact that children under the age of 10 or 11 probably aren’t ready for this flick, what makes it compelling? Why does it endure as such a divisive unique piece of Batman media? The biggest draw without a doubt is the characters and the actors and actresses that bring them to life. Starting with our hero, Keaton does a fine job of both reprising his role from Batman and building on the character in believable ways. More than a few Batman stories suffer because the character of Batman himself begins to eclipse the specific narrative and the external events all become a foil for the exploration of Batman’s psyche..but not here. We don’t get all hung up on how these events can possibly lead us to a better understanding of who Batman is; Batman’s just doin’ his thing and that’s the way it ought to be.
Keaton specifically suggested to Burton that he say as little as possible when in costume in order to draw the line between Bruce and Bats as concretely as possible. I’m not sure I’d necessarily notice this going on, but I do think it was effective. We only actually see Batman in fits and spurts; despite the movie having overall more action that it’s predecessor, Batman is used more sparingly (or at least that’s what it feels like to me; I don’t have an exact rundown of minutes and percentages). Some fans will want a more broody Dark Knight but I don’t mind the levity that Keaton brings to the role. He feels very normal and down to earth, though perhaps at the expense of coming across as a bit bland and boring. I wish we saw a little more of Bruce Wayne being Bruce Wayne, such as his awkward but endearing early interactions with Selina.
About that Selina… Michelle Pfeiffer certainly gives one of the most memorable performances of her career in this role but I feel like whatever “the crazy” looked like on paper didn’t 100% translate to the screen. I don’t know whether to blame her or the script, but I do feel like the script and/or Burton’s direction of “being crazy” wasn’t well-tailored to Pfeiffer’s strengths and weaknesses. Nearly everything that comes out of her mouth as Catwoman is cringeworthy. They’re bad middle schooler jokes with lots of not-so-subtle innuendo and/or double entendre. She also does her best to active this deep, smokey voice that you might expect to come from a procuress in an adult film. She was only around 34 years old at the time of Returns, and although she was beautiful with a body to die for, she has a mature look about her that clashes harshly with that cutesy sort of borderline-infantile way of speaking.
As Catwoman, the character is broken and off the rails. As Selina Kyle, Pfeiffer does a much better job of portraying a woman who is breaking and still at conflict with herself. She excels at portraying the insignificant, neurotic assistant and even nails the transition into empowered carefree spirit such as when she’s with Bruce. I thinks she sticks the landing at the end very well too, it’s just all the PG-13-flavored cocktease stuff in between that brings the role down.
It all makes a little more sense when you know that Catwoman was originally envisioned as purely a seductress – that’s where the S&M-inspired Catsuit came from. Most of the overt sexualization was culled by the time the final draft came around, but the feminist overtones that had always been integral to her character remained, albeit reworked into her origin as a “servant” (assistant) who was very submissive besides.
Personally I’ve never been the biggest fan of this “nutcase” version of Catwoman. In most media she’s strong-willed and competent, very street-smart, and very down to earth. This unhinged, looney-bin version feels like some kind of Joker victim and doesn’t capture the independent, self-sustained spirit that typically defines the anti-hero. I guess they did what they did for Returns to help drive home the concept of duality, and that’s fine, but “duality” isn’t really Catwoman’s schtick.
Love him or hate him, Danny DeVito’s portrayal of the Penguin is impossible to ignore. His diminutive stature and the absolutely unsettling makeup give him a ghastly appearance. I don’t even know how to describe him. Yeah he’s bird-like, but he’s closer to some kind of deep water arctic fish…like an anglerfish or a goblin shark. Was the Penguin just a funny-looking little man or was he actually deformed? I think it’s fair to say that this is up for interpretation, and Burton decided to really push the deformity factor. It’s easy to dislike this version, but it’s hard to forget it, and that’s the hallmark of an effective design.
Even beyond the looks, DeVito perfects Penguins’ snarl and he develops a sort of waddle-shuffle to further connect him to the world of his namesake. We all notice the beaked nose, gnarly teeth, and deformed hands, but it’s the little touches that push the character over the edge: the wiry, greasy hair, the dingy Victorian-era clothes, the mysterious oily black liquid…you can almost smell the guy through the screen – the thick scent of dead and rotting fish with an undercurrent of human filth.
I can totally sympathize with the fact that this wasn’t the Penguin a lot of people wanted. In a lot of Batman comics, the Penguin is more of a facilitator, a schemer, a backer, but he’s not going toe to toe with Batman. Aspects of this crime lord persona are drawn upon for DeVito’s version, though this is a much more primal and less cerebral character than the civilized gangster most of us are used to. For the story that Batman Returns wanted to tell I think the change was acceptable enough and really any ol’ human could double as some sort of mob boss. It makes sense to give Penguin a more twisted edge
The last big player, Max Schrek, is the glue that was created to hold the other 3 together. He has no comic book counterpart, and although some suggest he filled the role that would’ve gone to Harvey Dent, it seems like Shreck was almost envisioned as his own entity. Christopher Walken without a doubt steals every scene he’s in. He’s charismatic yet eerie, cordial but mysterious, magnanimous but clearly dangerous. His affect straddles that of high ranking mobsters and something else, something more sinister, almost supernatural even. Everything from his cadence to this word choice to his mannerisms and facial expressions seem to suggest something very inhuman about his humanity.
Shreck is meant to be representative of an earlier 20th Century industrialist. Greedy, ambitions, shrewd, a devotee of capitalism…he’s willing to pay the high price of progress. But even beyond all that, he’s kinda just a bad dude that enjoys being bad. However, his son Chip does seem to be a weak spot for him. Despite how cowardly he was early on when Chip jumped in front of Penguin’s thugs and told him to save himself, Max appears to show genuine concern for Chip when he convinces Penguin to leave his son behind and to take him instead. He also mentions on more than one occasion that his new “power plant” was part of what he was leaving as his legacy to his son. It’s difficult to reconcile these aspects of his character with the fact that he pushed Selina out of a window – and was apparently ready and willing to do it again if necessary – and also attempted to kill Bruce/Batman, not to mention whatever crazy shit he had done previously such as murdering his former associate Fred (the arm that Penguin used as blackmail). My best guess is that this is once again meant to illustrate the duality that drives the main characters.
For the most part I feel like Batman Returns is slightly more entertaining than Batman, mostly due to the increase in action and better pacing. However I do feel like the story itself is a bit weaker and that too much of the Joker’s “goofy factor” was carried over. The main issue I take with the story is the muddy motivation of some of the characters. Penguin’s revenge plot sounds like it makes sense, but if you really dig into it, it’s unclear who he’s trying to punish, why he’s trying to punish them, and what connection any of it has to his parents. He says he wants the first-born sons of Gotham to suffer as he suffered, but they won’t, they’ll just drown and die. The real suffering will fall on their parents, but what do they have to do with Penguin’s misfortune? Perhaps if he had tried to make a life for himself above ground and then was driven back into the sewers because of the ridicule and alienation of the average Gothamite I could understand. But these parents have literally done nothing to him, directly or indirectly.
Maybe the takeaway here is that the Penguin wants somebody to pay for his suffering and he doesn’t really care who. Isn’t that what a supervillain is supposed to do? Inflict pain and suffering for weak and/or no good reason? Usually villains are vying for some degree of control, which he would gain as a mayor, but this doesn’t seem to be a primary concern. Much like Nolan’s Joker 16 years later, it would seem that Penguin just wants to watch the world burn. Or maybe freeze.
Catwoman’s motivations are even more nebulous. At first it would seem like she’s on the same side as Batman. Obviously she sees Max in a similar light that Bruce does; corrupt, greedy, a bad dude. She even rescues that poor girl during her first official outing as Catwoman. So why did she run to the Penguin with a pitch for an alliance? She says it’s because Batman “knocked her off a roof” but this is ridiculous – Batman actually saved her from falling, then she stabbed him, and then he clocked her more or less out of self-defense.
Knowing that there are major feminist underpinnings to the character I guess we can say that she’s uncomfortable with any man in any position of power, especially those that directly, physically threaten her. Maybe she thinks Batman has to go because he’s a man and quite probably stronger than her, I don’t really know. In some ways I feel like they just wanted Catwoman to be the villain, so she has to has to have an adversarial relationship with Batman because she’s the villain. Whatever the case may be, she is far from fully fleshed out. She isn’t meaningfully established as either an anti-hero or villain. She isn’t malicious or sadistic so it doesn’t really work to paint her as a bad guy, but she’s a little too “looney toons” to act as a source of virtue or admiration.
What we needed in the case of Selina Kyle was an arc that showcased growth – she starts out as a very morally black-and-white vigilante with no mercy and no remorse and with a few twists of her own plus some guidance from Batman begins to develop some level of nuance when judging others and tries to act more in line with justice rather than vengeance. She doesn’t have to be Mary Fuckin’ Poppins by the time the credits roll, but it would’ve been nice to see her walk the path that was at least running parallel to Batman’s path by the end. Sadly Burton plus the writers seemed more interesting in crafting a story chronicling not her growth, but her decline.
As for Max, well, his motivations were the simplest and made the since. He was a greedy capitalist obsessed with power, influence, and posterity. If you could help him achieve these things then excellent, he’d help you. If you couldn’t, well, you at least better not stand in his way. One’s moral standing had absolutely nothing to do with their value to Max, simple as that.
My last major qualm with Returns is how so much of the bad guy “stuff” was almost “Joker-fied,” as if to try to subtly keep pace with the previous film. There are just way too many aspects of the villains that revolve on something that is traditionally seen as comedic being subverted and presented as something sinister. Right from the jump, the Penguin’s main foot soldiers are a gang of creepy clowns. Virtually all of Catwoman’s dialog consists of cat puns. Shreck has that big goofy cat face everywhere. Penguin uses one of those quarter ride machines to remotely control the Batmobile. He uses a giant rubber duck to get around the sewers. The audience chucks vegetables at the Penguin as the “boo” him! It’s almost like pitting good against bad isn’t enough – they feel obligated to juxtapose Batman’s serious demeanor with shit that is just plain silly
Call it an oversimplification if you must, but I like trying to nail down the theme of a movie to a single word. With a little help from what Burton and others have said about Batman Returns I think, with relatively high confidence, we’ve found that word: duality. Obviously the concept and character of “Batman” embodies a certain degree of duality but the river runs a tad deeper in this second installment. I don’t want to launch into a full dissertation on the topic (at least not now…) but I do want to at least point out what I’ve noticed.
All of our main characters are defined by their dualism. Batman’s is 2 fold: there’s the obvious conflict of Bruce Wayne, billionaire playboy vs. Batman, crime fighting vigilante. But there’s also the shallow, aloof, materialistic traits that define Bruce Wayne versus the strong moral convictions of Batman, as well as his perseverance, resilience, and selflessness. “Batman” may physically don the mask, but “Bruce Wayne” is a mask, a persona created so that “Batman” is able to thrive. It is Bruce Wayne whom he “pretends” to be, so that he may live out his true passion and purpose as the Bat Man.
This aspect is reinforced at Shreck’s masquerade ball. Bruce and Selina are the only ones not wearing literal masks, and yet they are the only ones who wear actual masks in other areas of their life unlike the other partygoers. We can surely view this as simple irony, i.e. “the two that actually do wear masks show up to the masquerade without masks” but we can also go a layer deeper and reason that the normal(ish) folks we call “Bruce” and “Selina” are the masks and they can only live out how they truly feel when they put on their physical masks. The idea that “Bruce is the mask, Batman is the ‘real’ version of this man” is nothing new when it comes to Batman in general, but most media outside of the comic books doesn’t bother to dig this deep and it’s nice to see Returns flirt with the concept.
Selina is a bit on the insane side, but it isn’t difficult to see that the timid, weak, pushover that she play in Shreck’s office isn’t who she wants to be. Being Catwoman (or really, becoming Catwoman) frees her and empower her to speak her mind, to stand up for herself and others, to do anything aside from existing as a servant, a punching bag, an object. As the film progresses though, it’s evident that she needs to put limits on the “Catwoman side” of her identity. Getting herself out from under the thumb of oppression is by all accounts a good thing, but when this feeling of taking control starts turning into violent and murderous desires she runs the risk of tearing down all that she has gained by blossoming. The optimal balance lies not in the subservient assistant that she can never go back to, nor in the insatiable, revenge seeking persona of Catwoman that she can’t stop herself from falling into. She must accept the fact that within her exists the capacity to be both abused and abusive and successfully mediate these extremes. Unfortunately her journey in Batman Returns never quite takes her this far.
The Penguin spends his time during the film walking the thin line between acceptance and rejection, between adoration and ridicule, between respect and fear. The Penguin is selfish and unconcerned with who he may hurt as he works towards his goals, yet it is precisely this attitude and accompanying behavior that keeps his desires just out of reach. Max is integral in shaping Penguin’s socialization, though it’s worth remembering that Penguin actually chose Max to be the one to orchestrate his reintroduction to the world. Penguin’s duality is his struggle between his “animal-like” tendencies to do what feels good when it feels good and his desire for more complex and fulfilling forms of satisfaction that require some amount of sustained effort to achieve.
Penguin seems to find and manage his middle-ground to a much greater extent than Catwoman. He successfully erects a front as a pitiable orphan and makes appreciable strides towards becoming mayor, yet he is still able to act on his degenerate nature behind closed doors. In the end, his need to be seen and heard is his undoing. He cannot resist gloating to Batman about the giant hoodwink he’s pulled on the citizens of Gotham. He’s gained the recognition of Max, he’s been accepted by Gotham City, and now all he needs is some measure of fear or respect from the Batman himself; something, anything to acknowledge Penguin’s significance, his superiority in this situation. Not only does Batman deny him this validation, he tears it completely down without really having to do anything.
Max seems to reconcile his nature as a terrible person by trying to be an excellent father. Figuring out what makes him tick is a little more difficult; we have no real backstory on him, nor does the story provide him a handler or mentor or family member to act as a foil.
It’s interesting to ponder what Max must’ve been thinking when he voluntarily followed Penguin down into the sewers near the end. Did he simply think he had a better chance of surviving whatever Penguin would throw at him? Was he actually willing to lay down his life for Chip’s guaranteed survival? It’s one of the more interesting unanswered questions of the movie.
Are there any other avenues of duality to discuss in Batman Returns? Maybe. You could probably make good points that Batman and Catwoman represent duality in vigilantism – Bats is shooting more for justice and Cats is closer to vengeance. Bruce Wayne and Max Shreck embody the dualism of the rich and powerful. Do you use your position selflessly and become a philanthropist (Wayne), or do you amass wealth in the name of greed and desire (Shreck)? Finally Bruce and Penguin illustrate the duality of being orphaned. Bruce was able to feed off of the love and support of Alfred, Gordon, and probably many others in Gotham’s upper crust. He goes on to become a hero. The Penguin, thrown away like literal trash and completely forgotten, becomes a villain.
The sands of time have worn away some of the once-sharp edges of Batman Returns and it will continue to do so into the future. It will become an ever-smaller proportion of Batman media as more movies and books and games are created. However, it will always been impossible to watch this flick without it leaving some sort of impact. For better or worse this movie is a “visual assault.” Images of the grotesque bird-man alongside the fetishistic cat-lady are not easily forgotten. And that may be the legacy that Returns carries with it. And maybe that’s ok. It’s still a Batman film after all. I would probably stop just shy of considering this “required viewing” for DC fans, simply because of how evocative it can be at times. But if you can stomach it, it’s solid entertainment with a slew of truly unique performances. When it comes to children you of course know your own best just be cautious.
But hey, if you’ve got a knot in your stomach and your hands ready to cover your eyes, you can relax. You know all that talk about Batman Returns being “too dark”? Yeah well fear not, because the studio was of the same belief and come the next installment, the franchise was barley recognizable. Be sure to check it out!
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