Batman Returns

I found a 2 movies for $5 thing of the two Tim Burton Batman flicks. I think I must not have watched this in over 20 years. I'd forgotten pretty much all the innuendo. Penguin, 'Just the pussy I've been looking for.' 'No hard feelings? Well, semi-hard.' Also didn't remember Paul Ruebens playing Penguin's father at the beginning of the movie. Could the last time I watched this the whole way through really have been when I saw it in theaters with my dad?

OK, so the movie itself. I like the theatricality of the villains. Penguin gets to have actual weaponized umbrellas. The bit where he's controlling the Batmobile from one of those little kid rides outside grocery stores. Catwoman deciding she's just going to somersault up to and away from people. An entire crime circus. Are they all over-the-top, veering into ridiculous? Sure, but that's not a bad thing. Although the color schemes are a little dull and dingy. The city has some character to it, without venturing into Joel Schumacher's "we built enormous statues to hold up freeways" territory.

I like parts of DeVito's Penguin. The viciousness of him, how quick he is to do harm, or lash out, that works. The desire for a veneer of respectability, yes. So I guess it's really just the visual presentation. The black gums, the oversized infant onesie he wears. It plays into the idea all these notions he seizes on (which are really Max Schreck trying to use him) are just a mask, that however wealthy his parents might have been, that isn't how he grew up, and that isn't who he is. But it's a little too on the nose.

I'm less sure about Pfeiffer's Catwoman, but I don't think it's her fault. Her not being a thief disappoints me a little, but I don't think that would have fit what Burton's going for. Selina's constantly being expected to conform to what other people expect. Max, her mother, her (ex-)boyfriend. She's a supporting character in their stories. Batman isn't anyone's supporting character, and so that's what she tries to make herself. She does as she pleases, which I think explains the unfocused approach she takes throughout. Save a woman from a mugger, blow up a department store. Fight Batman, team-up with Penguin. Turn against Penguin.

The problem is, very little of it works out. Basically from the moment she runs into the other two "freaks", things start going downhill. Batman hits her on the arm with some acid. Penguin uses her to frame Batman for murder. Selina almost finds something with Bruce Wayne, but the things she's gotten herself into as Catwoman pull her away as surely as Batman does for Bruce. She's back to being a supporting character, putting her life and her desires on the back burner for Penguin's grandstand play to discredit Batman and elevate himself.

Really, it's probably more that the plot ultimately revolves around Batman vs. Penguin. The boy whose parents were taken from him, versus the boy whose parents didn't want him. The two that could, as Schreck notes, have been prep school chums in a different world. The one playing dress up as a giant bat, versus the one trying to dress up as a politician. Catwoman ends up shoehorned in, trying to make a space for herself in the plot. I don't know that it entirely works - though she's a fine example of the kind of person Schreck is, cautionary tale for Penguin if he knew it - but the emotional core of the movie between Selina and Bruce does mostly work. I felt for these two, trying to figure it out, but not being able to pull it off.

Michael Keaton's Batman doesn't seem to have resolved the "duality", as he puts, he's struggling with. He would like to be slightly awkward but generally pleasant Bruce Wayne, have quiet dinners with this lovely Selina Kyle, but he's not going to stop being Batman. I do like that Keaton's Bruce Wayne doesn't do the "boozy, idiot playboy" act. He's involved in the running of his business. If Max Schreck wants Wayne investment money in his power plant scam, he has to deal with Bruce, not Lucius Fox or some beancounter. And Bruce is on the ball, sees the scam for what it is, even if he doesn't outright say it.

Unfortunately, his Batman is still fairly kill happy, which is, not great. Takes a bomb off one clown, attaches it to another, throws him down a sewer access. Uses the rocket exhaust of the Batmobile on the fire eater. Doesn't even try to save Penguin. Sadly, I feel like Schumacher's Batman may be the only one that doesn't kill his enemies. I guess maybe Nolan's, if you agree not saving Liam Neeson is different from killing him. But Nolan's Batman also runs over cars with people in them in that Bat-tank, so those folks are probably dead.

The only one who seems truly comfortable in his own skin is Max Schreck (Christopher Walken with some real Doc Brown hair). It's easy for him to play the humble businessman for the crowds, while being the cruel, selfish, ruthless bastard inside all the time. The most unbelievable part of the movie for me is when Max actually asks to be taken hostage in place of his big, dumb son (Penguin calling him "Great White Dope" made me laugh.) Yes, more unbelievable than when a bunch of cats trying to eat Selina's body somehow brings her back to life, or whatever the hell happened in that scene. But you can argue that Max figures he can still manipulate Oswald, so it's fine. He'll talk this thing back around to his benefit. Max Schreck, selflessly surrendering himself to protect his son, such great copy.

As far as the Burton films, I still much prefer Batman (although I haven't watched it the whole way through in a while.) But I probably prefer this to almost any other Batman movie. Except Mask of the Phantasm, certainly. Love that movie. (My feelings on The Dark Knight fluctuate with how willing I am to accept the nature of Nolan's version of Batman, with the tank, and Bale's absurd Bat-voice and so on.)