3. Batman Returns
Yes, Virginia, there
was a time when Batman movies were made by someone other than Christopher Nolan. The popular consensus on the '90s Batman franchise seems to break down thusly: there was the good one (the one with Jack Nicholson), there were the stupid ones (the ones where he had nipples)...and then there was the weird one, that one where Catwoman gets licked back to life by alley cats and Danny DeVito spits black gunk out of his mouth. The sequel to 1989's
monster hit Batman, Batman Returns opened just as Tim Burton -- probably the most unlikely blockbuster director in Hollywood history -- was becoming a brand, to the extent that Disney was able to market The Nightmare Before Christmas using his name. Batman Returns had big expectations, and a pretty big public fallout; the film opened huge but dropped fast, reviews were mixed, and a large portion of the audience was put off by the dark tone, the wild divergences from comic book continuity, and the generally macabre nature of the imagery. (Parent's groups boycotted McDonalds, who had done a tie in with the film.) Batman Returns was seen as enough of a disappointment that Warner Brothers performed the drastic measure of bringing in Joel Schumacher to "lighten up" the franchise (we all know how that worked out...), and until The Dark Knight "Bruce Wayne Retires" Rises was probably the most controversial film in the entire batcanon. Might I suggest, at the risk of blasphemy, that Batman Returns is actually much
better than the more culturally revered Batman? Batman has great performances, yes, and a kick ass Danny Elfman score and those beautiful Anton Furst designs (beautiful enough that they fundamentally changed the look of Gotham City in the comics --
no, armchair comic book historians, Gotham City was
not a particularly gothic place before Furst got his hands on it); but it also has a remarkably messy script, full of unnessecary characters (hello, Alexander Knox, you walking exposition machine!), undercooked plot lines, terrible plot turns (I don't care if nostalgia tells you otherwise, "You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?" is an
awful line and the lamest possible way for Batman to figure out Joker's identity), and a main character who never really comes into focus. (Is Batman a hero? Is he a vigilante? Is he crazy? Who cares -- let's go watch Jack Nicholson!)
Batman Returns takes even bigger leaps in logic (if your suspension of disbelief is hard to earn...then boy howdy, are you in for a rough ride...), and lets go of whatever tenuous grasp the franchise had up until now on comic book continuity, but taken
on its own, as an adaptation of the character and a film unto itself, it's far more cohesive -- and satisfying -- than its predecessor. The performances are fantastic: Michelle Pfeiffer gets (no kidding) the role of a lifetime as Selina Kyle, by turns seductive, vindictive, vulnerable, crazy and charming, Danny DeVito is actually ghoulishly great as Burton's freaky sewer mutant version of The Penguin, and Christopher Walken is given the character that perhaps best showcases all of his "Christopher Walken-isms", corrupt tycoon Max Schreck ("Selina Kyle -- yer FIRED! And Bruce Wayne...why're you dressed up like Batman?!"). But perhaps more than all that, Batman Returns represents a next step in the evolution of its director. Burton, who had essentially started out directing live action cartoons, had begun in Edward Scissorhands to introduce darker, sadder currents, more tragic ones. Batman Returns arguably gets the balance absolutely right -- this is a movie where Danny DeVito comically threatens Christopher Walken with a severed appendage ("Hiya Max, remember me?! I'm Fred's hand!"), but it also has perhaps the most beautifully acted scene in Burton's filmography, the dance between Selina and Bruce at the masquerade ball, where identities and intentions begin to slip and slide messily away, revealing two broken and vulnerable people. Batman Returns might just be Burton's best film: at times comic, at times tragic, always enthralling and strange and beautiful. ...oh, and it's got Batman in it, too.