This film might be called Batman Returns, and it might feature Batman on all the marketing material that went with it, but if you were expecting a film about Batman youd be dead wrong. This film really isnt about Batman, its about villains, ghouls, and strange characters, like pretty much everything else that Tim Burton has put his hands on. Its not that Burton hates Batman but he dotes far too much on the films antagonists because of the introverted nature of Batmans character. He even said as much in the book 'Burton on Burton', claiming I probably got a little carried away. I just found interest in all of them and I think I kind of evened them all outWe tried to give the Penguin a foundation and a psychological profile. I probably gave it too much, spent too much time on it. This might not be too much of a problem if there was just the one villain; but there were three the Penguin, Catwoman, and Max Shreck. And when you try and treat them equally (when the film should really have an emphasis on one character more than the others), the balance inevitably goes out of kilter. In the space of over two hours, Batman probably has 15 minutes in the film, and these minutes are VERY weak. He spends a considerable amount of time driving away from danger, or simply staring at things. Sadly, the most Batman-esque moment actually comes from Catwoman as she stops a woman being raped by beating up her captor after slinking out of the shadows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LE3vtU8CZk Its not unreasonable to point out that if your antagonist is channelling your protagonist, better than the actual protagonist is, then there are some serious issues with plot and characterisation.
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