7. The Comic-Book Style
We all know that Tim Burton is a visionary. A brilliant one, at that. Many films that he does are re-imaginings of books or films that already exist. In this case however, he is creating a film out of a comic book superhero. Now I'm not going to ramble on and pretend I actually have comic book knowledge - I truly don't. Though I do indeed know what they look like and the general style of them. Of course Batman and Batman Returns do not look identical to a comic book yet they do carry certain elements that make it feel like some scenes have jumped right out of one. Tim Burton has managed to capture the ambiance of Gotham City that we know and love in such a way that pays tribute to the original format of the stories. Dark, gloomy colours set the mood and make us believe that Gotham is really the crime-ridden city from the comic books. Rich, bright colours occasionally seen in costumes and makeup cause the characters to really stand out from the setting and aid in bringing this dreamlike world created by DC comics to life. In these two films, Tim Burton creates an astounding combination of reality and surrealism, which makes for a couple of very entertaining and interesting films to watch. Everything appears dull and dreary until a villain or Batman himself arrives on-screen and Gotham City becomes this fantastical world that we thought could only exist in the pages of our favourite comic books.