The Dark Knight Rises Legacy: Do The Original Batman Films Still Hold Up?
Batman Returns (1992)
Sequels are always challenging for writers and directors to pull off. For evidence of that, you need only look at recent superhero flops like Spider-Man 3, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, all of which all-but-killed off their respective franchises. How does Tim Burtons follow-up Batman Returns measure up, then, twenty years on from its release? The director and his script writer Daniel Waters wisely choose to expand the scale of the universe for their second piece, including both the fearsome Penguin (Dannie DeVito) and the elusive Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer) in their storyline. Although the actual motivations behind the former villains fight against Gotham are shallow and undeveloped, its intriguing to see a character seep into the public eye of the city as a political figure, even if the sub-plot does get resolved in a rushed manner. Pfeiffer does a much better job than Halle Berry in her role as Batmans feline adversary, maintaining an ambiguous stance on justice thats refreshing in a franchise where things can too often seem black-and-white for right and wrong. Again, Keaton shares great chemistry with his co-star, working marvellously in his role as a character conflicted by duty and romance. Itll be interesting to compare this on-screen relationship with Christian Bale and Anne Hathaways when The Dark Knight Rises arrives next Friday! There are pacing issues here and there (it astounds me that each of these films managed only to be cut down to two hour running times), but Returns boasts a refreshing confidence and vigour in its approach to the superhero genre. I would rank this as the best entry in the classic series of Batman movies- which is a good thing, because things only go downhill from hererating: 3.5
Click next below for part three as Joel Schmaucher takes over the series...