BATMAN RETURNS (1992) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

batman RETURNS (1992) movie

Genre              |   Fantasy Action

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   126 minutes

Released         |   19 June 1992 

cast

Michael Keaton ... Batman / Bruce Wayne
Danny DeVito ... Penguin
Michelle Pfeiffer ... Catwoman / Selina
Christopher Walken ... Max Shreck
Michael Murphy ... Mayor
Pat Hingle ... Commissioner Gordon
Michael Gough ... Alfred
Cristi Conaway ... Ice Princess
Andrew Bryniarski ... Chip
Vincent Schiavelli ... Organ Grinder

director

Tim Burton

writer

Bob Kane ... (Batman characters)
 
Daniel Waters ... (story) and
Sam Hamm ... (story)
 
Daniel Waters ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Stefan Czapsky ... director of photography

music

Danny Elfman

film editor

​Bob Badami ... film editor
Chris Lebenzon ... film editor

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​266,903,053​  

Australia                 $​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​​​​162,902,340​ ​

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movie minutiae

Neither Tim Burton nor Michael Keaton had been signed up in advance for a sequel. Burton came on-board only after the script met all of his demands (he hadn't been entirely happy with BATMAN (1989)'s screenplay), while Keaton only agreed to do the second film after a serious hike in salary, and Burton's assurance that it would be mostly a stand-alone movie rather than a direct sequel.

The first script draft of this movie was intended to be a direct sequel to the previous BATMAN (1989). As a result, subplots and continuity from the first film that would have been addressed, included gift shops selling fragments of the destroyed Bat-Wing, further revelations into the past of the now deceased Jack Napier (The Joker), and even Bruce Wayne proposing to Vicki Vale by the end of the film. However, Tim Burton was uncomfortable in making a direct sequel, and as a result, the script was re-written, and a new Gotham City was designed. However, several plot elements from the original script did make it into the final draft. This included The Penguin and Catwoman's alliance, their framing of Batman, and The Dark Knight's escape via Bat-Glider. Further elements even made their way into the third film, BATMAN FOREVER (1995), most notably an invasion of Wayne Manor and the Batcave.

Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Keaton as Adrian Toomes (The Vulture) in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING (2017) and Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne (The Wasp) in ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (2018).

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related movies

BATMAN FOREVER (1995)

BATMAN RETURNS (1992) MOVIE IMAGES

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BATMAN RETURNS (1992) STORY SYNOPSIS

​​In the second of the blockbuster Batman films,the physically deformedcriminal genius The Penguin threatens Gotham City--and,helpless,theentire city can only pray that Batman Returns. Only Batman (MichaelKeaton) can defend the city from total chaos as The Penguin (DannyDeVito) lays twisted waste to a great metropolis. Meanwhile,the DarkKnight may have met his equal in the lethally lithe Catwoman (MichellePfeiffer)--only he doesn't know if she is feline friend ... or foe.

BATMAN RETURNS (1992) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 9 June 2020

​​Pop Movee Rating

The success of the 1989 BATMAN film, propelled largely by Jack Nicholson's scenery-chewing turn as the Joker & a budget to match director Tim Burton's creative ambition, allowed the 1992 sequel - BATMAN RETURNS to indulge the more fantastique corners of the Batman mythology.

Free from the need to prove its worth to focus groups and cross-merchandising deals, BATMAN RETURNS accentuated the bizarre, turning both Penguin and Catwoman into grotesque characters whose psychological damage becomes the catalyst for unleashing their rage upon Gotham City. 

In recent times, there has been a revisionist school of thought that BATMAN RETURNS’ primary genre classification should be as a Horror film.

There’s certainly merit to this…

The central theme explored throughout the film is that of the dual-character that can exist within the same person. The classic Jekyll & Hyde story runs throughout the entire film but is personified by Michelle Pfieffer’s Selena Kyle/Catwoman. There’s also a strong emphasis upon the “extraordinary”; Penguin’s inexplicable physical appearance and Selena’s ability to survive a fall from a tall building among the most obvious.

Tim Burton returned to direct the second film. Michael Keaton also returned, reprising the role of Bruce Wayner/Batman after demonstrating in the first film, against fan expectation, to be more than capable of playing the dual character.

Daniel Waters wrote the screenplay, based on a combination of story ideas from he had developed with input from BATMAN (1989) co-writer Sam Hamm. 

Waters had come to prominence with his screenplay for the 1989 cult film HEATHERS. Soon after, he was drafted to write the screenplay for Andrew Dice Clay’s feature film foray, THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE (1990), followed by HUDSON HAWK (1991), the uneven Bruce Willis Action Comedy also starring Richard E. Grant. 

Immediately after writing BATMAN RETURNS, Waters went on to write the 1993 Sylvester Stallone & Wesley Snipes Science Fiction Action vehicle DEMOLITION MAN (1993). As quickly as he had emerged as one of Hollywood’s most recognisable writers, Waters receded from prominence. Over the years he has contributed the occasional screenplay, but they have been few and far between.

BATMAN RETURNS continues the examination of personal darkness that was a hallmark of Waters’ work in HEATHERS.

The opening scenes of the second Batman feature film show the newly-born Oswald Cobblepot (aka Penguin) dispensed by his wealthy parents into the sewers of Gotham; his grotesqueness too much for either to live with. It’s not the stuff that tends to be the fare of big budget, Hollywood comic book movies.

Thirty-three years later, Gotham City, despite being free of the Joker, is no better place to live than it was at the end of the first film. Crime is still rampant. City officials are powerless to prevent mayhem and corruption lurks around every corner and in just about every Boardroom.

Max Shreck, played by a wild-haired Christopher Walken, is at the heart of Gotham’s current crime-induced malaise. His business dealings are as questionable as they are vast. His latest venture is the construction of a new power station; one that the city doesn’t actually require. (It turns out the power station is actually a gigantic capacitor designed to suck energy out of the city’s power grid so Shreck can sell it back to Gotham’s populace at highly inflated prices.)

Having intimidated the Mayor (Michael Murphy) in his Boardroom, Shreck stands side-by-side with the hapless public official moments later in Gotham Plaza for the lighting of the city’s Christmas Tree. 

As a very “public” event, the lighting of the tree is a sitting duck for Gotham’s criminal malcontents to launch the film’s first full-scale action set-piece. There’s a very brief appearance by Batman, but the sequence serves the purpose of bringing together Shreck and Danny DeVito’s Penguin.

DeVito relishes the role of Penguin, making the half-human, half-penguin cross-breed as gross a creation as Burton allows him to play the role. Grunting and wheezing his way through scenes, Penguin is a slobbering mess of a creature as much concerned with sexual innuendo as he is with wreaking revenge upon Gotham for crimes he perceives have been committed against him.

From the city’s sewers, Penguin has been collecting Gotham’s dirty secrets for a long time and he doesn’t hesitate to use what he knows to manipulate Shreck into helping him with his plan to launch himself upon the city’s unsuspecting citizens.

Having no choice but to agree to help Penguin, Shreck returns to his office to plan his next move.

There, he finds Michelle Pfeiffer’s Selena Kyle, who has also come back to work after realising she’s forgotten to prepare some important files for Shreck’s meeting with Bruce Wayne the next day.

Inadvertently, Selena divulges to Max that she has discovered his plan for the new “power station”. To keep his secret safe, Shreck pushes Selena through his office window, high above the streets of Gotham. 

Selena plunges to the ground, but her fate is uncertain…

Sprawled on the ground, appearing quite dead, a strange ritual occurs around her prone body. Gotham’s alley cats appear from everywhere, circling Selena; as if to will her one of their nine lives in order to save hers. 

Putting aside the implausible outcome (Selena’s survival), the concept of rebirth is as much a part of Selena’s story arc, as it is Penguin. Selena rises and assumes the Catwoman persona. The Jekyll & Hyde parallel is now a reality, as the meek Selena is goaded by the powerful, sexual Catwoman.

With three antagonists to fill the story, Burton takes every opportunity to explore the theme of rebirth and re-emergence. Just like every other version of Frankenstein’s Monster, cinematic or otherwise, Penguin and Catwoman want to be accepted. They want to be “loved”. Penguin ascends from the sewer to reclaim his birthright, while Catwoman endeavours to shed herself of her Selena persona and transform into someone new but far more dangerous.

As Catwoman and Penguin emerge and demand more screen time, Walken’s Shreck recedes into the background until the film’s finale.

Michael Keaton, on the other hand, who is missing for large parts of the film’s first half, finally emerges. The second half of the film’s Second Act is designed to create a balance between the triptych of characters. There are multiple encounters between them as Batman, Catwoman & Penguin, as well as several encounters between Bruce and Selena. While there’s animosity between Batman and Penguin, it’s not always outright hostility. Burton uses the appearance of Catwoman to punctuate (and puncture) the rapidly-rising levels of testosterone that announce the impending arrival and subsequent presence of Batman in a number of the film’s set pieces. 

The Bruce and Selena relationship is one of the film’s strong points. Adding to the chemistry of the characters was the fact that Michael Keaton & Michelle Pfieffer had dated back in the 1980s. There had been suggestions that Keaton had actually blocked Pfeiffer’s casting as Vicki Vale on the 1989 film, however, the result of her casting on the sequel made for a strong antagonist in Catwoman and a very sympathetic, albeit troubled Seline Kyle.

The film’s finale is very uneven and is something of a letdown given both the character & thematic development undertaken to position the story for something other than a straight out “city in peril” denouement.

Penguin’s demise feels especially shallow; as his arc actually has real merit, but, for the purpose of closure, he literally floats away down the sewer. His character starts the film in this manner and he finishes it the same way. Daniel Waters’ screenplay certainly doesn’t fail to employ a perverse kind of poetry to put a full stop on the villain’s journey.

The fate of Catwoman is far less certain but, at least, she gets her revenge.

BATMAN RETURNS was nowhere near as financially successful as BATMAN (1989). Even fans were a little perplexed by the film. It was dark. It seemed to have much more in common with the more modern, revisionist, adult-oriented stories that had been emerging in the comic book series, but it also relished how grotesque it could be and how mean-spirited and depressed the characters seemed to be. 

There is Horror to behold in BATMAN  RETURNS, but it’s not the Horror of a Wes Craven or a David Cronenberg (although Penguin does push the boundaries of grotesque body form). It’s not even the Horror of Robert Louis Stevenson’s STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. 

The Horror is more like that of Charles Dickens and the Gotham setting much more like Victorian Era London. Dickensian stories highlight horrible circumstances and exaggerate villains in such a fashion as to be almost supernatural...

BATMAN RETURNS is a much older, far more literate form of Horror. It reaches into the wellspring of genuine human misery and seeks to provide all manner of lost souls with a way home. That it allows some to succeed and others to fail is a sign of how much creative influence Tim Burton was able to exercise on this project. Not even the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy dared to venture as far down this particular path. 

BATMAN RETURNS, while not the perfect film, is one the purest expressions of a filmmaker’s personality to find form in a mainstream comic book blockbuster. For that reason alone, the film continues to be worth revisiting every so often as a reminder that style and substance can coexist when combined with individual vision.

BATMAN RETURNS (1992) USEFUL LINKS

Batman Returns - Wikipedia
​Batman Returns (1992) - IMDb
​Batman Returns (1992) - Rotten Tomatoes

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