Tim Burton's Batman was a huge hit in the theaters. The very fact that it was so different than what mainstream fans have ever seen from not only Batman, but comic book movies in general made the decision pretty easy to do a sequel. And why not have Tim Burton do Batman Returns? This time Burton was given a lot more creative direction. And that has to be the biggest mistake of the movie.
With the Joker dead, the Penguin was chosen to be the next Batman villian. In the comics, Penguin is a member of high society with a bird fetish. Anything of any monetary value and is bird related, he will try to steal. That means fabrege eggs, bird sculptures, or even rare birds in a zoo. But in comes Tim Burton. Tim Burton's Penguin is a disqusting, foul, deformed, sadist who lives with the penguins at the zoo and has an army of clown henchmen. He was abandoned by his parents as a baby because he was born deformed.
Along with Penguin we are also introduced to Catwoman. Catwoman is a cat-burglar with an obsession with cats. Much like Penguin's obsession with birds, Catwoman will steal anything cat related. But in comes Tim Burton. Tim Burton's Catwoman cranked up the sexiness to eleven and was given a really odd supernatural origin. She was thrown out of a window and died. But at that time a whole bunch of cats started to eat at her and somehow that gave her nine lives.
Much of the new decor we had in Batman was also cranked up to eleven in Batman Returns. It became way too much for most audiences. Instead of being shadowy, dark, and gothic, it became a nightmarish wasteland of grotesqueness. The people looked sick, the buildings look twisted and wrong, and the cute little penguins with rockets on their backs was so misplaced it stuck out like a sore thumb.
Again we are given a great cast with Michael Keaton again as Batman, but now we have Michele Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito, and "The Man" Christopher Walken. While they are all great actors, the problem is that these actors are most known and are at their best doing comedies. And the only humor in this comes in the form of dark humor; for example the Penguin riding on a duck boat or putting Danny DeVito in a fat suit so Penguin has to waddle everywhere.
While Batman Returns is hardly anyone's favorite of the Batman movies, it does have it's own perverse charm. The acting, while largely miscast, was great. They really took the characters they were given and were made memorable. Most audiences just couldn't get over how sick it looked. What was so innovative just became too much. Tim Burton fans would love this movie but it's just not going to draw a lot of new fans in despite all the success it had in theaters.
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