Batman Returns

As many of you know, I misguidedly rank this as my favourite of the Batman films in terms of pure cinema, but in terms of a Batman film it's pretty naff.

What that means is that I respect it more as a Tim Burton movie than I do as an adaption of the Batman comics, largely because Batman isn't in it and most other elements have been warped to cater towards Burton's mindset.

I'm not a particular fan of Burton, but I find that this is one of his more tolerable films largely because the grand scale of what is happening shifts the viewpoint away from his ever popular 'artistic soul shunned by the world' paradigm.

It's exceptionally messy, but it's also exceptionally fun largely because it's like Burton's discovered a new toybox and is just throwing around as much stuff as he can. You get the feeling that he didn't have too much creative control in Batman and the result is a pretty anarchic sequel at times (I still reckon the Circus Gang has elements of what Burton wanted to do with the Joker, because it's an odd sort of fit for his stately version of the Penguin).

It's interesting that the most magnetic character in the entire film is a completely new creation. Walken's Max Shreck just dominates every scene he's in, partly because it's Christopher Walken and partly because he's the only character with a perceivable streak of clear villainy. The Penguin is villainous, but there's too much humanity in him at times, Catwoman is an ambivalent anti-hero and as such Shreck becomes the big villain of the piece despite the fact he never really does anything which you would normally associate with grand villainy (aside from bumping off Selina Kyle).

I'm pretty sure I'm going to be alone on this, but any other fans of this much maligned film?

I love that Max Shreck is a living breathing homage to 1920s German Cinema.

It's not a particularly literal movie though, it works on an almost mythic level, with character traits exaggerated to the point of being almost ridiculous. I mean look at the first shot of Bruce Wayne, he's just sat in the dark, waiting for shit to go down so he can bat up and beat people down.

What I love is that (as everyone has pointed out) it's the film which confronts the nature of Batman in the most head on manner. Both the Penguin and Shreck are mirrors to Batman. The Penguin is a man who looks like a beast and desperately yearns for humanity whilst Batman is man who dresses like a beast to try and detach himself from his humanity, to become an icon. Shreck is the antithesis of Wayne in that he fought for his money and lusts for it greedily, corporate power gone mad.

I thought it was interesting that Max and Penguin were originally written as Brothers, it makes a lot of sense in terms of their relationship.