With Christmas just around the corner, now seems as good a time as any to do a commentary for Batman Returns.
Of all the Batman movies, this is the one where my opinion has changed the most over the years. I used to like it quite a bit as a teenager but recently I've found more and more issues with it. I don't have any problem with Tim Burton changing the origins of Catwoman and Penguin - making them more animalistic - but I do find the tone very off putting and the story a bit of a jumble of ideas.
It's also a shame that Batman/Bruce Wayne has so little to do in the film. It's really Penguin's story - featuring Batman here and there.
Anyway, give the commentary a listen and... come what may... Merry Christmas.
If you want to just listen to the commentary without having YouTube open, here's a link to the mp3.
Yeah, Because Batman Returns is more of a Tim Burton that happens to have Batman in it. He was more interested in the villains than Bruce. He wanted to go to a different direction. Daniel Waters, screenwriter of Batman Returns, said on the Superhero Stuff You Should Know podcast that Batman Returns was a visionary mess, and he also said that Christopher Nolan never liked Batman Returns at all.
ReplyDelete"Visionary mess" is a good way of putting the movie. Yeah, I can see Chris Nolan not being a fan.
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