SuperHeroBooks - Batman Returns
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780790730967
ISBN: 0790730960
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1995-08-18
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Batman returns in an excellent sequal!
Comment: Michael Keaton.Danny DeVito.Michelle Pfieffer.Christopher Walken.Four excellent actors together in one of the darkest takes on Batman:Batman Returns.Batman(Keaton)must rid Gotham City of the bizarre and sinister sewer-dwelling monster, Penguin(DeVito),the mysterious and sultry Catwoman(Pfieffer), and the CEO tycoon Max Shreck(Walken).
This obviously Tim Burton movie shows that Batman is the best from the flashy effects, dark settings, and eye-captivating plot,puts Batman Returns on one of the best batman movies(The Dark Knight was the best)in my eyes.Keaton obviously knows when he's got a good gig too!But I must warn parents that this movie is definatly PG-13 for a reason!(Very dark and scary for children under ten, especially DeVito's Penguin)!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Okay, I guess...
Comment: Micheal Keaton's even worse this outing, but Penguin and Catwoman are excellent, as is Christopher Walken. Rent it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE BATMAN!
Comment: After the huge success of the first Batman film in 1989, Burton was given full reign with this beautifully grotesque sequel. Forget Batman Mythology as this film bares little resemblance to the comic books we read as kids. This is Burton's fantasy this time and anything goes! If your open minded, you should like this film as much as I did, it took balls to make a film like this and I admire that!
One major improvement was not having Kim Basinger return, because it's the relationship between Batman and Catwoman(played deliciously by Michelle Pfeiffer)that is one of the reasons this film is better the first one. Tim Burton's visual style is all over this movie and it looks like a precursor to his animated classic 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'.
Gotham City has a new look in this film which reminded me of the classic 'Metropolis'. This is not a kid's movie, but it does have an absurdity that only adult kids may enjoy. If you accept this as Burton's Batman you will accept the incredible ugly and disgusting Penguin that Burton dreamed up for this sequel. It's not pretty and DeVito gives an unforgettable performance.
Over all this film still has the campy-ness of the TV show, but done with Burton's wicked dark style. I would have loved to see what he would have done with Part 3!...it's a shame, we'll never know. The 2 disc DVD set has a great transfer and some interesting Batgoodies for fans. This one edges out the first by a nose......a long Penguin nose! :-)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Action Totally Magnificent Astoundingly Nice
Comment: In case you haven't noticed, my Review Title... every 1st letter of a word, altogether, spells, "BATMAN"!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Burton and `The Bat' seem a slight mismatch...
Comment: It's funny when you look at the old (by old I mean Burton and onward) Batman films in contrast to the recent Nolan masterpieces; they just don't stand up. `Batman Returns' is probably the better of the previous four, but even still it's apparent that Tim Burton was missing the point.
I'm going to say this upfront, as a longstanding fan of Batman in every shape and form he comes in, that Batman is a very serious comic. The one thing that makes Batman so great is that he is not a superhero in the essence that he has superpowers or superhuman abilities. He's a superhero in that he is a man trying to avenge a city; just a man, in a suit, kicking butt. The villains he encounters are not superhuman or mutated or anything of the sort. For the most part (with some exceptions) they are regular people who are either violently insane or just violent. The reason I say that Burton misses the point is that he insists on making Batman and the people around him more than what they are. They become caricatures of their former selves.
Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn't.
I am one of the few who thinks that Jack Nicholson's performance in `Batman' was horrendous (the more I think about it the more I wish I had given the film a C) and especially after watching Heath Ledger's (R.I.P.) marvelous performance in `The Dark Knight' I have grown to detest what Nicholson had done all the more. That said, Danny DeVito can sit right alongside Jack. His interpretation of The Penguin is so horrifically altered from what it should have been that I am sick to my stomach when I think about it. He just went right for the obvious, sort of like Nicholson.
The film finds Batman in a bit of a bundle. Penguin, a crazy man from the sewers, has teamed up with tycoon Max Shreck in an attempt to control the city of Gotham, steal its electricity and destroy Batman's good name. While he is struggling with this power couple he has to contend with the ravaging Catwoman, a disgruntled employee of Shreck's who has an agenda all her own.
Thankfully Burton infuses enough darkness into his newly crafted Gotham to make up for many of his unfortunate misinterpretations, and in the end the film comes off much more rewarding than its predecessor. This is also thanks in large part to a wonderfully inspired performance by Michele Pfeiffer. As Catwoman she is obviously having fun with her character's puns but she does so in such a convincing and effortless way. Where DeVito comes off forced and contrived Pfeiffer comes of elegant and commanding. Her performance has been rendered as the greatest comic book performance of all time, and that may be correct (although Ledger was utterly flawless on so many levels).
In the end I hand the film a B, for its better than the rest of the bunch (pre-Nolan bunch) but it never manages to connect all the dots. I love Burton's style, but in my opinion he is too cartoonish for Batman. He may have seemed like a perfect match at the time, but in retrospect he just didn't get it.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The legendary hero returns to do battle against the mysterious Cat Woman and the diabolical Penguin -- who, with the help of his evil band of vandals, has a plan to destroy Gotham City as well as Batman.
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