![]() ![]() It makes really awkward viewing now to see a woman so invalidated. There’s a lot of behaviour in Batman Returns that really dates it, and how Kyle is treated is certainly one of them. She’s totally Selina Kyle played by Michelle Pfeiffer ( Scarface). His awkward assistant/secretary (who thankfully makes a hell of a cup of coffee) interjects with her own opinion and everyone laughs. Chief mover-and-shaker Max Shrek (Christopher Walken – Waynes World 2) wants to build a power station but the Mayor isn’t buying it. As all the denizen’s of the dark city mill about cheerfully, some big wigs are 30 storeys above, chatting business. ![]() It’s Christmas in Gotham, and they’re doing a big tree lighting ceremony. How about the weird Penguin-man supposedly living in the sewers? While reporter Alexander Knox (Robert Wuhl – Bodyguard) doesn’t return in the sequel, I’m totally sure he’d have been hot on the case. The public now want something new to latch onto. He’s been running shit for years now, so much so that Bruce Wayne actually chills out most nights at Wayne Manor until he’s called in via bat-signal by Commissioner Gordon. Gotham city will find out which 33 years later.īatman, by this point, is the zeitgeist. While I have no idea how the hell they’re gonna get him out, they’re clearly gonna either eat him or raise him as a weird man-penguin hybrid thing. Eventually it comes to rest among a group of giant penguins. Here, instead of the camera following the lines of a giant stone bat symbol, we instead track alone with the sealed black pod/crib thingy. However, I still prefer the original ’89 sequence. Seeing the title “Batman Returns” literally unfurl on the screen may seem a bit dated now, but it really blew my 10 year old mind. It’s one of those hairs standing on your arms cinematic triumphs. The tempo is faster with a few more frills thrown in to let us know they’re chucking a bit more money at this one as if to tell us this shit is gonna be turned up a notch. We follow the baby’s screams down into the blackness, and Elfman’s impossible-to-beat Batman score kicks in. The music is slightly jazzed up this time. Together they throw his sealed black pram-crib into the water, which drains into the unknown. ![]() I mean, I can think of a hundred more bullet-proof ways of killing him off. By casting him into a stream at the local, spooky Gotham zoo. Instead it’s a tri-fingered abomination, with a violent temper and a taste for cat meat.ĭistraught the pair decide to put him out of his misery as painlessly as possible. But it’s not the bouncing baby boy that she and Mr. The origin of the Penguin AKA Oswald Cobblepot opens the film.Ĭhristmas, 30 something years ago. Pat Hingle and Michael Gough would return as Commissioner Gordon and Alfred respectively, continuing in these roles for a further two films each.īut with Jack Nicholson’s Joker in the ground ( literally), who is going to be stirring up trouble this time around? Well it looks like Hamm and Waters flicked to page 2 and 3 of the Batman encyclopedia, selecting Catwoman and Penguin as the villains. Original Batman writer Sam Hamm teamed up with Daniel Waters (who’d later pen Movie Bastard favourite, Demolition Man). Tim Burton once again took the reins as director, as did long-time collaborator composer Danny Elfman. Michael Keaton returned as Batman/Bruce Wayne. The ’89 offering had done insane business, and Warner Brothers were keen to tap into the seemingly unmolested cash gland. ![]() This was 1992, and I hadn’t figured out the whole confusion relating to the Rambo/First Blood silliness, so cut me some slack.īatman Returns certainly was returning. Okay so this was probably the first sequel I’d ever seen or heard of that didn’t have a two in it, or use Roman numerals to denote it’s sequelness. A sequel, nay a harem of sequels, was inevitable. Beyond making household names out of Michael Keaton and Tim Burton, it demonstrated that darker, edgier, sexier super-hero flicks could hang with the square-jawed, frothy wholesomeness of Superman. It’s nearly four years since I took an in-depth look at all the bastards and badassery of 1989 mega-hit Batman. ![]()
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