List of Things Batman Returns got Right/Wrong

[Mr. Socko]

Originally Posted by omerhead

I don't like Batman Returns, just like not everyone listens to Goth music.

You don't like BR, that's just fine. But that isn't for this thread, now is it? No, this is for discussing what the film got right and wrong. Not necessarily likes and dislikes. I go through every page and all I seem to see is "Burton sucks, I hate Batman Returns."

[Comicfilmer]

EDIT: After following the link to Batman-on-film's review, I have to say I agree with it completely. He's pretty much summed up my thoughts.

[BatFan1986]

The only thing I didn't care for is the fact that there wasn't cowbell with Max Schreck. Sadly, I had a fever at that time, and I was prescribed with...

Awww you know where I'm going.

Anyway...I have mixed emotions about Batman Returns...Personally, I feel that it missed alot of the grittyness the first one had. I don't think the villains were all that impressive either...I think Tim Burton overlooked the use of a villain he was tailor made to create which is the scarecrow but meh, I'll watch it.

At least it's not Batman and Robin

[theMan-Bat]

Originally Posted by Comicfilmer

EDIT: After following the link to Batman-on-film's review, I have to say I agree with it completely. He's pretty much summed up my thoughts.

The in depth - excellent - four page Time review and the Rolling Stone review pretty much sums up my thoughts on the film. I have to say I agree with those reviews completely.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...975800,00.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/...batman_returns

[omerhead]

When you watch Returns you get the same feeling you get when reading TDKR, seeing Batman act almost near villain.

[El Payaso]

Yeah, there are so many villians fighting crime out there it's hard to tell...

[omerhead]

Originally Posted by Comicfilmer

EDIT: After following the link to Batman-on-film's review, I have to say I agree with it completely. He's pretty much summed up my thoughts.

It even summed up my thoughts.

[The Joker]

Originally Posted by theMan-Bat

The in depth - excellent - four page Time review and the Rolling Stone review pretty much sums up my thoughts on the film. I have to say I agree with those reviews completely.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...975800,00.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/...batman_returns

Excellent reviews there

[ShadowBoxing]

Originally Posted by TruerToTheCore

exactly why?

Jeph Loeb and Nolan essentially parrot Frank Miller.

[Dr.Omega]

Originally Posted by kez1984

The movie uses the line "just the pussy i'v been looking for", that alone seems worth admission.

LOL! this movie wins

[Squaremaster316]

What it got wrong: EVERYTHING!

Atrociously messy story with numerous hemorrhaging plot threads
B&R level dialogue
Terrible characterization
Ridiculous origin stories
Cheap looking set designs
Contrived visuals that don't feel even remotely cinematic.

There isn't a single aspect of this film that doesn't reek of incompetence.

http://blip.tv/film-brain/batman-returns-bmb-6373071

http://blip.tv/confused-matthew/batm...niview-6291015

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D_6FT8FUPc

[Cain]

^ The guy in that youtube video has one of the most obnoxious stereo typically geeky high pitched voices I've ever heard. I couldn't even make it a minute into the video to even listen to his "points" because of it.

[shauner111]

The youtube video is probably the closest thing to what my thoughts are on the film.

I don't think anything was "right" about Batman Returns. I mean i liked the score, i liked the winter look, i liked the casting choices. But the score doesn't make the movie. The cast were shortchanged by that damn script they were given. The look is cool but it's not very Batman so i wouldn't say they got the visuals right either. I felt like i was watching that Nightmare Before Christmas kinda thing...that Christmas meets Halloween vibe.

The screenplay is ****ing terrible. But the visuals are cool. That says it all. Style over substance like the bulk of his filmography. Tim Burton doing a "Tim Burton" movie featuring a few characters from the Batman mythos. Besides their name and suits they're not even the characters of the comics. Catwoman and Penguin feel more like Spider-Man villains in their transformations and hybrids of animals than the actual Batman villains that they should be. It's like they did the classic Doc Ock/Lizard/Vulture/Scorpion/Rhino formula (which is great for Spider-Man mind you) and used it on Oswald & Selina.

They got the villains wrong, they got Batman wrong, they got the look wrong (like i said, even though it was cool), the script was probably written by a 13 year old and passed off to the studio.

I'll take back a few things. If i must say what they got right?
-Score
-Batmobile and bat-suit/cat-suit
-the actors that were cast in each role

[TruerToTheCore]

Originally Posted by shauner111

The youtube video is probably the closest thing to what my thoughts are on the film.

I don't think anything was "right" about Batman Returns. I mean i liked the score, i liked the winter look, i liked the casting choices. But the score doesn't make the movie. The cast were shortchanged by that damn script they were given. The look is cool but it's not very Batman so i wouldn't say they got the visuals right either. I felt like i was watching that Nightmare Before Christmas kinda thing...that Christmas meets Halloween vibe.

The screenplay is ****ing terrible. But the visuals are cool. That says it all. Style over substance like the bulk of his filmography. Tim Burton doing a "Tim Burton" movie featuring a few characters from the Batman mythos. Besides their name and suits they're not even the characters of the comics. Catwoman and Penguin feel more like Spider-Man villains in their transformations and hybrids of animals than the actual Batman villains that they should be. It's like they did the classic Doc Ock/Lizard/Vulture/Scorpion/Rhino formula (which is great for Spider-Man mind you) and used it on Oswald & Selina.

They got the villains wrong, they got Batman wrong, they got the look wrong (like i said, even though it was cool), the script was probably written by a 13 year old and passed off to the studio.

I'll take back a few things. If i must say what they got right?
-Score
-Batmobile and bat-suit/cat-suit
-the actors that were cast in each role

+1
-Keaton

[Fudgie]

Originally Posted by shauner111

The youtube video is probably the closest thing to what my thoughts are on the film.

I don't think anything was "right" about Batman Returns. I mean i liked the score, i liked the winter look, i liked the casting choices. But the score doesn't make the movie. The cast were shortchanged by that damn script they were given. The look is cool but it's not very Batman so i wouldn't say they got the visuals right either. I felt like i was watching that Nightmare Before Christmas kinda thing...that Christmas meets Halloween vibe.

The screenplay is ****ing terrible. But the visuals are cool. That says it all. Style over substance like the bulk of his filmography. Tim Burton doing a "Tim Burton" movie featuring a few characters from the Batman mythos. Besides their name and suits they're not even the characters of the comics. Catwoman and Penguin feel more like Spider-Man villains in their transformations and hybrids of animals than the actual Batman villains that they should be. It's like they did the classic Doc Ock/Lizard/Vulture/Scorpion/Rhino formula (which is great for Spider-Man mind you) and used it on Oswald & Selina.

They got the villains wrong, they got Batman wrong, they got the look wrong (like i said, even though it was cool), the script was probably written by a 13 year old and passed off to the studio.

I'll take back a few things. If i must say what they got right?
-Score
-Batmobile and bat-suit/cat-suit
-the actors that were cast in each role

Quoted for truth. Aces post.

[ChicageauxTiger]

I really haven't been to this site in years (those "Dark Knight" days in Chicago were great.) Anyway, I decided to just troll down memory lane reading my old set posts in the now locked "Chicago Filming:news/pics etc.." thread and MAN ... I TOTALLY NAILED THIS!

Re: Chicago Filming:news/pics etc..
http://forums.superherohype.com/show...68991&page=317
07-17-2007, 10:31 PM

I've heard people wonder about (and I'm paraphrasing) "If the Batpod is suppose to emerge from the Tumbler and one of the Tumblers front wheels ends up being the Batpods front wheel, then where is the second wheel for the Batbod hidden within the Tumblers frame?"

Here's a possibility: Both front wheels of the Tumbler ARE the front and back wheels of the Batpod. Perhaps and "quick transformation" occurs when it emerges. And with people mentioning that the Batpod may turn at extreme angles, this might also support that it morphs from the front end of the Tumbler.

Again, I have NO CLUE how this would work or how Batman could manage to handle this continuous "transformation" and stay on board from Tumbler to Batpod but that was my thought ... Both front wheels of the Tumbler provide for the Batpod.

Too wacky?

Not too wacky at all, Past Me!



UPDATE: Oops, this isn't a "Dark Knight" thread at all ... eh, screw it. I guess I'm a Nostra-dumbass.

[Dr.HugoStrange]

it got the suit right

[Polaris23]

Originally Posted by Finlandman

Now, settle down. Just agree to disagree and go to some other forum to have fun.

Yeah, can we close this thread.

[TheGuy]

Right:
-Catwoman and Batman dynamic.
-Pfeiffer owned the film.

Wrong:
-Sets looked ugly. Looked too much like a stage. B89 had better sets. Gotham City was another character of the film looming over its people.
-Penguin, except for his origin.
-Screenplay was awful. Marching penguins? Really?

[shauner111]

Screenplay was embarassing yes, yes indeed.

The sets didn't look ugly to me, they're quite cool in fact. They're just very stagey as you said TheGuy. 89' was much better in that department.

I'm not sure if ill ever get over the marching penguins with rockets strapped to their backs or the fact that they live in the sewers of Gotham while raising Oswald. Or the fact that they made Selina resurrect to dozens of cats, making her thirsty for cartons of milk and hungry for birds. The black goo & raw fish eating Danny Devito.

These are all things that ill never be able to look past as a fan.

Fortunately i have great childhood memories of this movie. The score, the designs, the Cat-Bat scenes and the eerie opening will always keep me from absolutely hating this movie. It's the stuff that lets me believe it's better than Batman Forever (even though i truly feel Forever was the better flick overall and the most honorable to Batman). Those damn childhood memories!

[BatLobsterRises]

Originally Posted by shauner111

Fortunately i have great childhood memories of this movie. The score, the designs, the Cat-Bat scenes and the eerie opening will always keep me from absolutely hating this movie. It's the stuff that lets me believe it's better than Batman Forever (even though i truly feel Forever was the better flick overall and the most honorable to Batman). Those damn childhood memories!

That's exactly how I feel. I could pick apart a lot of the writing all day, but I have very strong childhood memories of the movie. It's the first Batman movie I ever saw in theaters, and honestly it was one of the first major Batman things I remember experiencing. It had that eerie, creepy allure to it and The Penguin was a truly grotesque monster that popped up in more than a few of my nightmares. It had a real visceral hold on me as a child and I credit it as one of my formative Batman experiences....even though now I don't see it as anywhere near my ideal depiction of Batman.

[Happy Jack]

I think the movie deserves respect for being possibly the most subversive and macabre blockbuster ever made. Can you imagine seeing this movie during summertime playing next to your typical action fare? It's not surprising at all that there was a backlash and Burton was left behind by the studio.

[Lead Cenobite]

Originally Posted by TheGuy

Right:
-Catwoman and Batman dynamic.
-Pfeiffer owned the film.

Wrong:
-Sets looked ugly. Looked too much like a stage. B89 had better sets. Gotham City was another character of the film looming over its people.
-Penguin, except for his origin.
-Screenplay was awful. Marching penguins? Really?

About the last one. Comics are full of things like that. The Dark Knight Returns is considered the epitome of grim-n-gritty and yet the Joker flies around the Late Night with David Letterman (Endocrine my ass) studio on a poison-spewing baby doll after having murdered Dr. Ruth.

[Ponyboy]

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

I think the movie deserves respect for being possibly the most subversive and macabre blockbuster ever made.

Originally Posted by Lead Cenobite

About the last one. Comics are full of things like that. The Dark Knight Returns is considered the epitome of grim-n-gritty and yet the Joker flies around the Late Night with David Letterman (Endocrine my ass) studio on a poison-spewing baby doll after having murdered Dr. Ruth.

[The Joker]

Originally Posted by Lead Cenobite

About the last one. Comics are full of things like that. The Dark Knight Returns is considered the epitome of grim-n-gritty and yet the Joker flies around the Late Night with David Letterman (Endocrine my ass) studio on a poison-spewing baby doll after having murdered Dr. Ruth.

Yes, but the way it's drawn, and him flying over a bunch of grinning corpses, it doesn't look corny at all. It looks creepy. Cutesy penguins with metal helmets on their heads and candy cane rockets on their backs is like something out of the Adam West show.