I won't use the word "crap", it's hard enough for me to admit that the movie is flawed!
after all, it used to be my favorite Batman film. I still love some parts of it...Michael Keaton is always a pleasure to watch, the visuals are amazing (the shot with Bruce Wayne in the chair and the batsignal is probably one of the best things I've ever seen in a movie) and the music is fantastic. I get chills everytime I hear the music during the opening credits.
My problem isn't that the Penguin is deformed, or that Catwoman becomes a karate champion after being pushed out of a window. I like weird and nonsensical stuff like that in movies. I'm not a big fan of "realistic" comic book movies.
The problem for me is how the Penguin is portrayed, and what Tim Burton is trying to say. Are we really supposed to feel sorry for the Penguin? Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty forgiving person and all that, everyone needs a second or third chance and all that stuff (hell, I've done a lot of stupid and illegal stuff myself when I was a teenager, stuff I'll regret till the day I croak). But there's nothing likeable about the Penguin at all. The only time I feel sorry for him is when his parents throw him in the water. For the rest of the movie he's just pure evil...
Is Burton trying to say that the Penguin is angry because they way he was treated? That people didn't accept him? They do accept him the very moment he rises from the sewers! And then he ruins it all by being a jerk...
It's perfectly understandable when the Gothamites chase him away. The man is dangerous. He brought it all on himself. It's not like he's a poor, misunderstood guy like the Elephant Man.
When the Penguin dies at the end, and the sad music plays...are we really supposed to feel bad for him? The music tells me it's sad, but logic tells me "who gives a damn, he's a deformed (but still prettier) version of Osama bin Laden". He doesn't show any remorse either. "Damn it, I picked the cute one!" He tried to kill Batman to the very end. And even though Batman acts like a psychopath in the movie (takes pleasure in murder), his actions to stop the Penguin are justifiable.
I have never been a very big fan of Catwoman in this movie either, to be honest. So nothing has changed there. She always freaked me out as a kid. Pure psycho...one moment she seems so sweet, and in the next she cuts Batman in the face. I know that it's intentional, but still. She's more sympathetic than the Penguin, though.
What I'm trying to say is that the movie is way too nihilistic. Burton seems to me to be a moral relativist, he creates a world there are no real heroes, and nobody's right or wrong. I don't like stuff like that...I watch superhero movies to root for the goodguys. There's no real moral to be found in this story.
Even Batman & Robin which is considered a crappy movie had a moral. I feel more bad for Mr Freeze than the Penguin. He tries to destroy the world, but it's clear that what he's doing is wrong, and in the end he's redeemed. Spoiler.
I didn't view the movie in this way as a kid. As a kid, Batman was a pure-hearted hero, the Penguin was a jerk and Catwoman...well, she was a still a psycho. But now as an adult, I see things in a different light, and it frightens me a bit.
This movie shows that studio interference is not always a bad thing. I understand why Warner Bros told Tim Burton to take his hands away from Batman and gave the third movie to Schumacher.
Sorry for the long post, and if I offend anyone it's not intentional.
