Let me tell you, your childhood can lie to you. Nostalgia is a potent drug. It makes you forget things. Halfway through the movie, all I could think is, "This movie is so damn stupid." Or "I think I hate this movie."
I forgot that maybe a decade ago, I did this same exercise, fooling myself into thinking this was a worthy successor to Batman. It isn't. It's not close. I'm going to get into my reasoning for this. If I were to describe this movie with one word, it'd be bizzare.
After the success of the first movie, it's like Warner Brothers told Tim Burton he could make the movie he really wanted and Burton made this movie like it was going to be the last one of his life. I would argue that THIS movie was the beginning of the downfall that lead to the franchise being shelved for a few years until Christopher Nolan came along. Don't get me wrong, those Schumacer ones are the stuff of legend in how bad they are, but this movie gave us the "Not one, but TWO villains." concept for these damn movies.
Let me get to my specific dislikes about this movie. First of all, the feel and mood of this movie skews more Burton and less that first Batman movie. He was more restrained in that first one, but this feels like the kind of movie he WANTED To make after earning the studios trust. Maybe this movie lit all that on fire. Is it true? I dunno, but I also don't feel like looking it up either.
All the fight scenes and set pieces are framed in such a goofy way. The first Batman at least tried to stay in the realm of slight believablity. Here, Batman is killing dudes with impunity. Catwoman's strange origin. Carnival clowns are leaping all over the place and he has a bat-vehicle for every situation, as if he's trying to sell toys. (He is.)
Batman is a lot more chatty and giving one liners now? He was menacing in the first movie, here, he's a brooding goofball. I guess they wanted to let Michael Keaton be Beetlejuice with a different costume. The overarching story with Max Shreck, Penguin and Catwoman is just bonkers. This also started the unfortunate trend of double villains that would continue to doom these movies until Christopher Nolan comes along and decides to do it right.
The architecture of Gotham is coo-coo bananas as well. No sane architect would ever build shit like this. Yes, I know it gets worse in the later movies. My point is, it's starting here. In regards to the villains, in the first movie, Joker was chaotic and just wanted to kill people. Penguin wanted to steal children and do a ham-fisted frame job on Batman. And yes, I know I'm being extremely reductive. Which side note, the fact he was able to turn Gotham against Batman so easily maybe says a little bit about Batman, huh? Catwoman's motivation on the other hand, 100% warranted. She just got drawn in to the Penguin's ridiculous plans.
Speaking of those two, at their core, Penguin and Catwoman are sympathetic characters, but they dial up their evilness to an 11 and it makes you forget about their tragic backstories.
Now to be fair, there was some good in this movie. I thought the performances from the main actors (Keaton, Pffifer, DeVito, Walken) were really good. It's as if they were like, "This movie is a mess, but I'm going to have fun with my part." They all deserved better. Despite the goofy dialogue he is given, I still feel like Keaton is the best live action Batman. I make this distinction because Kevin Conroy in all the animated and video game adapations is THE definitive Batman. Going back to Keaton, when he's in the Batman costume, just something about his eyes (they tell the story) make him menacing, when his physical stature doesn't. He looks THROUGH people.
If you have fond memories of this movie and you hold it in high regard, take my advice, never watch it again. Hold on to those memories, because this will not hold up to it. It is WEIRD.
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