BATMAN RETURNS. Directed by Tim Burton; written by Daniel Waters; produced by Denise Di Novi and Tim Burton for Warner Bros. Starring Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny DeVito and Christopher Walken. Rated PG 13
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Batman Returns goes 'way over the top in trying to out-gross-out the competition.
Danny De Vito, by himself, with no extra make-up or fantastic padding, can be just about as gross as I want a movie character to be. And when he's playing a character like that (like in, say Throw Momma from the Train) he's always terrific and can make an otherwise ho-hum picture really work.
But the people who came up with the Penguin character for him to play here went too far. He's just too gross. And, what's worse, you can't even tell that the Penguin is DeVito, except once or twice, if you look very hard. The little guy's undeniable comic gifts are wasted in Batman Returns.
And he's not the only one in this cast who has made better movies.
Keaton, as Batman himself, has taken the cool detachment he brought to the original so far that he's practically frozen solid here. His lack of personality leaves a big void at the center of Batman Returns.
The only really interesting character in this sequel is Catwoman (Pfeiffer). But the interest is there because Pfeiffer lets some personality show through her very bizarre character, not because the character makes any sense. She doesn't; but she does get the show's best lines.
The gloomily surrealistic sets used in Batman Returns aren't really any darker or more oppressive than those in Batman. But the tone of the current movie will strike most moviegoers as much more sinister and brooding.
Weird sets aren't a problem, and can even enhance a movie, when the story and characters playing in front of them are interesting and well written. But when the story is silly and sloppily put together, and the characters are too gross or boring to keep our interest, then the heavy sets will just weigh us down.
July 29. 1992