Batman Returns

Second time round, director Tim Burton succeeds by simply not trying to please anyone but himself. Batman Returns is Burton's kitschy Christmas aesthetic amped up into hysteria. Everything in the film is overbearing and expressionistic. Returns' locations have nothing in common with reality, this universe's Gotham City apparently existing within an enormous snow globe. Michael Keaton barely shows his face for much of the first hour; he's a background spectre, filed away whilst we are treated to the canon-diverging origins of the various super-villains. Rather than undermine the character it gives this Bruce Wayne a mythic, supernatural quality. We first see him alone, bathed in the Bat-Signal, slumbering in his Gothic castle-mansion. Returns' Batman is a vampiric justice-god, slumbering deep within his ancient fortress until he is needed. 

It's a significant and welcome step up from the confused thug of the first Batman. His tenuous relationship with the Gotham police and his casual use of deadly force also lend him an air of absolute danger. Danny DeVito's Penguin is a vile ooze slobbering goblin; a snarling mouth and creeping eyes backed by a circus troupe's worth of amoral muscle. Like the Joker, this villainous character is a splintered reflection of one of our hero's key traits - in this instance, Bruce Wayne's loss taken hideous, violent shape. Indeed Wayne initially feels pity for Penguin, hoping that the former Oswald Cobblepot can achieve the kind of parental reunion that has long been denied to himself. Similarly, Catwoman is often depicted as the female opposite of Batman, equally skilled and of a similar intelligence. In Returns she is also driven by the need for vengeance over those who have wronged her. 

Michelle Pfeiffer's damaged counterpart is a much better fit for this Batman than the screeching Vicki Vale then - Returns' Catwoman already shares, at the very least, Wayne's kink for dressing up then lashing out. Both Penguin and Catwoman are eccentric villains fuelled by slights, and seeking a kind of human validation that, unfortunately, seems to be beyond their grasp. The real evil in this piece is Christopher Walken's Max Shreck, whose primary motivating factor is nothing but slathering greed. Shreck isn't seeking anything like the emotional equalizers craved by his villainous peers, he just wants to be the biggest, most untouchable leech. Walken plays Shrek with a louche flair: he's a shark in a well-tailored suit. Walken's Shreck is pale and unmoving, a dead eyed seeker constantly scanning his surroundings for weakness and leverage. Shot through with pain, loss, and bad decisions, Batman Returns is both a beautiful and romantic take on DC Comics' Dark Knight Detective. 

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