I’ve shared my thoughts on The Jack Nicholson Clown Show. This one is much better!
In the introductory featurette Fathom Events prepared for the film, we learned that Tim Burton did not want to return as director and was only convinced after Warner Bros. gave him much more creative control than they’d given him the previous time. It shows! While the previous time the darkness was impressive, this time it is actually mixed with just the right amount of color and brightness amongst it. If that’s hard to imagine – well, just think of The Nightmare Before Christmas set as the setting for a live-action film. Ergo, you can really see Tim Burton’s influence this time.
My big complaint last time was that the whole movie was basically Jack Nicholson acting like himself. This time around we have a fairly interesting plot. Admittedly not Chinatown-level (although it would have been so appropriate if the previous movie was!) but it’s about corruption in Gotham City at the hands of a tycoon and how two supervillains get in his crosshairs. Kudos to Burton for ordering a rewrite from a different writer using only the bare bones of the script Warner Bros. had previously commissioned.
Let’s not give all the praise to Burton though. The story was elevated substantially by three performances from stars who were definitely NOT just playing caricatures of themselves.
Christopher Walken, as the tycoon, gives you some genuine chills instead of mere comic relief like we’ve come to expect from him this millennium.
Danny DeVito showed depths I never thought possible from him – he expresses grief, infatuation, giddiness, and raw rage. Although I always find him funny, here there’s not a hint of his usual “I want that money RIGHT NOW or I’m gonna kick your ass” character.
Michelle Pfeiffer is an actress I’ve thought perhaps too pretty for her own good (and after seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp I know she’s ASTONISHING for someone pushing 60), as in this industry that can keep a woman from getting serious dramatic roles. Yet her talent still allowed her to get three Academy Award nominations within a five-year span during her peak, and she would have won for the middle nomination (for The Fabuluos Baker Boys) had the Academy not gone the sentimental route with Driving Miss Daisy’s Jessica Tandy. The third nomination actually was for Best Actress of 1992 but for a movie called Love Field, not for Batman Returns. If it were possible to get an acting nomination for a comic book movie though (and I’ve talked about how it apparently isn’t unless you’re dead) she could have gotten one here. It’s amazing how she can play hapless and lonely early on, vicious and confident during her character’s biggest butt-kicking moments, and romantic/lovelorn while with Bruce. The whole thing kind of reminds me of Christopher Reeve’s bravura turn in Superman: The Movie but with a layer of pathos added because Selina is not deliberately struggling and acting helpless.
Notice, once again, I still haven’t mentioned Michael Keaton! Batman definitely has more agency here – first seeking to resolutely take on Walken’s corrupt Max Schrek (and how’s that for a classic movie reference!) and later doggedly pursuing the hot Catwoman because he’s smitten by her. Still, mostly a flat, boring character.
That said, still a great movie. I felt somewhat unsatisfied at the end but only because I was comparing it to the much better Christian Bale films. Taken on its own, though, very well done and I do recommend it.
Bottom line: Most people will and should like it.
%
Recent Comments