BATMAN RETURNS: How the Comics Adaptation Improves Upon the Classic 1992 Movie
BATMAN WEEK: A special REEL RETRO CINEMA column… — Welcome to BATMAN WEEK 2024 — celebrating the 85th anniversary of the release of Detective Comics #27, on March 30, 1939. Over seven days, you can look forward to all sorts of groovy and offbeat columns, features and cartoons that pay tribute to the greatest comics character in the history of mankind. Click here for the rest of the BATMAN WEEK features. You’ll be glad you did! — Dan — By ROB KELLY The excitement the teenage me had for the release of 1989’s Batman was so intense and all consuming that even seeing the movie didn’t fully satisfy it. I think it was less than a week later before I started thinking, “OK, when’s the sequel?” I clearly wasn’t the only one—I remember watching a segment about the film’s massive success on a local current events TV show out of Philadelphia and the host started speculating who might be the villain and play the role. “Rumor is the next villain will be the Penguin, to be played by Danny DeVito… and that is perfect casting.” Flash forward three years. The excitement I had for Batman Returns was, while not as white hot intense as it had been for Batman, it was more fun to luxuriate in because I didn’t have any worry that they weren’t going to get it right. We already had cinematic proof that Burton and company knew what they were doing when it came to Batman. This time, I could just sit back and enjoy. For the most part, I did. Then and now, I’m most immediately struck by the tonal changes Burton brought to the Batman movie universe in Returns. Both films seem to exist in an indeterminate time period, where modern technology sits alongside buildings and costumes from decades past. But while 1989’s Batman has a grittier, more film noir feel, Batman Returns is sleeker, cleaner, and purposely more artificial. Surely some of that is due to the change in cinematographer, from Roger Pratt (Brazil, Chocolat) to Stefan Czapsky, who worked with Burton on Edward Scissorhands and would do again on Ed Wood. While there were some outside scenes in Batman, the entire world of Batman Returns is shot on sets, making the whole movie feel like a snow globe—completely self-contained. Also, the screenplay by Daniel Waters (Heathers, Hudson Hawk) is more jokey...
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