Rating: 
Summary: The Best of the Best of the Best of the Best
Review: This is, by far, Tim Burton's greatest movie. It is also the darkest, with the sinister Penguin and the slinky Catwoman to what I believe is the true villian, Max Shreck, this dark film will have you to the edge of your seat when you see the amazing special effects, the incredible stunts, and even the Circus from Heck! The Duck even adds to Tim's bizarre sense of midnight-black humor. This film is pure brilliance
Rating: 
Summary: Darker but Better Batman
Review: "Batman Returns" is a darker less friendly film version of The Dark Night and it's all better for it. Hitting thier strides in this sequel, Tim Burton and Michael Keaton make this Batman more dangerous and darkly funny. This time Batman faces The Penguin, a sadly deformed freak who is bent on taking over the city. Helping Penguin is Catwoman who is darkly attracted to the Batman. It is the scenes between these two where the film finds it stride."Batman Returns" is more disturbing than the first film in that there are no easy answers this time. The villians aren't clear cut black and white here they're all more human and sympathetic. There's a scene, I think the best in the film where Keaton's Bruce Wayne is watching the Penguin on T.V. It is during the lonely Christmas season as Keaton watches Penguin anguish in front of reporters how he misses his parents and wants to find them. Keaton's subtle response is the most touching moment in the film. With more character, fine acting and a good story. "Batman Returns" proves to be the best film in the series.
Rating:
Summary: The Last and Best Batman Movie
Review: Although this DVD comes with the least amount of extra goodies (it doesn't even have it's trailer!), it is still the DVD I cherish the most out of my collection. On top of that, it is likely my favorite movie of all time. Sure, LOLITA, FIGHT CLUB, LOST HIGHWAY and DEAD MAN are epic films in my mind and heart, but BATMAN RETURNS is the only movie I can simply never get sick of. Always I have felt attachted to the characters of Gotham, and never have I seen it portrayed better then in this film. I like the first BATMAN movie, but thought it was slowed by the borish Kim Basinger, the awful Prince songs which really didn't fit, the brass and gold hues which were so predominate throughout the film, and the presence of the Joker which was so everpresent. I absolutely love Jack as the classic cackling clown but he controls the movie so exceedingly that it might as well have been called JOKER rather then BATMAN. The first BATMAN film is great but, nevertheless, BATMAN RETURNS was the first DVD I went out and bought. One of the things that does make the DVD so worth owning as well is that this is exactly the type of movie that DVD's are for. Gorgeous films which can only be fully grasped by widescreen. This film seems to leap out of your television as you watch it, and the clarity and quality of the DVD is earnestly captivating. Keaton is the only Batman, despite his lack of bulk. Devito is pure genius as the waddling mutant. Pfeiffer is brillant in the sultry, dramatic, legendary role of a lifetime. But Walken is overlooked. People often forget he was even in this movie, but he has some of the greatest lines and is, in every right, a very classicly Batmanian villian. The irrational romance between the torn souls of Batman and Catwoman (and their other egos) drives this movie for me, even more then the fantastic skeletons on motorcycles, the Arctic World domain, and all the other bedazzling aspects of the film. Simply get this! Many people I know who saw it once in the theater were blown away when I played it for them again on DVD. The sheer cinematic garbage that was BATMAN FOREVER and the abomination of BATMAN AND ROBIN seem to have brainwashed people into thinking all Batman films are lousy, commercial flops of idiocy. But once someone sits down to watch BATMAN RETURNS, they are reawakened to the power of the bat, and of the magesty of Burton's gift. I CANNOT RECOMMEND ANYTHING MORE HIGHLY!!!!!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Inferior sequel
Review: The first Batman movie (1989) brilliantly united all that was mutually exclusive about the fabled masked detective - the camp and the darkness; the color and the darkness, the jokes and the perpetual grim that hovers over Gotham city, not to mention Batman's detective skills vs. his arsenal of toys. Whether it was Director Tim Burton's first go-around or whether it was Nicholson's now classic Joker, the formula doesn't work for "Batman Returns". Now facing two evil villains - Catwoman (Michelle Phiffer) and the Penguin (Danny Devito) - the caped crusader seems to have his hands full. Devito plays the Penguin, a sideshow freak who runs a powerful and circus-like crime syndicate from the sewers. Penguin claims he wants to rise above his dark origins (he was dumped into the sewers as a baby by his freaked-out parents), but to make that happen, he turns for support to Schrek, perhaps the one man in Gotham more odious than the Penguin (if Schrek's zeal to push Gotham into buying unnecessary power plants isn't enough to clue you into his malevolence, then casting Chris Walken will make you a true believer). While that works for a while, we learn that penguin's intentions are as dark as ever, including unseating Gotham's mayor during a crime-spree triggered by Penguin's own gang. Complicating things is the Cat Woman (Phieffer), a shy secretary for Schrek's company who becomes unhinged and adopts her feline identity after Schrek nearly kills her. (Phieffer accidentally discovers the truth behind Schrek's monumental schemes, and becomes a target.) As Catwoman, she begins taking Gotham apart, while as Selenak Kyle, she longs for romance with Bruce Wayne as a way to protect her sanity. Though having the alwsys fun Danny Devito on board, the Edward Gorey-style gloom comes to dominate, and even Devito sounds uncharachteristically leaden. The direction is sloppy, with numerous action scenes degenerating into semi-choreographed violence. The hero and villains don't so much as spar as they bounce off each other unsatisfyingly. Only Christopher Walken rises above the mandatory gloom as an evil Gotham magnate and Gotham's true villain. His perfect deadpan is the only true fun the movie has.
Rating:
Summary: The Glory of Neuroses
Review: As an ordinary action film--one designed to sell toys at McDonalds and sedate the audience with cartoon violence--Batman Returns is an awful film. Actually as just an ordinary film with the requisite ties to reality, it's still awful. The script consists of grandiose scenes tied together with plot-holes and every bit of logic in the film is badly flawed. As a dark, twisted, nearly-surreal fantasy however, Batman Returns just may be a near-masterwork. The mood and look of the film are perfect--there's no worse time to be depressed than on Christmas, and no worse place to feel that depression in than Gotham city. So are the actors--Keaton realized that the best way to play a larger-than-life character was to underplay him, and his Batman and Bruce Wayne are interesting because you sense they're always holding back. Pfeiffer's Catwoman/Selina Kyle is a terrific performance--her mood swings, sudden bursts into giggling, and sexy moodiness make up the definitive version of the character. And when she and Keaton interact you see how well they go together. These are two seriously screwed-up characters who are drawn to each other through very visible needs. There is no better scene (spoiler ahead) in the entire Batman mythos than when the two, dancing together, simultaneously learn of each other's secret identities. The music swirls as they separate and look at each other in anguish--in the realization that their lives can never be the same. DeVito's Penguin is near the same league, a performance played maximum grotesqueness and disgust. This slime drooling freak/mutant,abandoned at birth and determined to revisit his agonies on every new-born, is the most freakish villain Dickens never came up with. The Penguin is living sludge, vengeful and crude. He's nothing like the character from the comics and thank God, because the original Penguin was the most boring villain Batman ever faced.(The Batman animated series, throughout over 100 episodes tried to stick with the more traditional Penguin and Catwoman--the result is that not a single interesting episode revolves around them.) In the end,what's most interesting about this film is that though built as a standard studio moneymaker, it reaches such epic heights of twisted, grotesque fantasy that one realizes the film has turned into a much more personal vision--dark, mean-spirited(and so what if it is? who gives a damn what bothers Leonard Maltin?) and yet deeply sympathetic with its three star freaks. Batman, Catwoman, and the Penguin are all drawn together: they're all damaged people, and all are put through cycles of humiliation, disgrace, and torment. By the end Batman--unlike in all the other films--doesn't emerge triumphant, but rather battle-scarred and stoic about his misfortune. All this weirdness and darkness went down badly with the public, who found they couldn't count on the film to serve as a babysitter--they expected the film to be like all the movies that have McDonald's tie-ins, the brain-rotters so many parents would prefer for their children to see rather than risk any honest confrontations with sexuality or violence. Batman Returns isn't one of those latter films. It's a commercial film from a major studio and a cashcow. But the vacuous puerility and campiness of the sequels made in reaction to it by Joel Schumacher prove that the film touched a nerve. Batman Returns is a dark, twisted fantasy--a tragic fantasy, and a very admirable film.
Rating:
Summary: Delicious
Review: When this movie came out (ironically around the year of the woman and Anita Hill) I was blown away by the cat woman character. Michelle Pfeiffer's excellent acting suggested that women who are abused by the ruling elite (the sickeningly evil Shreck's) will snap and make them pay for it. Although he must protect the city from her plan (even if she is less interested in rampant crime than the penguin)I also got the feeling that batman was supposed to be sympatheic towards her plight and see where she was coming from. Since (especially after they knew each other's idenities)it would have been easy for him to be patronizing, it suggests that batman is a comic book feminist of sorts.
Rating:
Summary: [*] great Batman film by Burton
Review: This in one of best batman film yet. Burton captures the dark gotham mood, psychologically powerful Batman and the villains perfectly in the first and second Batman movies. More true to the comic series than the last two kiddie batman movies.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy sequal
Review: Tim Burton continues the Batman franchize and it's as dark and stylistic as ever. In fact it seems as though he went a little overboard with the darkness and at times the film can be disturbing. In the tradition of the first, the characters all are played as though they have serious mentle disorders and all are quite creepy. Keaton, DeVito, Phiefer, and Walken all do great jobs and keep the film interesting. This was one of the few sequals wich didn't dissapoint me and I highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Should have been Batman 2 and 3
Review: My primary criticism of this film is that there was too much good stuff. Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman warranted an entire movie all to herself. The exploration of feminist themes is quite thought-provoking, and Danny DeVito's performance was so over the top, that it too could easily have taken up a whole movie. As it is, the Penguin almost seems like a distraction. Michael Keaton once again demonstrates that he is more than capable of donning the cowl, and Tim Burton's direction is characteristically clever. Christopher Walken almost steals the show, and it's great to see Pee-Wee Herman and the waitress from his Big Adventure in their cameos as the Penguin's parents. All in all, a worthy successor indeed. May Schumacher rot in hell for what he's done to this franchise.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Batman Of All!
Review: I was so glad with the first Batman, the costume was great, the sets were spectacular, the soundtrack was incredible, the acting was amazing from Michael Keaton as for Jack Nicholson the directing was superb a definite 9/10 then this better sequel comes with a deeper story with wonderful actors and a fine script I can't believe that Michelle Pfeiffer wasn't their first choice for playing Catwoman she practically stole the show my favorite line was ----------------------------Batman: Mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it. Catwoman: A kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it. And then when they were at the ball and they whisper at each others ears the same thing only that Catwoman says the line that Batman said and Batman says the line that Catwoman said. Another great line was when Batman and Catwoman are fighting and Batman says, Eat floor. [Throws Catwoman down.] High fiber. This movie is a definite 10/10 then in 1995 came Batman Forever and I said I have to see this movie I regret so much having seen that movie the atmosphere is terrible everything with neon lights and whats that story of Two-Face killing Batman's parents if in the first movie they showed how The Joker killed his parents, Jim Carrey tried to save it but nop when you have a bad script not even an Oscar winner can save the show a 4/10 and let's better not talk about Batman & Robin -10/10. Tim Burton was doing so good with the Batman Franchise and this Joel Schumacher who has only done pure garbage (8MM) destroyed the whole thing he shouldn't be allowed to direct movies after what he has done. I hope they try to bring Tim Burton and Michael Keaton back and do a third movie imagining that Batman Forever and Batman & Robin were never made.
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