The Big Picture: Batman Revisited, Part 2

[esperandote]

Holy shit, next week is gonna be so bad that is gonna be great.

 

[Lucane]

Did they have the age-rating system back then?

And I don't like crazy Catwoman either. Staples aren't sexy!

Do you mean on her suit? That was cartoonishly large tread holding the patches of leather together not staples.

I always thought of that Catwoman as a freed and/or uninhibited version of herself from a quiet straight laced secretary, which yeah can look and actually seem or be crazy but only doing so to serve the purpose of enjoying herself and not Joker crazy or Two-Face Crazy.

There is a difference between uninhibited and putting a live finch in your mouth to show how dedicated you are.

So anyone on Fear Factor or similar shows is crazy?
[sub](Well yeah they are but they don't have a near death experience as an excuse.)[/sub]
good point though,but it's not like she took a bite afterall.

captha: good day
Good day sir or madam.

 

[Jas0913]

Uhhhh Bob you forgot to include how antisemitic Batman returns is. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not the characterization of the penguin is really offensive towards Jews. Strange how you forgot to mention this considering how you're always talking about racial and gender inequality.

 

[Antonio Torrente]

Holy shit, next week is gonna be so bad that is gonna be great.

Yes it will be bad, but let's face it Bob saved the best(worst) for last.
Batnipples anyone?

Two weeks more can't wait!

 

[Gunnyboy]

It's an adaptation. The Penguin and Catwoman are perfect for the movie.

 

[Callate]

"I'll revisit the steps they took that changed the course of the series and the history of comic book movies... forever."

...Not to mention putting the Batman franchise into a coma for nearly a decade. Can't wait...

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It may be a bad movie, but I was too young to notice any of it's flaws. Batman returns is still one of my favorite childhood movies. And like all boys of my age I had a thing for Catwoman.

 

[Gatx]

I remember those Happy Meal toys, I had that Catwoman car thing.

 

[MovieBob]

I've gotta ask, Bob, because I'm curious. If not the thick rubber suit that looks like some solidly defensible pseudo armor for the Caped Crusader, then what? The cloth suit of the Adam West Batman? Guns, knives, fire, dogs, darts, shrapnel, glass, small explosions, banging into walls, pipes, and cars--these are all things Batman is more or less required to deal with. All of these kind of start to take their toll on an unprotected body, and the rate he deals with them, that toll would pile up quite fast. Do you have an alternative preference that would actually make sense?

"This fabric looks and moves just like cloth, but it's actually super-durable ultralight bullet-proof armor. My company also makes tanks that drive on roofs, microwave-vaporization machines that can somehow distinguish between the water that makes up the human body versus "regular" water and magic capes that turns you into a giant kite if you put electricity on them, so it's really not much of a reach."

Something like that

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Huh, Batman Forever next week? Not going to take time to cover the animated series? That's a shame, because the original Batman animated series is arguably still the greatest comic book-based ANYTHING ever made.

I have to say though, I don't care about how Catwoman was characterised in the comics- nothing any version of the character EVER does could match this iconic moment:

 

[GLXRBLT]

While I agree with you on many points and am very delighted by the immense nostalgia trip this episode provided ( I even owned the happy meal joker car back in the day) I must say that it makes a lot of sense that FOREVER was so completely deluded, Warner Brothers of course opting for a more "kid friendly" film what with it having a wackier setting but still being completely insane, for example when Jim Carrey's awesomely weird portayal of the riddler murders his boss by tossing him out a window by unplugging a helmet or whatever.


Thanks for a great episode bob, long time viewer here, have never commented at all though, but I look forward to intermission, escape to the movies and the big picture every week as much as anything, who needs TV when one has an xbox, the pirate bay and the escapist magazine at the tip of ones fingertips?

 

[gorfias]

I still maintain it is the best Batman film to this day. Not from a cohesive narrative point of view, granted, but when you've got art deco, biblical retribution and third-wave feminism aplenty...I'm inclined to give that a pass.
It's thematically and intertextually *dense*, and not in the philosophy minor didactic fashion of Nolan's films.

Pfeiffer's Catwoman is particularly fantastic because it's one of few examples of real gyno-rage in mainstream American cinema; undiluted by 'maternal instinct' or any such simplistic qualifiers.
She is an outright rebellion against the patriarchal status quo. Being a sole catalyst of that movement, however, is both trying and fraught with relentless opposition, causing her psyche (and her suit, in a clever visual device) to fracture and split at the seams.

The script by Daniel Waters is obviously laboured by rewrites, but his sardonic humour and attention to character dynamics is apparent throughout, and not entirely unlike his brilliant Heathers.

I love it. Every wacky and oddly-paced minute of it.

Part 1 and 2 vie for my affections of the first 4, but DK is, at this time, my all time favorite movie of any kind. I've watched it a million times. But 2 is in many ways, the best of the first 4.

I think Bob got it right on calling it episodic. They're all tiny little stories mixed together and that can be exhausting. Of course I'd prefer cohesion, but review the movie you got.

I agree with you about the gyno-rage. Catwoman was less insane than liberated to voice the frustrations building inside her over a lifetime of thinking, "I should have let my last boyfriend win at tennis." That anger is on display with the unconscious clown she uses the taser upon. I simply cannot imagine a big screen version that will EVER match her. Sorry Ann Hathaway. Maybe you will surprise. (Arkham City's Catwoman, obviously, is hard to match in gaming.)

Batman was, before the comic code, a killer, but I prefer the one with a code against killing (which, IMHO, he failed in Begins by allowing Ras to die.) It gives him one more difficulty to overcome and creates a more complex character. He'd love to kill the Joker, but saves him.

Interesting review by Bob though, looking forward to more.

 

[DTWolfwood]

is it wrong that of the previous 4 i still like Batman forever best?

Jim Carry as Riddler is best thing ever >

 

[minimacker]

03:14 What was that from?

Also, I kind of liked this Penguin version. Normally, you'd see the "freak turned evil" because of his appearance understand that people are afraid of abnormality and shun it whenever possible. Where of he either leaves in exile, turns himself in or commits suicide because of what he as done.

But in Batman Returns, he doesn't do any of that. He has an emotional side. You could almost see him acting out the situations in his head, but Burton let the classic method twist off as the Penguin reverts to his manical state.

 

[ace_of_something]

I was about 12 or 13 when batman returns came out so Michele Pfeiffer might have a part of my preference for blondes to this day.

 

[qeinar]

I thought this movie was fantastic as a kid. When i watch it now i still think it's fantastic.

 

[Aptspire]

But... I like Batman Returns. Sure, it's all over the place, but you have on hell of a good time watching it

 

[Dana22]

I liked this one, hell, not being a fan of Batman and superheroes in general, I liked Batman Forever as well.

 

[Dygen Entreri]

Bob, seriously, stop harping on the batsuit costumes! I don't know if you've seen the extra features on the Batman Begins DVD, but it showed that Bale was able to move perfectly well, including able to turn his head, in the new costume. Also, why would a guy setting out to kick the ass of thugs wielding knives and various firearms wear anything but armour?

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I've gotta ask, Bob, because I'm curious. If not the thick rubber suit that looks like some solidly defensible pseudo armor for the Caped Crusader, then what? The cloth suit of the Adam West Batman? Guns, knives, fire, dogs, darts, shrapnel, glass, small explosions, banging into walls, pipes, and cars--these are all things Batman is more or less required to deal with. All of these kind of start to take their toll on an unprotected body, and the rate he deals with them, that toll would pile up quite fast. Do you have an alternative preference that would actually make sense?

"This fabric looks and moves just like cloth, but it's actually super-durable ultralight bullet-proof armor. My company also makes tanks that drive on roofs, microwave-vaporization machines that can somehow distinguish between the water that makes up the human body versus "regular" water and magic capes that turns you into a giant kite if you put electricity on them, so it's really not much of a reach."

Something like that

Okay. Fair point. I keep my point about percussive impacts, however. But touche on everything else.