Batman Returns (1992)

USA Today
"...As Catwoman, terrific Michelle Pfeiffer goes from mousy secretary to liberated lionness. As flipper-fingered Penguin, Danny DeVito is an orchestra of evil intentions..." 06/19/1992 p.1D

Entertainment Weekly
"...The runaway star here is Pfeiffer, whose performance is a sexy, comic triumph..." 06/26/1992 p.90

Los Angeles Times
"...[Burton's] dark, melancholy vision is undeniably something to see....[An] always visually inventive film..." 06/19/1992 p.F1

Chicago Sun-Times
"...A most intriguing movie, great to look at, fun to talk about..." 06/19/1992 p.43

Washington Post 8 of 10
Even more than before, this cartoon opera about cloistered personalities bathes exultantly in moody blues, gothic music and a symphony of character tragedy... you will get Burton's dirgelike appreciation for all the players, especially the Penguin. In ways similar to Burton's Edward Scissorhands, the film is a pop-cultural paen to overgrown children in their gothic hideaways. - Desson Howe
 
Rolling Stone 8 of 10
"Batman Returns" matches up the Caped Crusader with Catwoman. Wait'll you get a load of Michelle Pfeiffer's ravishing kitten with a whip. "How could you -- I'm a woman," she says to Batman when he slugs her, meeting his apology with a kick in the groin. Meow, indeed. Though her lusty licking of Batman's face may arouse kinky thoughts, Catwoman is no bimbo in black leather. Pfeiffer gives this feminist avenger a tough core of intelligence and wit; she's a classic dazzler...The follow-up to the blockbuster of summer '89 is faster and funnier, but that's not always a plus. To keep this astounding fun house humming with frenzied action, director Tim Burton spends less time investigating the Dark Knight's dark side...Still, the gifted Burton hasn't lost his subversive spirit, and the script, by Daniel Waters ("Heathers"), puts a sharp edge on the fun. Michael Keaton's manic-depressive hero remains a remarkably rich creation. And Danny De Vito's mutant Penguin -- a balloon-bellied Richard III with a kingdom of sewer freaks -- is as hilariously warped as Jack Nicholson's Joker and even quicker with the quips...Still, the movie's heart resides in two creatures who feel uneasy in their normal skins. Keaton plays Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, as a moody playboy. And Pfeiffer brings the same discontent to Selina Kyle, the mousy assistant to corrupt Gotham City tycoon Max Shreck (a fiendishly funny Christopher Walken)...To the crashing chords of Danny Elfman's score, Burton trots out every gimmick, from a Batskiboat to a Penguin umbrella-copter. But the best gimmick is neurosis: Everyone has one. Batman and Catwoman, unable to function without dressing up their psychic wounds in fantasy, are a dysfunctional Romeo and Juliet. Burton uses the summer's most explosively entertaining movie to lead us back into the liberating darkness of dreams. - Peter Travers
 
Chicago Sun-Times 6 of 10
The gloomy undertone of the Batman movies is like a tow line, holding the movie back, keeping it from springing free into the wind...Tim Burton's "Batman Returns," even more than the original "Batman," is a dark, brooding film, filled with hurt and fear, childhood wounds and festering adult resentments. It is also a most intriguing movie, great to look at, fun to talk about. There is no doubt Burton is a gifted director, but is he the right director for Batman? The film opens in cruelty and shame, as the parents of a deformed baby put him into his bassinet and drop him into the river on a cold, snowy Christmas night. The frail little craft floats downstream and into the sewers of Gotham City, where the infant is rescued and raised by the penguins who luckily happen to live there...It is a common theory that when you have a hero, like James Bond, Superman or Batman, in a continuing series, it's the villain that gives each movie its flavor. "Batman" had the Joker, played by Jack Nicholson, to lend it energy, but the Penguin is a curiously meager and depressing creature; I pitied him, but did not fear him or find him funny. The genius of Danny DeVito is all but swallowed up in the paraphernalia of the role. "Batman Returns" is odd and sad, but not exhilarating...I give the movie a negative review, and yet I don't think it's a bad movie; it's more of a misguided one, made with great creativity, but denying us what we more or less deserve from a Batman story. Looking back over both films, I think Burton has a vision here and is trying to shape it to the material, but it just won't fit. No matter how hard you try, superheroes and film noir don't go together; the very essence of noir is that there are no more heroes. I had a feeling by the end of this film that Batman was beginning to get the idea. - Roger Ebert