Opinion of Batman Returns (1992)

[Frozen Sky Ever Why]

I've seen it ranked very low in most Batman lists, which saddens me. Maybe it's just childhood nostalgia, but I've always loved this movie. The Gothic setting, the rich 3 dimensional characters. Yes, it's also a little ridiculous, but I prefer that to the atmosphere of the Nolan films. I don't think comic book characters are supposed to be taken 100% seriously.

[Mr. Smith]

To stop my inner nerd for a moment and not get into scales and ranks, and thus keep it short:

It's a travesty when judged on the merits of Batman lore, the pacing and plotting are seriously off, and Christopher Walken's character was utterly pointless, and it's very disappointing to watch on the heels of 1989.

But the atmosphere, story beats, general tone, acting performances, direction, and most especially Danny Elfman's score make it worthwhile and certainly much better than it sounds.

Freedom film.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Still the best Batman movie.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Several strata beyond the Joel Schumacher monstrosities.

[dead0man]

Is that the one where Danny Devito/Penguin says "just the pussy I was looking for" to Catwoman?  That sh**t was funny (at least to me, back when I was a child of 19), but the movie was bad.

[MarkD]

Several strata beyond the Joel Schumacher monstrosities.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

It's a travesty when judged on the merits of Batman lore, the pacing and plotting are seriously off, and Christopher Walken's character was utterly pointless, and it's very disappointing to watch on the heels of 1989.

The point was to provide a plothook that would give Penguin and Catwoman a reason to join up. That said I never particularly cared for how either villain was developed. To be fair, Batman is much better as a television hero than a movie hero. Episodic television gives the time to develop the villains one at a time in a way that time limited movies generally can't. That was part of the reason for BTAS' success. For example, we got to know and enjoy Harvey Dent before his transformation into Two Face.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The subsequent movies thereafter, Batman Forever and Batman and Robin were horrible due to the fact they introduced Batgirl and never finished the storyline.

The same held true for Catwoman, she disappeared and never came back.  They should have made a final movie that had finished the story line of Batgirl and Catwoman

[Gass3268]

Best of the 80's-90's Batman movies.

[KingSweden]

It is unique without the Schumacher garbage. Well never see a thing quite like it again. I prefer it to 1989, I think, but the Nolan trilogy is obviously superior

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Meh, it's okay, but it's not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination (as opposed to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight which were great).  Honestly, even The Dark Knight Rises, a movie with more than its share of problems, was an infinitely better film than any of the non-Nolanverse Batman movies.  

I think folks have a tendency to look at the Michael Keaton Batman movies with nostalgia-colored glasses both because they came before the Schumacher monstrosities (Batman Forever was almost as bad as Batman and Robin, tbh) and because of how old they are (i.e. some folks grew up with them).  However, they're really extremely campy (and not in a good way) and lacked the psychological dimension that is critical to any good Batman story (the writers for Batman the Animated series understood this [see the first Mr. Freeze episode, the first Baby Doll episode, Perchance to Dream, Mad Love, and The Man Who Killed Batman, among others], the writers for Mask of the Phantasm understood it, and so did Christopher Nolan).  That's just my two cents though