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Ah, I see. Cool.

Nick

For some reason I don't have access to the photos??

Do I need to hit a certain post count or something?

Nick

Diz is a sweetheart. I talked to her a couple years ago after seeing her name on the "crime alley" poster. She hadn't even thought about selling her original poster until I had hunted her down. I am now a proud owner of one of those originals!

Good to finally see a formal interview on this bizarre little factoid about Batman 89'!

Nick

I totally agree that the Returns catwoman is a well written character with a good character arc, and solid motivations but I stil just dig the cat-burglar version.  Storywise, an eccentric high class burglar opens up so many more possiblities for her. Her only cause in the movie is to get revenge on Shreck.  Also, the character is basicly an just abused woman that loses it (which does help make her a better psychological Bat-character). However that kind of abuse almost hits too close to reality for me. The origins of most of Batman's character have a touch more fantasy to them. They tried but Kitty-cat resurrection just doesn't cut it for me.

Her teaming up with Penguin to "off the bat" is really awkward and forced. Teaming up villains to kill the common hero character just doesn't cut it these days. (errr... I mean 15 years ago )

And making Gotham hate Batman is such a passive aggressive way to attack our hero.

The casting of Penguin as the main villain in the movie I think is the main element that causes all the problems for the rest of the movie too me. It wasn't until the Animated series that finally figured out a cool way to treat the character.

It's funny with all the political mechanations and delicate character interplay in Returns, I think the story is actually too sophisticated! What 11 year old kid wants to watch a story about woman emporment and politcal intrigue (with a few cool fights thrown in).

I think that 89's power is in it's simplicity! Joker kills Batman's parents, Joker steals Batman's girlfriend, Batman gets revenge. It doesn't get much simpler than that. Batman's conflict with his Returns villains is very impersonal and disconnected. He fights them because they are criminals, nothing else.

Nick

It was just one step to far removed from "reality".

Penguins gang of Circus perfomers are smart enough to reprogram the Batmobile and build guided rockets, and have underground radar tracking systems at their disposal but still dumb enough to thinks its a good idea to cause wacky mayhem in the streets. The pieces just don't add up for me in a saticifing way.

I guess for me, 89 was a perfect blend the romantic and the realistic. The evocative melded with the plausible in a way that the stuff that doesn't make sense or is a bit goofy is skimmed over quickly and neatly. 89 Joker is a mob boss who is a little wacky and eccentric but still performs the duties of a proper criminal.

Returns just asks you to suspend your disbelief far too often for my tastes.

Sequels in general are always forced to up the ante and bring out a bigger more complicated story. When reading Batman stories, I tend to like my narratives fairly clean and to the point. Returns rambles around far too much for me.

Batman Returns' focus is on Penguin and I don't care about Penguin. That hurts the movie right there.

There is still so much interesting Batman stories to explore that wasn't, just so we could watch the Penguin waddle around for a hour and a half.

Nick

Hmmm, I always thought he was mimicking the scene from Wizard of OZ where the witch is melted with a bucket of water. I always thought he was saying "what a world" like the witch does while melting.

Nick

I'll be the voice of dissent.

My main issues with Returns-

Too many villains.

Too much politics and talking. It's a sloooow movie.

Too little Batman.

Clown gang is alright but it lacks the teeth that Joker's gang of thugs did.

Catwoman as upset kung fu secretary didn't work me. How hard is it to have Catwoman be a badass catburglar.

Penguin is the worst villain in the Rogues Gallery. He doesn't work in the comics and try as they might, he is only fairly cool here. Tim Burton's Mr Freeze or Two Face would have been an awesome sight instead.

Penguins with Rockets is the finale of the entire movie. That the best they could come up with. They epic battle of good versus evil comes down to Rocket Penguins. Don't get me started with the ducky-mobile.

and worst of all no Bob the Goon. 

That said it's still very entertaining and I loved it when I was a kid. I just think a better movie could have been made.

Nick