Batman Returns transcends its genre and shines its Bat-Signal on our foibles and neuroses, conveying a collective humanity with neither heroism nor villainy, just a long, slow trip into the dark.

| Dec 9, 2024

Ah, remember when superhero movies used to be weird? [...] Returns on its own is a fascinating beast, a movie following iconic characters that have been interpreted and reinterpreted throughout the years. Yet, it’s a movie only Burton could have made.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 3, 2024

Although Batman Returns is tonally lighter than its predecessor, the film nevertheless exists in the shadows. It’s also weirder, an indication of Burton exerting stronger creative control.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2024

It’s everything you’d want a Burton Batman movie to be, complete with some incredible set designs and yet another banger of a score from Elfman.

| Feb 28, 2024

More than the character or the love people have for him, it is about the unique vision that it fully executes. Batman Returns is a Burton movie just as much as it is one about The Caped Crusader.

| Original Score: A | Jun 17, 2023

'Batman Returns' is undeniably a Christmas movie. With the Scrooge-like Max Shreck and a sewer-dwelling penguin person, the Gotham created by Burton and co. is cartoonishly bleak.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 16, 2022

As always, the story is a clothesline for grand, lavish images. The surprise here is that they’re darker, more painfully felt.

| Original Score: A | Aug 31, 2022

I always considered it "dark," but compared to takes on Batman brought out in the subsequent years by the likes of Christopher Nolan, Zack Snyder, and Matt Reeves, Burton’s version was practically sunshine and comedy. (30th anniversrary)

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 21, 2022

The grotesque style of Burton + DeVito's 100% commitment to the Penguin make me not able to look away.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 9, 2022

Dark, demented and deviant, we're unlikely to see a superhero film like Batman Returns ever again. It's wonderful.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 21, 2021

Why isn't this movie called Catwoman?

| Dec 17, 2020

Both Catwoman and the Penguin are unique, formidable, brilliantly costumed, and perfectly ghoulish.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Sep 9, 2020

Tim Burton's Batman Returns is a masterpiece, and the tour de force performances from the trio of Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Danny DeVito are nothing short of iconic.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 28, 2020

[Batman Returns] is a blood-red wine that has only gotten better with age.

| Jun 27, 2020

...my biggest criticism of Batman Returns: its overstuffed narrative. Whether you see Catwoman as a villain or an antiheroine, there's a lot of moving parts in this movie and sometimes it seems like no one gets quite the attention that they deserve

| Feb 22, 2020

None have captured the feeling of Bruce Wayne's duality more, in my opinion, than Tim Burton's BATMAN RETURNS.

| Sep 30, 2019

Batman Returns doesn't quite outdo its predecessor even though the film has perfect casting with Danny DeVito as the Penguin.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 7, 2019

The film is unbelievably kitsch, and to those who associate Batman's camp period as starting with Schumacher, you really need to look at this film again.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 28, 2019

A strange beast.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 17, 2019

The Penguin running for office plotline is a snoozefest.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 15, 2019