Quote from: HuDaFuK on Dec 14, 2022, 09:37:21 AMQuote from: Stitch on Dec 11, 2022, 08:58:59 PMIt's nearly Christmas, so Batman Returns
I do really like that film, but it's one of those movies that somehow manages to feel like much less than the sum of its parts. There's so much fantastic stuff in it, but overall it's just a bit of a mess. Like it's cramming in too many characters and subplots for its runtime.
The Penguin's story arc is the worst offender: He comes back to enact his vengeance on all the firstborn sons of Gotham - cool - but then he completely forgets about that for literally half the film while he runs for mayor, then when that falls apart he goes back to kidnapping the sons - a plan that ultimately consists of an old dude driving a road train around town hoping none of the parents or police notice while he slowly trundles from door-to-door stealing babies - only to have that scheme foiled about thirty seconds later (offscreen!) by Batman... and then suddenly he has an army of missile-launching penguins with which he's gonna destroy the whole city. Like, where the f**k did that come from?! And this happens with no preamble in the final ten minutes of the movie.
It's a shame because the cast are all absolutely on-point. Pfeiffer's transformation into Catwoman is one of the most gloriously disturbing sequences I've ever seen in a film.
I think the kidnapping of the sons was a backup plan, and blowing up the city was a secondary backup plan.
Basically, he just wanted to be loved. His plan was to terrorise Gotham and then pretend that he's its saviour, thus gaining the love and respect that his parents never gave him.
When that went south, his backup plan was taking the firstborns, which he did at a time when he knew most of the socialite parents would be out, (correctly) presuming they would care more about their status (the party) than their children. Just like his own parents.
The blowing up the city part is just a last ditch attempt at ruining things for everyone.
I don't think they're all separate things that he thought of, it feels to me like that was all part of his plan from the start. He even says at the beginning that he has patience. I figured they were all just redundancies.
And all failed because of BatKeaton.
Last film I actually watched was
Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.
Decent movie, pretty funny and clever, if a little heavy handed with its message. My mate said it was the best movie ever, and I don't think it's that good, but it's pretty decent.
