Ask a group of people their opinions of the Batman movies as a collection and you might get almost as many different views as people giving them. I think that while not as good as the first, "Batman Returns" is better than the two that followed and is a terrific movie. I love the continuity of Keaton returning as Batman as well as some of the supporting cast coming back.

Michelle Pfeiffer is amazing because of her acting performance and because she can reduce a man to a quivering, drooling zombie in that tight cat outfit of hers. Beauty and talent often go hand in hand in Hollywood, but Michelle has more than her fair share of both. Danny DeVito does a good job with this incarnation of the Penguin (though I must comfess to some disappointment that Billy Dee Williams isn't Two-Face for this story). I have to commend his willingness to be so vile and disgusting, it sells the character. He was more high society in the books from what I remember with the tophat and tailcoat and all. While the movie version keeps those roots his true natural habitat is lowest of low, he’s more animalistic than I’ve seen him before. While this is a very interesting incarnation of him though, he simply can’t match Joker’s presence and level of danger.

Christopher Walken doesn’t sell his role as well as I would have expected. Maybe the flat, forced personality is what he intended for the character, but I don’t find it very interesting. Walken is sometimes hit or miss with me anyway. A lot of the time I think he's outstanding, but at times like this I'm not impressed. I suppose Max is a needed character to tie Penguin and Catwoman's stories together with Batman's needed intervention, but sometimes it feels like we're spending too much time with him and not enough with the more iconic villains.

The movie is as pleasantly dark as the first although the Christmas atmosphere and circus theme add a fairy-tale feel that doesn’t work as well in a Batman movie as it does other Tim Burton films. Perhaps they are just over done. Penguins (the animal not the character) as pallbearers don’t work, either. These little negatives don’t keep the movie from being good, but do keep it from reaching the level of its predecessor.

There are other elements that largely make up for the problems. Selina’s struggle with insanity is a great part of the story, and her dual relationship with Bruce Wayne and Batman is fittingly ironic for such an important character as Catwoman.

There is perhaps a little more action than the first. It’s exciting but nothing stunning. There is nothing too fancy in the effects department, the benefit of making a super hero movie about a guy that has no inherent powers like flying, which keeps everything looking realistic (this version doesn't swing around the city Spider-Man style nearly as much as some versions). Mostly, anyway. I thought the computer guided batarang was a bit too far-fetched.

In keeping with the version of Batman established in the last movie this one is less concerned with the preservation of life than how I see Batman (as a fan of the books and various on screen versions). We see him use fire and explosives in a way that, given the more realistic approach in the movies, appears lethal. I'm partial to the Batman that uses more stealth to avoid taking the life of even the lowest of the low.

Danny Elfman’s music is every bit as good as the first round. It was one of the first soundtrack albums I ever bought, and I still greatly enjoy it. It’s catchy and easily recognizable building on familiar themes from the original but adding new sounds as well.

I never understood why "Batman Returns" didn’t fare better than it did. Maybe it was too dark, or maybe the darkness alongside the normally positive themes of Christmas and circus disturbed too many people. Was Penguin just too disgusting or his huge subterranean penguin and acrobatic armies too hard to swallow? It has its problems, but I still love the darker portrayal of Batman, the relatable humanity Keaton brings to the character while still keeping him super-heroic, the character layers of Selina/Catwoman, the struggles with duality, and the contrast of how Batman operates as a crime fighter and the limits he will not allow himself to go beyond.