When Tim Burton was about to restart Batman, many DC fans were not very satisfied with the selection of Batman - Michael Keaton, can he play well? At that time, Keaton's most famous movies were "Housebuster" and "Beetle Juice", all of which played funny roles. Can such an actor play the dark and deep Avengers of the Night?
In hindsight, this concern was superfluous. However, although Keaton has largely dispelled doubts, the criticism of him has not stopped since then, and it is often said that he is not as good as Jack Nicholson (as the Joker) and Danny DeVito (as penguin man).
But these criticisms underestimate Keaton's Batman too much. While Nicholson's Joker is busy destroying the set by art director Anton Foster, Keaton quietly portrays a Batman who barely retains his sanity.
Let's explore why Keaton played a traumatized hero and why his role as Bruce Wayne is also a good version.
Crazy Batman
1989's Batman changed the convention and told a complete, unambiguous joke about the Origin of the Joker. Not only did the Joker have his real name , Jack Napier " , we also saw the accident that turned him from a gangster into a Clown , and we even learn that Jack Napier was the killer of Bruce Wayne 's parents. The film also suggests that Jack's mental problems date back to his childhood, and that he was brilliant from an early age, but had early signs of madness.
Such a drastic change in the backstory of the Joker has naturally caused a lot of controversy, but in the framework of this movie, this setting is particularly appropriate. Nicholson's Clown and Keaton's Blues are connected, they both have a troubled childhood, they have become superhuman characters, they are dressed in unique costumes, and they are fighting for gotham's fate.
Can a mentally normal superhero have this expression?
Although Keaton's Bruce is not a complete lunatic like Jack Napier, the 89th edition of Batman has many clues that his brain should not be normal. Take the way he sleeps – he sleeps upside down, like a real bat. I don't know if this is some kind of statement (not mentioned in the movie anyway), or if he is too concerned about the identity of "Batman"?
Throughout the film, Keaton's Bruce often falls into contemplation and memories. At one point we followed The Perspective of Vicki Weir (Kim Basingjie) trailing her new boyfriend and seeing Bruce, immersed in his own world, return to Crime Alley, leaving a bouquet of roses in the place where his parents died. Later, he ignored the bullet that had nearly hit him. Seeing jack Napier still alive, deep down in his heart, something he didn't yet understand was awakened.
"Do you want to go crazy!?" Come on! Everybody goes crazy together!"
And then there's the famous "Do you want to go crazy!" The camera, where Bruce's grief and anger erupt. The emotional outburst of this scene allows us to see a man who is almost as crazy as a clown. Bruce becomes the reflection of the Joker, the man who made Batman. Ironically, the person who made the Joker is batman. In this movie, the relationship between the two of them is like an All-Tailed Snake.
The tragedy of Batman Returns
The popularity of batman villains "fan groups" is largely because they all mirror Batman in some way. The advantage of Both Bolton films is that they not only embody this relationship, but also develop it on that basis, which comics did not do at the time.
The same goes for Batman Returns. The film reshaped the penguin man, portraying him as the dark opposite of Bruce Wayne. He is also the only son of a wealthy Gotham family and has a tragic childhood. But Bruce had at least a few years of fond memories, at least felt the love of his parents and Afoo.
Oswald Kopot (Penguin Man) was treated as sewer garbage at birth and was thrown away by his parents. He is not a gangster who wants to make a name for himself in the underworld, he is a tormented freak who regards Batman as a kind of person, and thinks that Batman is also a monster that should not be admired by the citizens of Gotham.
Although "Batman Returns" does not elaborate on the personal relationship between Bruce and Copot, it has a lot of ink on Batman's relationship with Catwoman, and there are many finishing touches. In this movie, Vicki Weir is out (she doesn't want to waste time on a man who values Gotham more than she does), and Selena Kyle shines. This woman understood the primal impulse to put on a suit and unleash the madness in her heart. She was a perfect mirror for Bruce. Before putting on the mask, she was also a person who shut others out and was not good at communication.
One of the most tragic scenes in all Batman movies
In many ways, Keaton's Bruce Wayne played better than his Batman. He didn't have the muscular flesh of Christian Bell and Ben Affleck, and his rubber suit was so immobile that he wasn't suitable for acting. Not to mention that his attitude towards killing people is still very rash.
But with Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman, Keaton truly became Batman. Their fight scenes are full of energy (and sexual tension), which is unique in the Batman films directed by Burton and Schumacher. Batman Returns portrays Selena as the only woman who can truly understand Bruce's pain, the only woman who can make him complete, a setting that is more advanced than the comics of the year. This also makes the scene where the two discover each other's secret identities even more tragic. We hope that these two poor men will be reconciled, even though this is destined to be a luxury.
Keaton returns to Gotham
Keaton's Batman career wasn't too long compared to Bale and Kevin Conroy (voice actors in the animated and multi-game versions of Batman) who were able to play Batman at different stages. But it also makes his return more worth looking forward to. In 2022, Keaton will re-enact Batman twice, first in the movie version of The Flash, and then in HBO Max's Batgirl movie.
Keaton's career has taken on a second spring in recent years because he's regained the qualities that make his Batman so attractive. In the 2014 movie Birdman, Keaton played a fictional version of himself: a middle-aged actor who wanted to get rid of the classic image of the past and find a new way in Hollywood. In 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, he switched sides and played the villain: a charming but distinctly mentally disturbed man who uses his family as an excuse to build a criminal empire under the eyes of the Avengers.
Keaton apparently didn't lose his edge, and was still old when playing a comic book character that was almost irrational. So, when he returns to his most classic superhero role, what kind of performance will it bring? Will we see a Bruce Wayne who is even more out of the shadows of the past? Or did these decades of gaping him into a completely different character? But whatever the outcome, it's enough to let us know that Michael Keaton's Batman hasn't come to an end yet.
This article is compiled from IGN US related content, the original author Jesse Schedeen, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.