History YMMV / BatmanReturns

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Not only for this series but the entire genre; Catwoman was arguably the first ever secondary villain in a superhero film. With Penguin and Shreck as the main villains, Selina was mostly in her own plot throughout the movie, and she only briefly works with the Penguin. And even then, her job--distracting Batman while the Penguin's mooks hack into the Batmobile--could have been done by another mook. She is still probably the best example of this, as she is a really well-rounded character with emotional depth and impact and much symbolism that fits perfectly into the film's themes and mirrors the primary villain's case.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Quite a few people prefer to ignore (or are unaware of) the AllThereInTheManual fact that the Penguin killed his parents himself a few weeks prior, and only ''pretended'' to discover their grave leading to the iconic Cemetery scene. The idea makes the Penguin more sinister, which can be compelling in some ways, but is deemed by those fans to be much less powerful and striking than a genuinely morally complex Penguin. For those that it is not compelling enough that such a monstrous character had such a monstrous life blurring the line between the role of his savage nature and the role of his horrible upbringing.

** Michelle Pfeiffer would later play Janet van Dyne in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse. Janet is married to Hank Pym, who is played by Creator/MichaelDouglas, the actor who forced Michael Keaton to take that screen name upon becoming an actor.

* CryForTheDevil: The Penguin is a monstrous {{Slimeball}} through and through, being by far the most evil of this film's BigBadEnsemble. Even most of his sympathetic moments are really just him trying to look good in front of the press. But, as horrific as his actions are, it's clear that he became the villain that he is because of his tragic past. It's no excuse for what he's done, but how many people who are born terrifyingly deformed, almost drowned by their parents, and raised by penguins would actually come out well adjusted? [[spoiler: As deserving as his death is, it's brought tears to several viewers.]]

* FranchiseOriginalSin: Not only for this series but the entire genre; Catwoman was arguably the first ever secondary villain in a superhero film. With Penguin and Shreck as the main villains, Selina was mostly in her own plot throughout the movie, and she only briefly works with the Penguin. And even then, her job--distracting Batman while the Penguin's mooks hack into the Batmobile--could have been done by another mook. She is still probably the best example of this, as she is a really well-rounded character with emotional depth and impact and much symbolism that fits perfectly into the films themes and mirrors the primary villain's case.

* HollywoodHomely: Creator/MichellePfeiffer as Selina Kyle. In the time period the movie seemed to be mimicking, executive assistants and secretaries weren't hired for their office skills but for their... ahem... other assets. The movie itself showed that Selina was treated bad mostly because she was so timid she was intimidated just by being in the same room as a bunch of people. But, in her favor, she is also shown pre-transformation as intelligent... just overlooked due to the sexism of her workplace.
* HoYay: You have to admit that, as far as the unsuspecting citizens of Gotham are concerned, there's something strange about the mysterious closeness between the Penguin and Max Shreck - and not just because the Penguin calls Shreck "Maxie", which is a ''very'' affectionate name for a man he's known only a few days. Consider: From the very beginning, and even before he sponsors the Penguin's mayoral campaign, Max is always beside Oswald, always shielding him from the press and standing up for his rights, when there doesn't seem to be any reason why Max should care. (''We'' know, of course, what's going on between the two of them, but the characters in the movie itself can only speculate.) Of course, given what a ManipulativeBastard he is, it wouldn't be out of character for Max Shreck to subtly lead the media to believe this.

** Batman fighting against Penguin's circus freak army is also pretty silly, mainly because of how silly they behave while fighting him.

* ContestedSequel: Fans of the first film and of the Batman films in general to quote the Dark Knight are "split right down the center" on this one. Some see it as the best of the pre-Nolan films, some see it as somewhat inferior to the first but better than the Schumacher films, some feel its darkness is too overwhelming even compared to the first film, a few-but-increasing-number today feel the darkness and the ''camp'' end up clashing far too heavily and very badly muddle the film's identity (whereas ''Forever'' at least has a very good idea of what it wants to be as a film, as did ''Batman 1'') and some just think it's the best Batman film, period.

** As noted under IdiotPlot below, was Selina actually hoping to blackmail Schrek with the information she found in the hopes of [[TookALevelInBadass taking a level in badass]], and just chickened out at the last minute? Or maybe she was hoping she could become part of his inner circle in exchange for keeping the information to herself?

** {{Inverted}}. Creator/DannyDeVito's performance earned him a UsefulNotes/GoldenRaspberryAward nomination. As evidenced by his mentions in SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct and JustHereForGodzilla, most viewers disagree with this nod.

* IdiotPlot:
** The creation of Catwoman is predicated on Selina Kyle outright telling her cruel and shady boss that she had figured out his secret password and accessed his secret files where she discovered that his planned power plant would be a power capacitor that would suck and stockpile power from Gotham City.
** Max Shreck decides that the best way to get his power plant built is to get people behind the Penguin to become the mayor after he makes himself a hero to the public in what is frankly an obviously staged rescue scene. Planning to sell a deformed guy who was abandoned and lived in the sewers all his life with no real indication of any kind of formal education whatsoever with a predilection for resorting to violence in anger (when he savagely bites the nose of one of the image advisors) as well as being sexually perverted (when he outright and obviously gropes a young woman when placing a campaign button on her sweater during a public conference) who literally just showed up as a candidate for public office. And on top of all that, the masses of Gotham somehow actually buy into it all. One could argue however, that they try lampshading this a bit by playing it as a form of social satire.
*** Really, Shreck would have saved everyone a ''lot'' of trouble if he had run for mayor ''himself''. He's more beloved than anyone else in Gotham, ''including'' Batman, so he'd likely have won in a landslide. Plus, nobody would have ever have to have known that it was his ''own'' power plant he authorized; the only two notable people he told were the ''current'' mayor (his political opponent, and thus not a credible accuser) and a secretary whom everyone assumes is stupid. Of course, the Penguin would have still tried to blow up the city anyway...
*** Then again, Max may have considered that and abandoned it as it might draw too much attention to his efforts; by putting someone ''else'' up for the position, Max could maintain a degree of distance that would stop people paying more attention to his efforts than he wanted.
** And to top it all off, the big capacitor-pretending-to-be-a-power-plant ''idea'' is idiotic. Is the city supposed to not notice when that the power shortages when the plant is online? Or, if it charges during the night, and discharges during afternoon peak power demand, why not just present it as a power storage device to allow more efficient power generation? And what on earth do you do with a power storage device once it's built, if not use it to supply power to something? Do you just stand around and admire it?

* MagnificentBitch: [[Characters/CatwomanSelinaKyle Catwoman]], real name Selina Kyle, was [[FromNobodyToNightmare once the put-down secretary]] of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive shady businessman Max Shreck]]. When Shreck pushes her out of the window of his building for learning too much, Selina is given cat powers by strays out on the streets ([[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane maybe]]) and uses them to become a vengeful vigilante herself. As Catwoman, she overcomes a thug mugging a woman with ease, blows up one of Shreck's stores while timing her escape perfectly and, on more than one occasion, bests [[Characters/BatmanFilmSeriesBatman Batman]] in a physical fight. Catwoman also briefly teams up with [[Characters/BatmanThePenguin the Penguin]] to successfully pull off a scheme to frame Batman, and later saves the Dark Knight while finally taking out Shreck once and for all.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Quite a few people prefer to ignore the AllThereInTheManual fact that the Penguin killed his parents himself a few weeks prior, and only ''pretended'' to discover their grave leading to the iconic Cemetery scene. The idea makes the Penguin more sinister, which can be compelling in some ways, but is deemed by those fans to be much less powerful and striking than a genuinely morally complex Penguin. For those that it is not compelling enough that such a monstrous character had such a monstrous life blurring the line between the role of his savage nature and the role of his horrible upbringing.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: Selina's apartment before her EvilMakeover. Seriously, what grown woman has that many stuffed animals, dollhouses, and pink stuff everywhere? This was done to highlight Selina's already-present mental imbalance, thanks at least in part to the mistreatment suffered at Shreck's hands. As evidence, note Shreck's throwaway line to a man at his speech:
-->'''Shreck:''' Forgot my speech... remind me to take it out on what's-her-name.

* MagnificentBitch: [[Characters/CatwomanSelinaKyle Catwoman]], real name Selina Kyle, was [[FromNobodyToNightmare once the put-down secretary]] of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive shady businessman Max Shreck]]. When Shreck pushes her out of the window of his building for learning too much, Selina is given cat powers by strays out on the streets and uses them to become a vengeful vigilante herself. As Catwoman, she overcomes a thug mugging a woman with ease, blows up one of Shreck's stores while timing her escape perfectly and, on more than one occasion, bests [[Characters/BatmanFilmSeriesBatman Batman]] in a physical fight. Catwoman also briefly teams up with [[Characters/BatmanThePenguin the Penguin]] to successfully pull off a scheme to frame Batman, and later saves the Dark Knight while finally taking out Shreck once and for all.

** "Bruce Wayne... why are you dressed up like Batman?" Naturally, this requires a Creator/ChristopherWalken impression for the full effect.
** This led to a minor snowclone meme "X... why are you dressed up like Y?" Common substitutes are other superheroes and their secet identities (i.e. "Clark Kent... why are you dressed up like Superman?"), or even [[ActorRoleConfusion actors and the characters they're playing]] (i.e."Creator/KevinConroy... why are you imitating the voice of Batman?") or vice versa (i.e. "Shreck... why are you dressed up like Christopher Walken?")
** "Bruce, shame on you" and "Yawn" are also go-to lines for Walken impersonators.

** Creator/MichellePfeiffer's Catwoman became a popular feminist icon - which is somewhat understandable, since such characters were relatively few and far between in 1980s and early '90s mainstream films. But Selina herself realizes that she is not an empowering figure at all, but [[HeWhoFightsMonsters just as much a thug as the men who have persecuted her]]. This should be clear from the guilt-ridden scolding she gives herself while looking in a shop window, as well as the fact that she ''cries'' when Bruce challenges her to explain what she's really feeling. But of course, since she becomes a full on antihero by the midway point, she's still a compelling example of a flawed and relatable heroine that isn't a FlawlessToken.

** Same could be said about the Christmas Eve costume ball. Yes, these are all {{Upper Class Twit}}s and [[ParentalAbandonment lousy parents]], but their masks sure look funny and cool.

** The Penguin's parents cross this in the intro when locking him in a cage and attempting to drown him in freezing water. And their [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone expressions]] when it's all said and done heavily imply they know it, too.
** Shreck crosses it when he throws Selina Kyle out of a 40 story high window for finding out about his power plant scam.

* MorePopularReplacement: Vicki Vale disappears between movies and Bruce's love interest in this is Selina Kyle. Most viewers didn't mind though, as Selina proved far more popular than Vicki. While Vicki isn't universally disliked and is regarded warmly by some viewers, much of her role revolves solely around her relationship with Bruce Wayne/Batman and her DamselInDistress tendencies get annoying for some viewers. Selina, on the other hand, gets to be a more active character with her own story arc and Michelle Pfieffer's performance as Catwoman is considered one of the best things about the film. It helps that Batman/Catwoman is one of the [[OneTruePairing biggest ships]] in the Batman fandom.

** Chip Shreck's DullSurprise combined with a very comical impression of Creator/ChristopherWalken to form some very hilarious deliveries, especially the very under-emoted "Dad, go, save yourself." Shreck's dull reaction also counts when Chip tells him to go.
** Batman fighting against Penguin's circus freak army is also pretty silly, mainly because of how silly they behave while fighting Batman.

** The shot of Batman record scratching a CD, [[spoiler:whilst taking down Cobblepot's mayoral campaign]]. In another movie, that moment would be straight narm, but this comes from Keaton's Batman, a character who doesn't have moments like this to show off his humorous side. Him record scratching the CD with the added smirk makes it a charming moment rather than straight narm.
** [[spoiler: The Penguin's death. When Oswald, wearing pyjamas, with green slime spewing from his mouth asks for a drink of ice water as his last words, falls over dead, and is ceremoniously pushed into the sewer by six emperor penguins, acing as pallbearers, while sad and dramatic music plays in the background, it should be completely ridiculous!]] But somehow, it isn't. The scene still works, and is actually rather moving.
** Selina's aforementioned FreakOut can definitely be this too - though many people, especially the unlucky enough to have witnessed or ''suffered'' a real mental breakdown, would fail to see it as {{Narm}} at all.

* UncannyValley: Shreck comes across as a deliberate version of this - he is always quietly sedate, even when he's been kidnapped by a deformed man-beast and dragged into a sewer, and shows a disturbing lack of empathy. Overall it makes him come across as inhuman, almost vampiric, contrasting with the more bizarre looking yet significantly more human leads. It also makes his [[NotSoStoic rare outbursts of anger]] much more jolting or even terrifying than they would be otherwise.

*** Schwarzenegger not just only would play the aforementioned Mr. Freeze ([[CelebrityParadox without any characters remarking on his resemblance]]) but also would run for public office in real-life (as Governor of California in the 2003 recall election) and, unlike his ''{{Film/Twins}}'' costar [=DeVito=]'s character Penguin in this film, succeed in being elected.

* EvenBetterSequel: Creator/TimBurton and Creator/MichaelKeaton consider this to be superior to the first film, with Keaton saying that it spoke to him more. Critics even think so too, with this movie having an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score than its predecessor, which has a 71% score.

* EvenBetterSequel: Creator/TimBurton and Creator/MichaelKeaton consider this to be superior to the first film, with Keaton saying that it spoke to him more. Critics even think so too, with this movie having a higher Rotten Tomatoes score than its predecessor.

* MagnificentBitch: [[Characters/CatwomanSelinaKyle Catwoman]], real name Selina Kyle, was [[FromNobodyToNightmare once the put-down secretary]] of [[CorruptCorporateExecutive shady businessman Max Shreck]]. When Shreck pushes her out of the window of his building for learning too much, Selina is given cat powers by strays out on the streets and uses them to become a vengeful vigilante herself. As Catwoman, she overcomes a thug mugging a woman with ease, blows up one of Shreck's stores while timing her escape perfectly and, on more than one occasion, bests [[Characters/BatmanFilmSeriesBatman Batman]] in a physical fight. Catwoman also briefly teams up with[[Characters/BatmanThePenguin the Penguin]] to successfully pull off a scheme to frame Batman, and later saves the Dark Knight while finally taking out Shreck once and for all.

* MagnificentBitch: ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}, real name Selina Kyle, was [[FromNobodyToNightmare at first the put-down secretary]] of shady businessman Max Shreck. When Shreck pushes her out of the window of his building for learning too much, Selina is given cat powers by strays out on the streets and uses them to become a vengeful vigilante herself. As Catwoman, she overcomes a thug mugging a woman with ease, blows up one of Shreck’s stores while timing her escape perfectly and, on more than one occasion, bests Franchise/{{Batman}} in a physical fight. Catwoman also briefly teams up with ComicBook/ThePenguin to successfully pull off a scheme to frame Batman, and later saves the Dark Knight while finally taking out Shreck once and for all.

* EvenBetterSequel: Creator/TimBurton and Creator/MichaelKeaton consider this to be superior to the first film, with Keaton saying that it spoke to him more.

* AudienceColoringAdaptation: Creator/MichellePfeiffer's version of ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} has left a long impression on general audiences. While Catwoman can't really be considered a full-on villain anymore as she's settled into being a stable romantic partner for ComicBook/{{Batman}}, she had always been more of an AntiVillain. She was never crazy and was always one of the least bad of his villains. In this film, she's straight-up crazy and the idea of her being this way still sticks in people's heads. Creator/HalleBerry's [[Film/Catwoman2004 take on the character]] was widely mocked (but more due to poor filmmaking). Creator/AnneHathaway's version from ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', while getting a bit closer to Catwoman's personality from the comics, didn't really stick, possibly due to Creator/ChristopherNolan removing much of the cat-theming due the trilogy's more grounded take on the Batman mythos. The movie is also a bit divisive in and of itself which probably explains some of it as well. Creator/ZoeKravitz's take on the character in ''Film/TheBatman2022'' has earned praise and there can be parallels drawn between that version and Pfieffer's (Kravitz's Catwoman is more mentally stable than Pfieffer's, yet is also presented as a hard-done-by woman who seeks vengeance against powerful, morally-bankrupt men who wronged her); Kravitz stated that Pfiffer's Catwoman partly inspired her own performance whilst Pfieffer herself was highly supportive of Kravitz.

* AudienceColoringAdaptation: Creator/MichellePfeiffer's version of ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} has left a long impression on general audiences. While Catwoman can't really be considered a full-on villain anymore as she's settled into being a stable romantic partner for ComicBook/{{Batman}}, she had always been more of an AntiVillain. She was never crazy and was always one of the least bad of his villains. In this film, she's straight-up crazy and the idea of her being this way still sticks in people's heads. Creator/HalleBerry's [[Film/Catwoman2004 take on the character]] was widely mocked (but more due to poor filmmaking). Creator/AnneHathaway's version from ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', while getting a bit closer to Catwoman's personality from the comics, didn't really stick, possibly due to Creator/ChristopherNolan removing much of the cat theming. The movie is also a bit divisive in and of itself which probably explains some of it as well. Time will tell for Creator/ZoeKravitz in ''Film/TheBatman2022''.

** The brilliance of Penguin's character in ''Returns'' is that he was already on the other side of the line from the start of the movie. His reemergence into society, his attempts to gather census data on the populace of Gotham, all done from the start so he could identify and kill the first born children of every wealthy family in the city. It is even implied that he's already murdered children back when he was the "bird boy" at the Red Triangle Circus's freak show.

* MorePopularReplacement: Vicki Vale disappears between movies, and Bruce's love interest in this is Selina Kyle. But she is far more popular than Vicki, who is considered something of a generic DamselScrappy, since she gets to be an active character and her performance as Catwoman is considered one of the best things about the film.

*** Here's a third one: they did it to protect others from Oswald. It's regarded that kids torturing/killing animals is a sign something's not right in the head and the kid might grow up to be a serial killer; right before they tossed him, Oswald did kill the family cat, who just got near him.

** The tagline was "The Bat. The Cat. The Penguin." In 2014's ''Film/{{Birdman}}'' (unrelated to the [[WesternAnimation/Birdman1967 Hanna-Barbera cartoon]] of the same name), Creator/MichaelKeaton (who plays an actor who in turn plays as the eponymous superhero) would be the one who is a [[AnimalThemedSuperbeing bird themed character]].

** The tagline was "The Bat. The Cat. The Penguin." In 2014's ''Film/{{Birdman}}'' (unrelated to the [[WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}} Hanna-Barbera cartoon]] of the same name), Creator/MichaelKeaton (who plays an actor who in turn plays as the eponymous superhero) would be the one who is a [[AnimalThemedSuperbeing bird themed character]].

** The conclusion of the Batman, Catwoman, and Shreck drama due to Bruce's unmasking and heartfelt plea, Max's saying [[MemeticMutation "Bruce Wayne?]] [[WhatAnIdiot Why are you dressed up like Batman"]], and Selina giving the Schreck [[spoiler: a taser charged KissOfDeath]], three of the film's most famous moments one after another.

* VanillaProtagonist: Since Michael Keaton had a good portion of Bruce's lines deleted or cut down, preferring to act without dialogue, Batman can come across as the vanilla one in this story; there to be a foil for all the outlandish characters around him. There are two villains in Penguin and Schrek, who are both extremely colorful and scene stealing in their own ways. Then there's Catwoman, who is less a secondary villain and ends up having an arc of her own that proved extremely memorable. Batman by contrast shows up in only ''one scene'' in the film's first half hour, and doesn't have much of an arc of his own; making him come across almost as ''Selina's'' SatelliteLoveInterest. Notably ''Film/BatmanForever'' would at least attempt to give him more of an arc.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** When Max Shreck [[spoiler:sees Batman unmasked]], he says [[spoiler:"Bruce Wayne? Why are you dressed up as Batman?" Selina quickly points out that Shreck is a moron]]. He gave Selina another excuse to kill him after he apparently shot Batman in front of her. [[spoiler: He had his armor on and Max was unfortunate enough to miss his exposed head.]]
** Batman himself [[spoiler:for unmasking in front of Shreck. True he was trying to get through to Selina in the hope of making her snap out of her Catwoman persona, and his own emotions may have been rattled by her plight, but it was still a dumb thing to do in front of the villain, even if Shreck dies almost immediately after.]]
* WTHCostumingDepartment: Cool as the Catwoman suit is, it was also impossible to go to the bathroom wearing it. Michelle Pfeiffer has advised every actress who’s played the role since to make sure they ask the costume designer to consider this.