BATMAN RETURNS: The Birth Of Villain Overload

In 1989, my dad took me to see Batman. It was both my first PG-13 rated movie and first superhero movie. Needless to say, my six or seven year old eyes were glued to the big screen. We bought the VHS when it hit video stores, and I watched it repeatedly. Imagine my excitement when I heard a sequel would be made. Unfortunately, Batman Returns did not have the same spark as the first one.

At that young age, I could not figure out why I didn’t like Batman Returns as much as Batman. About three years ago, the movie popped up on a streaming service. A noticeable difference I saw is, though titled Batman Returns, the character of Batman is hardly in the movie. The three villains dominate the film’s screen time.

The Penguin, Catwoman and Max Schreck (Ha! It’s the same name as the lead actor in Nosferatu) all stand in Batman’s way whenever he gets a chance to grace the screen. The lack of Batman shows why Michael Keaton did not come back to do the third movie. Batman Returns should have been called “The Rise of Penguin”, or more appropriately, “The Rise of Villain Overload.”

Comic Book To Movie

Like the novel, comic books have the luxury to let characters and plots breathe and develop more than movies. The comic book can continue the story the following week, or connect it to another superhero comic (the MCU attempts this latter method) – such as the character, Kingpin, who is a featured villain in Daredevil, Spider-man and Punisher comics. He has the chance to spread his mayhem through multiple stories in a period of several weeks. Movies don’t have that kind of time.

Sure, the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) will feature characters showing up in other films, but they’re limited on time. A comic book can continue the next week and run a twenty issue long story. With films, you have to wait two or three years for the next Captain America or Ironman. The other drawback is a movie’s running time.

You can put only so many ideas in a movie, which leads to omitting and merging stories. Fans want to see their favorites on the big screen, which can cause some filmmakers to use all the heroes and villains in one story, but in a story that becomes cluttered.

The Spider-man 3 Problem

I consider Batman Returns to be the first movie with too many villains. Though “returns” is in the title, Batman did not go anywhere. The Penguin and Catwoman were used to show their origin stories, while Batman developed vehicles and tools not shown in the first film, but would sell toys to young moviegoers. In the case of Spider-man 3, Spider-man acts like a weirdo.

Spider-man 3 tells the origin of Sandman, the alien costume (black Spider-man suit) story and the origin of Venom all in one movie, now breathe. With all of this clutter and nonsense going on, Peter Parker goes from lovable nerd we root for to an odd, alienating creep who commits questionable acts. The movie forgets its hero, and like Batman, Spider-man is seeking attention.

Too much goes on, and we forget whatever the central conflict is all about. Much in the way of 1980’s cartoons (honestly, guys, most were just 30-minute toy commercials), this villain overload in comic book movies becomes a collect of action figures and a collective who’s who for moviegoers. Batman Returns is not as engaging as the first (sans set design) and Spider-man 3 is cringe-worthy and dull compared to the first two.

Trouble Sequels

Batman Returns signaled the end of the Michael Keaton/Tim Burton series, and paved the way for Joel Schumacher. While a change in directors lead to a change in tone, it unfortunately led to character increases from the Batman catalog. A catalog that vomited all over a screen.

Batman Forever and Batman and Robin have many things wrong with them, to list them all would be tedious and overdone. What they continue from Batman Returns is too many villains in the way. It also threw in Robin and Batgirl for extra seasoning.

Jim Carrey’s manic performance, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bad ice puns, an “I’m bored, where’s my check?” Alicia Silverstone and a poor representation of Bane clutter the screen and dilute the darkness and psychological torment of the Caped Crusader. These bloated exercises eventually killed the franchise, and it would be close to a decade before another Batman movie came our way. Of course, that didn’t stop the dark overlords of Hollywood from churning out more extras.

Avengers Assemble!

Ten years ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is born, and each of the early films build up to 2012’s The Avengers, a monster moneymaker domestically and globally. It spawned two sequels, the most recent being Avengers: Infinity War, the fastest film to reach the billion dollar mark. Though not necessarily villains, the films do contain an overabundance of characters.

Ensemble pieces are not easy to accomplish. I can see why Joss Whedon got called to helm the first movie. The film had his signature dialogue and displayed the group dynamics of characters that don’t see eye-to-eye. Such as his TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has valley girl Buffy butt heads with her Watcher/stuffy British librarian. What hurts The Avengers, and other films, is the run time.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer had weekly installments (like a comic book) and seven seasons for the characters to develop. The Avengers has too much information crammed into an over two hour movie. Things were said, but I could not tell you what the story is even about. I forgot an hour after watching it. I do remember that Tony Stark teased Steve Rogers quite a bit.

Final Thoughts

Comic book movies will be here for a while, and won’t go away unless audiences lose interest in them. However, comic book movies are like any other movie genre. Some are great (The Dark Knight, Logan, Dredd), entertaining (X-men: First Class, Deadpool) and awful (Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice). It all boils down to adaptation practices and the hands of the filmmakers.

The villain and character overload won’t go away either. All we can hope for is that the makers of these movies stay true to the source, and give characters time to breathe. Much like what is being done with the Netflix Marvel shows, characters have a whole season to overcome obstacles. The characters are what makes a movie fun, no need to add every figure from a comic’s decades-long run in one, two or three movies.

Do you think there are too many villains and characters in comic book movies? What is your favorite comic book movie? Let us know in the comments below!