Tim Burton Thinks Reviews of His Batman Movies Missed the ‘Character Point’

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Tim Burton has always focused on outsiders, examining in detail the isolation that comes with feeling disconnected from mainstream society. Unsurprisingly, it was this aspect of Batman that appealed to him the most, which is part of why the character remains such a terse, brooding, and ultimately downplayed part of “Batman” and “Batman Returns.”

In a making-of featurette, the director said:

“I remember hearing things like, ‘In the first movie, the Joker stole the show. And in the second movie, he’s almost not there. It’s Catwoman and Penguin.’ I always felt that these people to me were missing the interest of the Batman character, which he is. That’s why I didn’t like Robin’s involvement. This guy wants to stay as hidden as possible and in shady as much as possible and not revealing about himself as much as possible. So all those things, he’s not going to eat away at screen time with these big talks and dancing around the Batcave. I’ve always felt that there was the right amount and the right kind of level of him.

If most people didn’t get Batman like Burton, Michael Keaton wasn’t one of them. The actor told Waters to cut a significant portion of his lines as Batman because he recognized the power of the costume as an image. Coupled with Burton’s view that the character wants to “keep as hidden” as possible, it made for a perfectly withdrawn and mysterious take on Batman that I think works extremely well in the world that Burton and his team have built. As a huge Batman fan, I’m on Burton’s side with this one, and so I’m living proof that “Batman” and “Batman Returns” aren’t “movies for people who hate Batman”, this are movies for people who get Batman.

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