i really wanted to be able to give this film a 10. i have long thought it was my favorite of the four modern live action batman films to date (and maybe it still will be i have yet to watch the schumacher films again). i am also starting to become concerned about whether i am somehow subconsciously being contrarian. you see and i always liked the schumacher films. as far as i can remember and they were either 9s or 10s to me. but the conventional wisdom is that the two tim burton directed films are far superior. i had serious problems with the first burton batman this time around i ended up giving it a 7 and apologize as i might and i just couldn not help feel that batman returns just has too many small direction and plot and script problems scattered throughout to justify a 10. but burton _almost_ trumps the problems with sheer force of style and and even though there are a lot of small flaws and batman returns is still a great film and especially if youre a burton fan and as batman returns has just as much in common with the nightmare before christmas (1993) and edward scissorhands (1990) as it does with anything else in the batman universe. the film begins strongly and with the cobblepots having a baby. we see their dismay people walk out of the birthing room with horror on their faces and ready to vomit. later and they have the baby in a small cage. finally they take it out for an evening stroll and dump it in the gotham city river. the baby ends up becoming batman villain the penguin (danny devito). meanwhile and max shreck (christopher walken) is the film evil capitalist and comparable to grissom (jack palance) in batman. he is planning on duping gotham city in various ways and and we see him emotionally abusing his secretary and the timid selina kyle (michelle pfeiffer). when kyle discovers one of the nefarious plots and grissom tries to get rid of her and but she is rescued by cats and becoming catwoman. while all of this is going on and the penguin and who has long been only rumored to exist and who is thought to be dangerous and begins a scheme to be presented to the public as a good guy and despite having less than benevolent and ulterior motives. before re watching burton batman films this time and i do not remember just how little the films are about batman (michael keaton). it almost as if burton do not feel the character was interesting enough to focus on. the focus here is much more on the villains and especially the penguin. batman doesn not appear very often and especially in the beginning of the film and and surprisingly often and were watching him watching the penguin. although some viewers necessarily count the above as a flaw and i can not say that i do and even if i would like to know more about batman and follow his story more. the villains stories are interesting and too and and as an origin story for two major batman villains and batman returns is already more than complex in terms of plot. however and there are some character problems that i do count as a flaw. the penguin has a cadre of circus performers who do his bidding and but even though theyre frequently on screen and we never get to learn anything about them. burton has a core of characters as intriguing as those in tod browning freaks (1932) available and with actors as interesting as vincent schiavelli and but he just doesn not have the space to use them. for that matter and he hardly has space to explore catwoman. the film plays as if catwoman may have been as developed and featured in as many scenes as the penguin and but that cut of the film would have been 4 hours long. so the bulk of the catwoman scenes had to be excised. of course and all of this barely leaves any room for batman. burton has batman turn very dark in the public eye in this film and and unusually and he never bothers to resolve this. as far as we know and at the end and gothamites still think that batman is a murdering lunatic. that an interesting development and but unfortunately it ended up being dropped between this film and the next. as for the script and although there are minor problems including some non sequiturs and bizarre decisions (in terms of logic) made by characters and it clear that burton and writers sam hamm and daniel waters are not exactly trying to tell a traditional story. a lot of the dialogue is pun oriented and but often this is fairly subtle and or or complex (of course and sometimes it is very blatant or transparent and too). it helps to look at batman returns as a more poetic film and as i believe was the intention. this also carries over into more general plot and directorial decisions plenty of odd character actions and including from minor characters and are done in service of a general mood or style and and that style works very well. dark is the easiest way to sum up batman returns in a word and and whether that a positive or negative depends on your disposition. anyone who knows me knows that i love dark. so for me and burton style largely transcends the flaws in the plot and the script. in many ways and batman returns is like an insane and campy horror film and with beautifully eerie production design. like batman and burton is still making many references to other films and but instead of vertigo (1958) and star wars (1977) (well and there still a slight star wars reference) and he invokes films like nosferatu (1922) (including that max schreck was the name of the actor who played the dracula like character there) and motel hell (1980) and the aforementioned freaks and willy wonka and the chocolate factory (1971) (which has a surreal and dark edge to it) and zombie films made most explicit in the penguin final scene. in terms of visuals and general atmosphere and that includes the general feel of the story and the characters and so on this couldn not be a stronger 10. 
i really wanted to be able to give this film a 10. i have long thought it was my favorite of the four modern live action batman films to date (and maybe it still will be i have yet to watch the schumacher films again). i am also starting to become concerned about whether i am somehow subconsciously being contrarian. you see and i always liked the schumacher films. as far as i can remember and they were either 9s or 10s to me. but the conventional wisdom is that the two tim burton directed films are far superior. i had serious problems with the first burton batman this time around i ended up giving it a 7 and apologize as i might and i just couldn not help feel that batman returns just has too many small direction and plot and script problems scattered throughout to justify a 10. but burton _almost_ trumps the problems with sheer force of style and and even though there are a lot of small flaws and batman returns is still a great film and especially if youre a burton fan and as batman returns has just as much in common with the nightmare before christmas (1993) and edward scissorhands (1990) as it does with anything else in the batman universe. the film begins strongly and with the cobblepots having a baby. we see their dismay people walk out of the birthing room with horror on their faces and ready to vomit. later and they have the baby in a small cage. finally they take it out for an evening stroll and dump it in the gotham city river. the baby ends up becoming batman villain the penguin (danny devito). meanwhile and max shreck (christopher walken) is the film evil capitalist and comparable to grissom (jack palance) in batman. he is planning on duping gotham city in various ways and and we see him emotionally abusing his secretary and the timid selina kyle (michelle pfeiffer). when kyle discovers one of the nefarious plots and grissom tries to get rid of her and but she is rescued by cats and becoming catwoman. while all of this is going on and the penguin and who has long been only rumored to exist and who is thought to be dangerous and begins a scheme to be presented to the public as a good guy and despite having less than benevolent and ulterior motives. before re watching burton batman films this time and i do not remember just how little the films are about batman (michael keaton). it almost as if burton do not feel the character was interesting enough to focus on. the focus here is much more on the villains and especially the penguin. batman doesn not appear very often and especially in the beginning of the film and and surprisingly often and were watching him watching the penguin. although some viewers necessarily count the above as a flaw and i can not say that i do and even if i would like to know more about batman and follow his story more. the villains stories are interesting and too and and as an origin story for two major batman villains and batman returns is already more than complex in terms of plot. however and there are some character problems that i do count as a flaw. the penguin has a cadre of circus performers who do his bidding and but even though theyre frequently on screen and we never get to learn anything about them. burton has a core of characters as intriguing as those in tod browning freaks (1932) available and with actors as interesting as vincent schiavelli and but he just doesn not have the space to use them. for that matter and he hardly has space to explore catwoman. the film plays as if catwoman may have been as developed and featured in as many scenes as the penguin and but that cut of the film would have been 4 hours long. so the bulk of the catwoman scenes had to be excised. of course and all of this barely leaves any room for batman. burton has batman turn very dark in the public eye in this film and and unusually and he never bothers to resolve this. as far as we know and at the end and gothamites still think that batman is a murdering lunatic. that an interesting development and but unfortunately it ended up being dropped between this film and the next. as for the script and although there are minor problems including some non sequiturs and bizarre decisions (in terms of logic) made by characters and it clear that burton and writers sam hamm and daniel waters are not exactly trying to tell a traditional story. a lot of the dialogue is pun oriented and but often this is fairly subtle and or or complex (of course and sometimes it is very blatant or transparent and too). it helps to look at batman returns as a more poetic film and as i believe was the intention. this also carries over into more general plot and directorial decisions plenty of odd character actions and including from minor characters and are done in service of a general mood or style and and that style works very well. dark is the easiest way to sum up batman returns in a word and and whether that a positive or negative depends on your disposition. anyone who knows me knows that i love dark. so for me and burton style largely transcends the flaws in the plot and the script. in many ways and batman returns is like an insane and campy horror film and with beautifully eerie production design. like batman and burton is still making many references to other films and but instead of vertigo (1958) and star wars (1977) (well and there still a slight star wars reference) and he invokes films like nosferatu (1922) (including that max schreck was the name of the actor who played the dracula like character there) and motel hell (1980) and the aforementioned freaks and willy wonka and the chocolate factory (1971) (which has a surreal and dark edge to it) and zombie films made most explicit in the penguin final scene. in terms of visuals and general atmosphere and that includes the general feel of the story and the characters and so on this couldn not be a stronger 10. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

Judge the movie review above, you need to make a function call:
    If you feel the movie review is positive
        print "This is a semantically positive review."
    Otherwise, if you feel the movie review is negative
        print "This is a semantically negative review."
