Auteur: Burton, Tim

A story about love's dark side, this film is horrifying, funny and sweet all at the same time. It's clear Tim Burton put his all into this project, even getting composer Stephen Sondheim out of retirement, while Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter give brilliant performances opposite each other. The murder scenes are unflinching and unexpectedly brutal, especially for a musical. 5 stars all the way, save for a few plot points which come across as contrived.

Burton's stunningly stylized vision of Gotham City and its six-foot bat is an amalgamation of Superman's Metropolis meets Blade Runner. Beautiful art deco inspired sets, reminiscent of the swingin' '30s, and snazzy suits with matching fedoras, suit the villains' gangster appeal, but its Nicholson who steals the show. Prince's wacky music modernizes the film while Danny Elfman's dynamite score adds a brooding quality. Two big plot points which lose fans of the original comic books: tying in the Joker to Bruce Wayne's parents' deaths (-a little too contrived) and Alfred bringing Vicky Vale to the Batcave (-come on!) Vanity and greed seem to be some of the underlying themes but, unfortunately, neither is explored fully. Nonetheless, a big thank you goes out to Burton for bringing the 'dark' back to the Dark Knight.

Visually very Burtonesque, Tim pushes the envelope on dark imagery and subject matter, giving this animation a fun and original twist. Having said that, however, The Corpse Bride feels like its riding on the coattails of The Nightmare Before Christmas's success, but is nowhere near as good or layered.

The only thing worth mentioning in this mess of a sequel is Catwoman; Pfeiffer balances both her character's personas of meek Selina Kyle and the killer kitty perfectly. Yet so much is left unexplained: what is her connection with cats - simply having a feline pet isn't enough to osmose kitty prowess into anyone. Furthermore, how is she such a daredevil fighter - even though she's fantastic with a whip, there's no indication of her being trained in any sort of martial arts what so ever. And now on to the Penguin: DeVito makes a complete mockery out of what should have been a more sophisticated psychopath by pushing the limits of being unbearably disgusting and sleazy. There's not one scene in which this toad of a man is not either spitting out black bile or groping whatever he can get his hands on. That brings us to Max Shreck - what a complete waste of Walken's talent. Shreck's character is completely underused (not to mention overshadowed by an anthropoid!) and his subplot barely seems to have a point to it. Keaton does a fair job as Batman, but nothing can save this film from being anything but a bad joke, and that's before eveing mentioning the army of mind-controlled penguins... I mean, really, Tim.