Batman Returns: The Eyepainter Fanedit (WIP)

After the work I did on Batman Forever (and before I forget, R.I.P. Val Kilmer), it was only a matter of time before I tackled another sequel in the original Batman lineup. This time around, I decided to work on the 1992 Tim Burton-directed sequel, Batman Returns.

Now, I like Batman Returns a lot more than Batman Forever. For that reason, this edit is gonna be a much more lightly cut endeavor than my previous work. However, there are certain things I did to try and improve it a little more.

As I gave the film a rewatch, it seemed to me like the crucial make-or-break element in the film was the Penguin. Whether you like the film or not depends on how you feel about his fate at the end. He’s like the rug in The Big Lebowski. He really ties the room together, man. And because of that, I decided to base a lot of my editing decisions on trying to improve Mr. Cobblepot, and to bring his tale to its most tragic effect. This meant cutting things out that were irrelevant to him, or placing certain scenes elsewhere to structure the film around him better, and finally, cutting out a scene or two that affected his character arc and/or storyline negatively.

Most of the changes I’ve made occur at the beginning of the film, but there are a few changes I’ve made in the middle that I feel make the more villainous aspects of the Penguin more gradual than sudden. For example, I wasn’t a huge fan of the scene where the Penguin bites off the nose of one of his mayoral staff members. I felt like that affected the goodwill that he had built up in the first half of the film, and it would make more sense if his character gradually turned evil instead of just “Oh, I was evil all along! Mwahaha!” I trimmed out the second half of that scene for that reason. I also cut out a couple exposition heavy scenes (after the lessons I learned from my Paradox edit), especially near the end, as we don’t need a thorough explanation about his plan to kidnap the firstborn. It’s more effective if he reveals it to the public after his attack on the ballroom instead of dumbing it down for the masses.

But the question I’m sure most people who saw my Batman Forever edit are asking is this: Did I play around with the color grading on this edit too?

And the answer to that question is: Yes I did. Yes I did.

https://youtu.be/FjQuLJOJmQI

https://youtu.be/qQKKucJhB1Q

This time around, I decided not to go with the yellow-cyan-magenta color palette of Forever because the look and aesthetic are completely different. This time around, I decided to keep the blues saturated with a slight desaturation on cyan and purple to give the color grading a little more personality. Otherwise, all of the warmer colors are designed to be as desaturated as possible, leaving mostly cold colors to be the most colorful moments of the edit, which is perfect. As Alfred himself says in this film, “It’s supposed to be cold.”

Anyway, that’s all I want to say about the edit for now. Time to go to work.

Changes List

– = Deleted
/ = Altered
++ = Added

– Cut out Alfred’s criticism of newspapers
– Removed Selina’s Corn Dog line
++ SFX: Added more applause sound effects during Shreck’s conversation with his son
– Taken out Bruce Wayne seeing the bat-signal
– Removed both shots of the batmobile
– Trimmed out Max Shreck’s reaction to the demon clown and running away
/ Moved Shreck’s first meeting with the Penguin towards the middle of the battle instead of after for greater emphasis on the Penguin’s importance to the plot
– Trimmed out some of Batman’s disarming of the Red Triangle gang, including setting the demon guy on fire
– Removed Gordon’s congratulations towards Batman and the realization that they don’t know where Max Shreck is
– Deleted Bruce Wayne seeing the Penguin on the news for the first time
– Cut out the “I am Catwoman, hear me roar” scene
– Trimmed out the second half of Penguin finding out he’s running for mayor. Includes his introduction to his associates, biting the associate’s nose, inappropriate comments towards a female, and discussion with Max Shreck
/ Moved Catwoman’s vandalising of the Shreck store and meeting with the cops to the beginning of the Red Triangle attack sequence instead of the middle
– Cut Penguin’s creepy sexual innuendo to one of his female supporters
++ SFX: Added applause sound effects in the transition between Penguin’s “Thank you” and his climbing up the stairs
– Trimmed out Penguin telling his gang how he’s going to kidnap the children and his killing of the dissenting clown
– Deleted Penguin telling Shreck his plan to kill the firstborn and him

Playing around with the color space and gamma settings. Here’s a sample of what I’ve done so far to Selina’s transformation into Catwoman.

https://youtu.be/MBsNUwk_aoQ

Big update time.

I’ve been looking over the edit, and I’ve decided to make a few more changes.

The first change I made is more of a reversal. Originally, I moved the scene where Selina realizes that she forgot to give Shreck his speech notes to a slightly earlier part of the scene. I thought doing so would place more emphasis on Kyle as an important character, but looking back on it, it didn’t really achieve what I had thought. So I’m going to return the scene back to its original continuity. Namely that the scene cuts in when Shreck is searching for his speech notes. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The next two changes are going to be risky for the same reason: because it means cutting out more Bruce Wayne in a film that is already criticized for the lack of Bruce.

The first change I have to mention is that I got rid of the second shot of the batmobile racing to save the day after the red triangle gang’s first attack on Gotham City. I had already cut out the scene where Bruce sees the batsignal, as well as the first batmobile shot. So by cutting out the second shot, I’ve eliminated a lot of Batman from the beginning of the film. So why did I do this? Well, as I explained from the opening post, I wanted to focus all of my attention on the Penguin’s storyline. I had already moved Penguin’s first meeting with Shreck to the middle of the attack, and I realized that the lone batmobile shot that was originally going to stay seemed like giving the viewer more than they could chew. The attack is already quite chaotic as is, and it seemed like it would be more compelling to delay Batman’s appearance. So now, Batman doesn’t make his first appearance until after Penguin says goodbye to Shreck (courtesy of Fred). At least delaying Batman’s interference throws in some tension to the scene, so there is that.

But the last change I have made is the biggest one, and I’ve been giving this one a lot of thought. I’ve decided to cut out the first HDTV scene where Bruce sees the Penguin on the news. I was trying to keep this scene in the film because I felt like Penguin talking about finding his parents would generate sympathy for him, as that seemed rather needed. Unfortunately, as I kept going back to the scene over and over, I felt like the scene was more about Bruce generating suspicion over the Penguin than it was in generating sympathy. Once I realized that, it seemed to me like it was redundant, as the next Bruce Wayne scene is the Vichyssoise scene where he becomes even more suspicious of the Penguin. I realized one of these two scenes had to go, and I liked the Vichyssoise scene more. Not only that, but I decided to move the Vichyssoise scene to the same place as the news scene in order to introduce Mr. Wayne to an earlier point in the film (or at least, as early as I could). While it is risky (The vichyssoise scene is now the first time we see Bruce minus Batman in the film), I do think it works better this way. I especially like that the first time we meet Bruce, Alfred is asking him, “Must you be the only lonely person in Gotham?”, illustrating how important his relationships and differences with the Penguin and Catwoman are about to become, and tying into the deeper themes of the film.

There is one more thing I need to talk about, and unfortunately, it’s going to affect how I share videos. A couple weeks ago, I got a copyright strike on my YouTube account over three of my 2001: A Funkadelic Odyssey test videos (some company wasn’t happy with me playing some popular 70s hits, apparently). For that reason, and because YouTube’s new AI-generated age verification system is giving me what my grandparents would call the heebie jeebies, I have decided to limit the number of YouTube videos I post on my fanedits for now. So alas, I won’t be posting any more updates on the color grading for Batman Returns until further notice. Or at least, until the dust settles. My apologies if the final result looks different from what you find on YouTube, but right now, things are getting hairy over there, and I’m not feeling very safe uploading stuff. I’m thinking of looking for an alternative to YouTube for the time being, but I’m not sure where to start. But for now, I won’t be posting any videos until I feel like I can let my guard down again. It’s a shame how far online video sharing has fallen.