Your Version of Batman Returns

[BatmAngelus]

Inspired by a combination of Doc's "Fix the film" thread in The Dark Knight Rises forum and discussions with Silver Nemesis on the previous drafts of Batman Returns and Bruce's arc, I thought I'd open up this thread and, eventually, one for each film.

Basically, if you had final rewrite on the movie, what would you have done differently? 

Like Doc's TDK Rises thread, you have to stick to the general framework of the film (so this will still have to be Batman vs. Penguin, Catwoman, and Max Shreck in Gotham at Christmastime.).

A few links to Silver's ideas on enhancing Bruce Wayne's role:
http://www.batman-online.com/forum/index.php?topic=2458.msg36300#msg36300
http://www.batman-online.com/forum/index.php?topic=2443.0

[thecolorsblend]

I'd need to dig it up but I remember a draft (by Waters?) where Selina and many other characters had more witty lines. "How can you be so mean to someone so meaningless?" and lines like that. I'm blanking on specifics but I'm positive that draft is out there. I'm largely happy with the movie as it is but I might've liked more of that snappy dialogue in there. What we have is fine but if we were looking to PERFECT this thing, eh, that'd be my choice.

[The Dark Knight]

If I were change something, I'd change the ending shot.

I'd prefer to just leave it as seeing Catwoman's shadow. And by removing her appearance at the end, we remove the whole 'what on Earth is she standing on?' goof.

I'd have a mix of the comic adaption ending. Bruce and Alfred drive off ala the movie, pan up to the Gotham skyline. The batsignal turns on. But soon after the power goes out all across Gotham, and dissolves into the end credits.

[Edd Grayson]

My only change would be Batman saving the Ice Princess.

[johnnygobbs]

My only change would be Batman saving the Ice Princess.

But how's the tree now going to get lit up? 

[Edd Grayson]

Maybe Chip Schreck could light it. 

[Catwoman]

i can't think of anything i would change. i hate the ice princess' fate but i've accepted it as just part of the plot.

i would like to know how michelle would have looked in tim's first draft of the costume. it had rips and tears from the get go instead of being solid and then becoming tattered as the movie went along. the shoulders were ripped out and there was a big tear on the stomach.

[johnnygobbs]

i can't think of anything i would change. i hate the ice princess' fate but i've accepted it as just part of the plot.

Yes, I wished she survived too but if she had the whole Batman being framed sub-plot would have been resolved too early in the film's running time (not that it was ever truly resolve at all in the end... ).  I know the Ice Princess is an absolute idiot but even she would be able to distinguish Batman from an 'ugly bird-man with fish-breath' were she questioned by the police.

[johnnygobbs]

Also, I definitely would have kept the bit from the original screenplay and novelisation where the Ice Princess shoves a little old lady to the ground during the Red Triangle Gang's rampage at the first tree-lighting ceremony.  It would have made her subsequent fate slightly less upsetting (since there would at least be an element of 'poetic justice') and would reinforce the idea that Gotham City is a world based on lies, deception and image, where a beautiful woman adored by the public possesses a less admirable side (besides her utter stupidity) away from the cameras, and a world where the stronger and more privileged treat the weaker (in this case a little old lady) with utter disdain simply because they can.

I would have also kept the excised part of the original screenplay where Chip goes to investigate Selina's apartment on behalf of his suspicious father and ends up caught in a trap she has concocted via her Murphy Bed.  Chip never gets any type of comeuppance in the film despite it being heavily implied that he is well aware of his father's murderous actions so I rather like this moment.  Of course he isn't killed but he is at least made to look foolish.  Unfortunately I can't find the screenplay with this scene anywhere on the net but I'm sure it still exists somewhere. 

[Cobblepot4Mayor]

Instead of killing off both of The Penguin's parents I'd have kept one still alive and him encounter that parent on his return to Gotham as an adult. Maybe to inherit the fortune that's rightfully his? It may have been interesting to have seen The Penguin question their actions and end perhaps with his own killing of that parent in revenge lol I always thought the Cobblepot mansion was so such a good designed house and I always wanted to see it later in the movie. The Penguin returning home and using it as a base for the first half of the movie? It may have been a great location for a Batman fight scene.

I wanted to see The Penguin encounter Bruce Wayne himself as there are obvious great parallels (as highlighted by Paul Dini on the documentary). Maybe they did things more subtle in the final film but I now think it was a missed opportunity to bring Bruce Wayne into the wealthier side of The Penguin's public face and explore that.

I'd also have kept the angle of Max as the golden boy second son of the Cobblepot's. I'm gutted they tossed this aspect out. One of the complaints (made by film critics Siskel and Ebert) was Max wasn't too interesting and got in the way of the main plot. I've no idea how you find Christopher Walken uninteresting but by keeping this brother idea it may have helped his purpose in the eyes of reviewers.