Welcome back to Battle of the Franchises. In case you haven't read the first article, please look there before continuing. When we last left off Tim Burton's Batman walked away with the win leaving the score at 1-0. So let's continue with the sequels.
First of all Superman 2 started out as a bit of a gamble since filming began during the filming of the original movie (interesting considering they had no idea that the original would be such a hit). However during production of the sequel it got to the point where Richard Donner was asking for too much money in order to maintain the quality of the effects. He was fired with about 75% of the film completed and Richard Lester was brought in to finish as well as direct the remaining Superman movies until Superman 4.
The story followed Superman as he questioned his role as a superhero and his desire to live a normal life with Lois. This ultimately amounted to Clark making the decision to get rid of his powers and become a regular human. In the meantime three kryptonians lead by the evil general Zod come to Earth in the hopes of ruling it with their newly discovered powers. Naturally Clark becomes Superman again and takes on the evil forces as the only one who can.
Next there's Batman Returns well known for being one of the darkest turns in a superhero franchises. You see with the success of the original Batman the studio agreed to give Tim Burton much more creative control of the second installment which he took advantage of by making it as dark and disturbing as possible. It became so controversial that several parents began boycotting Mcdonalds until they removed the toyline (sadly the toys are where the money really came from with these movies). Because of this and the fact that the movie didn't have the same kind of box office results as the original lead the studio to fire Tim Burton and bring in Joel Schumacker for the next two installments.
The story involves Batman as he faces off against the new villain known as the Penguin who attempts to manipulate the citizens of Gotham into electing him as mayor. During this conflict a new threat comes in the form of Catwoman who's secret identity, Selina Kyle, is engaged in a relationship with Bruce Wayne. It's up to Batman to save the city while dealing with his relationship issues.
In this battle, I'll have to side more with Superman 2 (by the way with all the versions I'm judging by the original theatrical version) than Batman Returns. The ultimate deciding factor was how these two movies compared to the original. With Superman 2 it feels as if I'm watching the second part of the original Superman story. In fact Superman the movie only barely manages to be superior to the sequel in my opinion. Not to mention the incredible battle in Metropolice which was incredible by the standards of the day. Batman Returns simply went too dark. Even Bob Kane, the creator of Batman, admitted that the movie was too dark for a Batman movie and I have to agree with him. While still pretty good it didn't have the same charm and enjoyment as the original like what Superman 2 had.
So there's the comparison between the two sequel films. Like if you liked and comment below on what you thought of the movies. Also please make suggestions about what you would like to see in another comparison. On Monday I'll be looking at the works of Lester vs Schumacker in an epic battle to the death (not really). See you then.