It's the Bat, man!
I'm pretty mixed on Batman Begins. I liked it. It's a good film, but I can't help but feel this movie could've been great. Here are my thoughts on it. Yes, there will be spoilers.
First, the stuff I liked
They pretty much nail his origin. We don't really get why Bruce Wayne is so driven in his quest to fight evil/help innocents in the other movies. Yeah, it's touched on in the first Burton film when we see his parents shot to death in front of young Bruce, but we don't really see how anguished and how much this event takes him over the edge as we do in this film. The director, Christopher Nolan and the screenwriter, David Goyer, give us a Batman who comes across as almost psychotic in his quest to stop crime. And that's as it should be. Yeah, I could've used more pearls dropping in the scene outside the opera house, but that's just me.
The atmosphere of the film is perfect. Everything's taken seriously. Actually, almost a bit too seriously - I think more levity could've gone a long way, but it works for the tone of this film, and I'd rather have it be too serious than be Batman and Robin. Gotham reeks of decay. Bruce/Batman is appropriately moody/broody. Everything looks dirty and used. Although I liked the Burton movies (especially Batman Returns), Gotham didn't look like a real, breathing city; it looked like a set. Not so in this one. Also, no silly songs from Prince, Seal or U2. And, although I miss Danny Elfman's Batman theme, Hans Zimmer does a wonderful job keeping things grounded with his score.
Casting is also top-notch. Christian Bale plays the Batman as a wounded, driven, lost-soul, and he pretty much plays Bruce Wayne the same way. His voice as Batman was kind of distracting as it changed throughout the movie, but I'm not sure this was his fault, as sometimes it sounded almost digitally modulated and sometimes it didn't. Weird. Not too noticeable, though. Morgan Freeman was perfect as Lucius Fox, Batman's "Q"; he added some light to the darkness of the film and a touch of humor. He's also the brains behind the Bat, apparently, solving the crime before even the Batman can. Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne's butler, is now probably the definitive Alfred. Perfect delivery of all his lines. Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon was right on. He kept the performance low-key, not taking the character over the top. Only wish there was more of him, but a good start to the character. Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy give good performances, too. Katie Holmes's performance has pretty much been trashed in the media. I didn't find her performance bad as much as I found her character unnecessary.
Now the stuff I didn't like
The script, first of all. There wasn't much to it, and what there was, just wasn't all that good. In the hands of a different director, this could've gone the way of Batman and Robin. There's a defining moment where Bruce has finished his ninja-training and must kill a murderer to graduate/prove his loyalty to the "League of Shadows". Instead of murdering this guy with a sword, Bruce escapes by setting off a series of explosions, which not only most-probably kill the criminal, but all of Bruce's fairly innocent brother-ninjas as well. The only person Bruce manages to save is Liam Neeson's Ducard, who, it turns out, was only pretending to be Ducard. Whatever. He's actually Ra's Al Ghul, in a stupid twist that seemed completely tacked on for no real reason. I actually would've rather seen Ken Watanabe as Ra's Al Ghul come back and fight Batman, but instead, he's completely wasted in this film.
The love scenes are totally lame and totally contrived. Katie Holmes has nothing to do and her character, Rachel Dawes has no reason for being there. When Bruce and Rachel are holding hands at the end of the film, after she just told him he's not the man she fell in love with, it's like, come on.
I don't think there are any memorable lines from the movie. Or scenes, really, for that matter, unless it's because of how lame they are. I love how there's a car chase scene on top of buildings - Batman has just told Gordon how he needs to get the fear-toxin antidote to Rachel before she goes mad with fear so he must get her to the batcave. Great. Stick the half-mad girl in a bizarre, monster car with a man dressed as a bat and go leaping off buildings while being chased by the police. That won't send her mind over the edge. Or how the criminals have this silly and unnecessarily complicated plan to toxify Gotham's air with a big microwave gun that vaporizes water, but nothing else. 'Cuz everyone knows microwaves don't affect organic matter, like steak and peas and human flesh. Huh? The League of Shadows, wanting to help Gotham out of its depression, kill the only people capable of actually helping Gotham. What? There's also just no cool dialogue like X-Men 2's, "What's your real name, John?" between Magneto and Pyro, or the awkward, but believable romance in the Spider-Man movies, or the fun of Hellboy, or the visual punch and sheer faithfulness to the source material of Sin City.
Anyway, despite the negative comments, like I said previously, I did like the film. I just feel that with a different writer, this could have been an amazing film. David Goyer has shown what he can do when given free reign : the awful, franchise-killing Blade:Trinity. I'm afraid of what he has in store for us with his next comic book movies, Ghost Rider and The Flash. I can't really fault the whole thing on Goyer, though. Chris Nolan was the co-writer (and director, of course) so he is as much to blame. The seeds have been sown for a sequel though, and with Batman's origin out of the way and the Joker in town, it's certainly something I'll be looking forward to, as hopefully we'll get more story and maybe, just possibly, the "World's Greatest Detective" doing some freaking detecting! Until then, I think I'll just get more excited for the greenlighted Hellboy and Sin City sequels.
1 Comments:
Actually, I agree with almost all of your negative points. Although I still disagree that The League of Shadows literally targeted the Waynes. I still contend that he meant it figuratively due to the poverty they caused creating martyrs out of the them.
But as a long time Batman fan I was so excited to see him (and Alfred and Jim Gordon..et al) done right, finally!
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