Batman: Begins
I'm giving Batman: Begins
4 out of 5 stars. Firstly let me say that it definately deserved it's
PG13 rating. This movie has no real appeal for kids! Seriously, 97% of
the movie was dark, TOTALY scary, and the themes would be way over most
kid's heads. Which made the 2-3 things within the movie that were
directed toward children very poorly placed. For example: when Batman
makes his first appearance and says to the bum, "nice coat." It was so
corny, and misplaced. The movie was also (acording to my clock) 2 hours
and 15 minutes long. This ADD generation wouldn't last 10 minutes...
especially because it takes half the movie to see batman in action.
Secondly, the plot was interesting and had me guessing a little bit. I was sort of hoping for a little deeper though, as I own both Memento and Following, (Insomnia was a little short of amazing). Memento is somewhere on my list of the best movies ever made - mostly because the plot is so intricate.
Continuity... if you don't know what that word means then you are not a nerd like I am, and you should consider yourself blessed. If, on the other hand you do know what continuity means, then follow me down this rabbit hole for a little while.
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD:
If this was supposed to be a prequel then it came amazingly short of connecting to Tim Burton's Batman for two major reasons (I'm sure there's more but you can find 'em on your own):
1: The Bat-signal was created and given to the police department at the end of both Batman and Batman: Begins (one or the other people!)
2: According to the origianl Batman, Batman himself created the Joker, and now in Batman: Begins we see that Batman knows nothing of this Joker character? Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
ON THE OTHER HAND... there was an amazing flow of story within the movie itself. We all want to see how Batman's toys work, and we were able to see most of them up-and-close, and they even had an intelligent purpose as well as realistic design.
Most movies today throw away the most important piece of fiction story-telling ability: "Suspension of Disbelief" (a term that was explained to me by Scott McCloud in his Understanding Comics). Basicly if we see Batman flying across a cityscape we think to ourselves, "there is no possible way that could happen." We don't believe in it because we logically know that men cannot fly. But if it were to be explained to us that this man has a special swing line that allows him to move from building to building and his cape can do what they tell you it can do in the film, then we believe in it, and we put our trust behind it. Now when we see Batman fly across a cityscape we think, "He really is flying, because it's all been explained to me!" There are other ways to suspend disbelief, but I won't get into it right now.
Batman: Begins suspends disbelief VERY WELL. It was probably the best straight-forward example of suspension of disbelief that I've seen in a while.
There were a few GREAT scenes in this movie, most notably where Scarecrow has a taste of his own medicine and Batman confronts him. WOW. PG13 earned on the spot!
I hope you enjoy(ed) it as much as I did.
Taco keeeesez,
Tim
Secondly, the plot was interesting and had me guessing a little bit. I was sort of hoping for a little deeper though, as I own both Memento and Following, (Insomnia was a little short of amazing). Memento is somewhere on my list of the best movies ever made - mostly because the plot is so intricate.
Continuity... if you don't know what that word means then you are not a nerd like I am, and you should consider yourself blessed. If, on the other hand you do know what continuity means, then follow me down this rabbit hole for a little while.
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD:
If this was supposed to be a prequel then it came amazingly short of connecting to Tim Burton's Batman for two major reasons (I'm sure there's more but you can find 'em on your own):
1: The Bat-signal was created and given to the police department at the end of both Batman and Batman: Begins (one or the other people!)
2: According to the origianl Batman, Batman himself created the Joker, and now in Batman: Begins we see that Batman knows nothing of this Joker character? Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
ON THE OTHER HAND... there was an amazing flow of story within the movie itself. We all want to see how Batman's toys work, and we were able to see most of them up-and-close, and they even had an intelligent purpose as well as realistic design.
Most movies today throw away the most important piece of fiction story-telling ability: "Suspension of Disbelief" (a term that was explained to me by Scott McCloud in his Understanding Comics). Basicly if we see Batman flying across a cityscape we think to ourselves, "there is no possible way that could happen." We don't believe in it because we logically know that men cannot fly. But if it were to be explained to us that this man has a special swing line that allows him to move from building to building and his cape can do what they tell you it can do in the film, then we believe in it, and we put our trust behind it. Now when we see Batman fly across a cityscape we think, "He really is flying, because it's all been explained to me!" There are other ways to suspend disbelief, but I won't get into it right now.
Batman: Begins suspends disbelief VERY WELL. It was probably the best straight-forward example of suspension of disbelief that I've seen in a while.
There were a few GREAT scenes in this movie, most notably where Scarecrow has a taste of his own medicine and Batman confronts him. WOW. PG13 earned on the spot!
I hope you enjoy(ed) it as much as I did.
Taco keeeesez,
Tim