Batman Begins with a Bang
OK, time for my more in-depth review of BATMAN BEGINS. I went off last night with my buddy Shar to check it out for the midnight showing, and I wasn't disappointed!
There are some spoilers ahead...so be forwarned, if you don't want it spoiled!
I loved this movie. It was perfect - it was a dark movie, but not so dark that it was overbearing. Batman isn't supposed to be suffocatingly dark, like some people seem to think. It's easy to go on about all of the merits of this movie, from the cinematography and direction to acting, but everyone's mentioned these highlights already - and frankly, I agree. That said, I'm going to mention my only beefs:
1) The opening scenes leading to Bruce and Ducard's first meeting in the holding cell moved much too quickly. I was getting worried that the movie would have this horrid pacing throughout - but thankfully, it didn't.
2) The Scarecrow didn't have as large a role as I would've liked. Now, what he did do was excellent - Cillian Murphy was superb in his role. I realize that the movie was meant to focus on Bruce more than the villains, but I was still saddened to see that my third-favourite villain, who could hold a whole movie on his own, was ultimately just a bit-player.
3) The score. The score was great, but aside from that one theme (that played during the trailers when the action really picked up), there wasn't any memorable piece of music. The first four Bat-movies had very memorable scores - Elfman's for sure, and even Goldenthal's fanfare deserves a lot of credit.
4) Calling Ra's al Ghul "RAZZZ". "RAZ"? Why did they call him this? I guess there's no official pronunciation - but after hearing it only pronounced as "RAYSH" on BTAS and such, this always rubbed me the wrong way. (Hell, they even made fun of this mispronunciation in BATMAN BEYOND.)
5) Harvey Dent was completely written out of the script. The version I saw mentioned him in passing once or twice; this is hardly a big deal, but it would've been another great way to tie in this movie with the sequel, just as the last scene does. Where was he during the course of this movie? The DA's office was often a focal point of action, with both Rachel Dawes and Carlton Finch (I think)...so where was big man Dent? Is he going to be Finch's replacement?
6) Barbara Gordon - at least I'm guessing that was her - appeared, and was only a year or so old. I'm not begging for her to become Batgirl in future installments or anything, but isn't this a bit of an age discrepancy?
7) I occasionally had a tough time understanding what was being said during Scarecrow's fear gas hallucinations.
8) The fight scenes were intense, but I think Nolan relied a little too much on intense close-ups and quick shots. I'd like to see what exactly was hitting what on occasion. This sort of thing was only an issue in hand-to-hand combat scenes, though.
That's about it. I thought the acting by all of the actors - yes, even Katie Holmes - was superb, and fit the movie very well.
After leaving the movie, I felt a little empty - and I know exactly why. Even though Batman went up against two of his A-list villains in this movie - Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul - neither of which ever appeared to be an incredible focal threat during the entire movie, like the villains in the previous four movies. I realize this movie featured a completely different way of storytelling, and we'll likely get a more traditional hero-vs-villain story in the two sequels, but it still made me feel empty. Not cheated, just empty. Either that, or Nolan is smarter than we all thought, and this is exactly how he hooked us to stick around for those sequels.
Anyway, bottom line, I gave this movie 5 stars. A lot of the naysayers criticize this movie for taking itself TOO seriously - and yes, it is a serious movie - BUT there's a lot to chuckle about, too. Alfred and Lucius Fox provide most of the cute chuckles, but Bruce himself is quite the charming (and funny) character when he wants to be.
I'd recommend this movie to anyone. Unlike other recent superhero movies - particularly the two Spider-Man films - this one blows them out of the water. Why? Everything in this movie is so tightly interconnected, it doesn't get weighed down with a romantic subplot, the villains are realistic and have realistic ideals and goals and aren't annoying (Green Goblin sucks) - it's just a much tighter film. That, and it still manages to stay pretty faithful to the source material - and when it DOES deviate, it does so in a creative and acceptable fashion. Setting up Crane as a doctor at Arkham, for example, was a stroke of genius; too bad we never got the Harleen Quinzel cameo that would've been so easy to do.
So yeah - the best Bat-movie to date, and the best superhero movie to date. I'd recommend it to anyone.
-Tim
There are some spoilers ahead...so be forwarned, if you don't want it spoiled!
I loved this movie. It was perfect - it was a dark movie, but not so dark that it was overbearing. Batman isn't supposed to be suffocatingly dark, like some people seem to think. It's easy to go on about all of the merits of this movie, from the cinematography and direction to acting, but everyone's mentioned these highlights already - and frankly, I agree. That said, I'm going to mention my only beefs:
1) The opening scenes leading to Bruce and Ducard's first meeting in the holding cell moved much too quickly. I was getting worried that the movie would have this horrid pacing throughout - but thankfully, it didn't.
2) The Scarecrow didn't have as large a role as I would've liked. Now, what he did do was excellent - Cillian Murphy was superb in his role. I realize that the movie was meant to focus on Bruce more than the villains, but I was still saddened to see that my third-favourite villain, who could hold a whole movie on his own, was ultimately just a bit-player.
3) The score. The score was great, but aside from that one theme (that played during the trailers when the action really picked up), there wasn't any memorable piece of music. The first four Bat-movies had very memorable scores - Elfman's for sure, and even Goldenthal's fanfare deserves a lot of credit.
4) Calling Ra's al Ghul "RAZZZ". "RAZ"? Why did they call him this? I guess there's no official pronunciation - but after hearing it only pronounced as "RAYSH" on BTAS and such, this always rubbed me the wrong way. (Hell, they even made fun of this mispronunciation in BATMAN BEYOND.)
5) Harvey Dent was completely written out of the script. The version I saw mentioned him in passing once or twice; this is hardly a big deal, but it would've been another great way to tie in this movie with the sequel, just as the last scene does. Where was he during the course of this movie? The DA's office was often a focal point of action, with both Rachel Dawes and Carlton Finch (I think)...so where was big man Dent? Is he going to be Finch's replacement?
6) Barbara Gordon - at least I'm guessing that was her - appeared, and was only a year or so old. I'm not begging for her to become Batgirl in future installments or anything, but isn't this a bit of an age discrepancy?
7) I occasionally had a tough time understanding what was being said during Scarecrow's fear gas hallucinations.
8) The fight scenes were intense, but I think Nolan relied a little too much on intense close-ups and quick shots. I'd like to see what exactly was hitting what on occasion. This sort of thing was only an issue in hand-to-hand combat scenes, though.
That's about it. I thought the acting by all of the actors - yes, even Katie Holmes - was superb, and fit the movie very well.
After leaving the movie, I felt a little empty - and I know exactly why. Even though Batman went up against two of his A-list villains in this movie - Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul - neither of which ever appeared to be an incredible focal threat during the entire movie, like the villains in the previous four movies. I realize this movie featured a completely different way of storytelling, and we'll likely get a more traditional hero-vs-villain story in the two sequels, but it still made me feel empty. Not cheated, just empty. Either that, or Nolan is smarter than we all thought, and this is exactly how he hooked us to stick around for those sequels.
Anyway, bottom line, I gave this movie 5 stars. A lot of the naysayers criticize this movie for taking itself TOO seriously - and yes, it is a serious movie - BUT there's a lot to chuckle about, too. Alfred and Lucius Fox provide most of the cute chuckles, but Bruce himself is quite the charming (and funny) character when he wants to be.
I'd recommend this movie to anyone. Unlike other recent superhero movies - particularly the two Spider-Man films - this one blows them out of the water. Why? Everything in this movie is so tightly interconnected, it doesn't get weighed down with a romantic subplot, the villains are realistic and have realistic ideals and goals and aren't annoying (Green Goblin sucks) - it's just a much tighter film. That, and it still manages to stay pretty faithful to the source material - and when it DOES deviate, it does so in a creative and acceptable fashion. Setting up Crane as a doctor at Arkham, for example, was a stroke of genius; too bad we never got the Harleen Quinzel cameo that would've been so easy to do.
So yeah - the best Bat-movie to date, and the best superhero movie to date. I'd recommend it to anyone.
-Tim