Movie Review: Batman Begins
I saw "Batman Begins" yesterday. I did that despite the fact that I dislike superheroes, and that I hate action and thrillers. But I found myself enjoying it. Immensely.
The fact that I watched it in the first place was that I read a review of it, and the reviewer was very positive (he gave it 4/5). I checked the cast and was pleased to see names such as Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson. Though I'll admit that I am shallow and the main reason I decided to watch it was because Sirius Gary Oldman was in it. I've only heard about Christian Bale, and while he's good-looking, he's not really my type.
Oh well, that was the back-story. Now let's move on to the actual review.
The beginning is a little confusing, since it mixes both flashbacks and "real time" sequences. We get no real back-story, so it's a bit of a guessing game. But it's an entertaining guessing game, so it works. I found myself having more problem with the parts where they mixed with flashbacks from Bruce Wayne's [Christian Bale] young adulthood, which explains how he ended up in Asia, rather than the ones where they mixed it with flashbacks from his childhood -- it was easier to tell them apart when Bruce was played by a (adorable) little kid. The flashbacks decreases the further into the movie you get, so it's really just the beginning that is a bit confusing.
There are a lot of fighting scenes, but the cuts between different camera angles are so fast that you don't really see what happens, other than that people are fighting. I enjoyed this immensely, since I'm not a big fan of violence at all. The part where Bruce learns the ways of Ra's Al Ghul [Ken Watanabe] by his mentor Henri Ducard [Liam Neeson] was very entertaining; they fuse well-choreographed fighting with "words of wisdom" and humour. Not slap-stick, roaring laughter kind of humour, but a more subtle, drier humour that I love and adore.
The movie continues on this track even when we move to Gotham. The butler Alfred [Michael Caine] is charming with his dry wit and the same accounts for the scientist Lucius Fox [Morgan Freeman]. Bruce meets the latter in the out-of-the-way laboratory in the cellar of Wayne's Tower, the company he is the inheritor of. Jim Gordon [Sirius Gary Oldman] is one of the few good cops left in Gotham, and is seemingly the only one in the police force that doesn't think Batman should be locked behind bars. He becomes sort of Batman's (rather confused, I might add, not that it's his fault) helper in times of need. Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) is a villainous character that particularly doesn’t get on well with Rachel Dawes [Katie Holmes], Bruce's childhood friend and assistant DA.
To try and summarise the, very good and clever, plot, it all starts with...
You know what? I can't summarise to save my life, so I'll just nick a summary from imdb. This one was written by "Dark Horizons":
In tone with the early "Batman: Year One" style comics. As a boy a young Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of his eyes, a trauma which led him to become obsessed with revenge but his chance is cruelly taken away from him by fate. After disappearing to the East where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul, he returns to his now decaying Gotham City overrun by organized crime and dangerous individuals manipulating the system whilst the company he inherited is slowly being pulled out from under him. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, and a prototype armored suit leads him to take on a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong - he becomes, Batman. In the new guise, and with the help of rising cop Jim Gordon, Batman sets out to take down the various nefarious schemes in motion by individuals such as mafia don Falcone, the twisted doctor/drug dealer Jonathan 'The Scarecrow' Crane, and a mysterious third party that is quite familiar with Wayne and waiting to strike when the time is right.
And to spoil it all for you: Dr. Crane works for Ra's Al Ghul, who was not killed when Bruce ruined the temple, because Ra's Al Ghul is actually Henri Ducard, the mentor he saved. Nice plot-twist that makes sense, for once. Ra's Al Ghul's grand plan is to poison Gotham City with a panic-inducing toxin and let the city tear itself apart. Naturally, Batman prevents this from happening (well, the last part at least...).
As I said before, I really liked this movie. The story is smart and intriguing, and the acting is great. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman have a lot of charm in their roles as safe and secure, senior allies. I don't care much for Katie Holmes, but that's personal opinion and while she is a key-character, you don't see all that much of her. My mum and I discussed long and hard who the androgynous pretty boy with the amazing blue eyes was, but it wasn't until I saw Cillian Murphy's name in the credits that I made the connection. He is really good; his character is a borderline psychopath and very smooth. My opinion of Sirius Gary Oldman is completely biased, but he's brilliant. I still have trouble seeing Liam Neeson as evil, but that's definitely not his fault since his performance is marvellous; it's just that I keep seeing him as his character in "Love Actually", where he played a widower and step-father to a 10-year-old darling, and was smitten with Claudia Schiffer. Christian Bale is very good in the leading part, and makes Bruce brooding but not overly angsty.
All in all, it's fantastic.
Canon pairings: Bruce/Rachel kindasortabutnotreally. The movie has almost no romance in it at all, and it works fine that way.
Possible Pairings: Bruce/Ducard (fits almost too nicely with canon...), Bruce/Alfred, Alfred/Fox, Rachel/Dr. Crane, Batman/Gordon (hey, I would like to see that!) -- these were the ones I could see that wouldn't mess with canon all that much.
Other Notes: The movie's a bit dark, but not terribly so; I've read and seen much worse. I definitely recommend it, but make sure that no one under 15 or so sees it. It is a bit thick at some places, though not gory, and the plot needs attention. So it's not a movie to watch just before bed, but do watch it.
Rating: 9/10
The fact that I watched it in the first place was that I read a review of it, and the reviewer was very positive (he gave it 4/5). I checked the cast and was pleased to see names such as Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson. Though I'll admit that I am shallow and the main reason I decided to watch it was because Sirius Gary Oldman was in it. I've only heard about Christian Bale, and while he's good-looking, he's not really my type.
Oh well, that was the back-story. Now let's move on to the actual review.
The beginning is a little confusing, since it mixes both flashbacks and "real time" sequences. We get no real back-story, so it's a bit of a guessing game. But it's an entertaining guessing game, so it works. I found myself having more problem with the parts where they mixed with flashbacks from Bruce Wayne's [Christian Bale] young adulthood, which explains how he ended up in Asia, rather than the ones where they mixed it with flashbacks from his childhood -- it was easier to tell them apart when Bruce was played by a (adorable) little kid. The flashbacks decreases the further into the movie you get, so it's really just the beginning that is a bit confusing.
There are a lot of fighting scenes, but the cuts between different camera angles are so fast that you don't really see what happens, other than that people are fighting. I enjoyed this immensely, since I'm not a big fan of violence at all. The part where Bruce learns the ways of Ra's Al Ghul [Ken Watanabe] by his mentor Henri Ducard [Liam Neeson] was very entertaining; they fuse well-choreographed fighting with "words of wisdom" and humour. Not slap-stick, roaring laughter kind of humour, but a more subtle, drier humour that I love and adore.
The movie continues on this track even when we move to Gotham. The butler Alfred [Michael Caine] is charming with his dry wit and the same accounts for the scientist Lucius Fox [Morgan Freeman]. Bruce meets the latter in the out-of-the-way laboratory in the cellar of Wayne's Tower, the company he is the inheritor of. Jim Gordon [Sirius Gary Oldman] is one of the few good cops left in Gotham, and is seemingly the only one in the police force that doesn't think Batman should be locked behind bars. He becomes sort of Batman's (rather confused, I might add, not that it's his fault) helper in times of need. Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) is a villainous character that particularly doesn’t get on well with Rachel Dawes [Katie Holmes], Bruce's childhood friend and assistant DA.
To try and summarise the, very good and clever, plot, it all starts with...
You know what? I can't summarise to save my life, so I'll just nick a summary from imdb. This one was written by "Dark Horizons":
In tone with the early "Batman: Year One" style comics. As a boy a young Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his millionaire parents were slain in front of his eyes, a trauma which led him to become obsessed with revenge but his chance is cruelly taken away from him by fate. After disappearing to the East where he seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul, he returns to his now decaying Gotham City overrun by organized crime and dangerous individuals manipulating the system whilst the company he inherited is slowly being pulled out from under him. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, and a prototype armored suit leads him to take on a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong - he becomes, Batman. In the new guise, and with the help of rising cop Jim Gordon, Batman sets out to take down the various nefarious schemes in motion by individuals such as mafia don Falcone, the twisted doctor/drug dealer Jonathan 'The Scarecrow' Crane, and a mysterious third party that is quite familiar with Wayne and waiting to strike when the time is right.
And to spoil it all for you: Dr. Crane works for Ra's Al Ghul, who was not killed when Bruce ruined the temple, because Ra's Al Ghul is actually Henri Ducard, the mentor he saved. Nice plot-twist that makes sense, for once. Ra's Al Ghul's grand plan is to poison Gotham City with a panic-inducing toxin and let the city tear itself apart. Naturally, Batman prevents this from happening (well, the last part at least...).
As I said before, I really liked this movie. The story is smart and intriguing, and the acting is great. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman have a lot of charm in their roles as safe and secure, senior allies. I don't care much for Katie Holmes, but that's personal opinion and while she is a key-character, you don't see all that much of her. My mum and I discussed long and hard who the androgynous pretty boy with the amazing blue eyes was, but it wasn't until I saw Cillian Murphy's name in the credits that I made the connection. He is really good; his character is a borderline psychopath and very smooth. My opinion of Sirius Gary Oldman is completely biased, but he's brilliant. I still have trouble seeing Liam Neeson as evil, but that's definitely not his fault since his performance is marvellous; it's just that I keep seeing him as his character in "Love Actually", where he played a widower and step-father to a 10-year-old darling, and was smitten with Claudia Schiffer. Christian Bale is very good in the leading part, and makes Bruce brooding but not overly angsty.
All in all, it's fantastic.
Canon pairings: Bruce/Rachel kindasortabutnotreally. The movie has almost no romance in it at all, and it works fine that way.
Possible Pairings: Bruce/Ducard (fits almost too nicely with canon...), Bruce/Alfred, Alfred/Fox, Rachel/Dr. Crane, Batman/Gordon (hey, I would like to see that!) -- these were the ones I could see that wouldn't mess with canon all that much.
Other Notes: The movie's a bit dark, but not terribly so; I've read and seen much worse. I definitely recommend it, but make sure that no one under 15 or so sees it. It is a bit thick at some places, though not gory, and the plot needs attention. So it's not a movie to watch just before bed, but do watch it.
Rating: 9/10