Movie Review: Batman Begins (2005), recap of Friday
Cast: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Ken Watanabe, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer
Director: Christopher Nolan
Producers: Larry J. Franco, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas
I just read this archly snarky comment in a negative review of Batman: "There's nothing particularly wrong with Begins, but in a way, that's exactly what's wrong with it". I intensely dislike that kind of archness.
Let me state from the start that I am not a Batman fan. I didn't like any of the earlier Batman films and always found Batman to be a bit of a lame superhero - dressing up as a bat and prancing around. That being said, taking into account the fact that I adore Christian Bale - I really liked this movie. I went and read all the negative reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. I note that most of the negative reviews criticise the lack of humour and can't find much else to knock.
I didn't like the silly 1960s, campy TV series starring Adam West who ran around in grey spandex. I didn't like the movie brought to us by Tim Burton in 1989. Michael Keaton. Yawn. I know a lot of people loved that movie but I didn't. The rest of the series got increasingly worse and the Batman and Robin movie was just lame. When I heard that a new Batman movie was coming out, I had zero interest. When I heard that the role of Batman had been given to the wonderful Christian Bale .... I paid attention.
Christian Bale who we first saw as that freckle-faced little kid in Empire of the Sun.
Then saw as Laurie in Little Women. For him, they should have changed the ending! Then he sort of faded out of my consciousness again until I saw him in the grossly undervalued and ignored movie Equilibrium. Yes I take this opportunity to set out some photos of this fabulous movie.
When I knew he was going to be Batman, I 无论如何 wúlùnrúhé (no matter what), had to go and see it.
Batman Begins moves around quite a lot but for some reason it works. The early scenes shift between the life of billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) who is in an Asian prison (it seems to be Nepal or could be a part of China) as part of the way of ending his torment - he fights against criminals almost obsessively while he is in prison. One day, he is visited by a mysterious and nattily dressed man named Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson).
Bruce, has been haunted by the memory of seeing his parents shot and killed in front of him, has been wandering the world, picking fights with criminals until Ducard finds him and offers him a means to extract the ultimate revenge against the "bad guys". The movie then shifts between Bruce's training in the mountains and back to Bruce's childhood. His father, played by an almost saintly Linus Roach, is Bruce's touchstone throughout his life.
Ducard's intention is to train Bruce to become a member of the League of Shadows, a dark organisation led by Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe).
Watanabe gets to say very little and looks considerably less good-looking than he did in The Last Samurai. Partly it's because they gave him some really weird facial hair. The League of Shadows is ostensibly dedicated to restoring "balance" to a world - which appears to involve wiping out mistakes on a large scale and then starting again. They claim credit for the fall of Rome, the burning of London and the destruction of other morally corrupt and decaying societies. Gotham City is their new target.
Bruce trains hard under Ducard's care and comes to regard Ducard as a teacher and something of a mentor. Ducard is very much a dark character though, encouraging anger, revenge all violence. He is against compassion and is basically a Dark Yoda, or Yoda if he was a Sith. When Bruce makes the decision not to join The League of Shadows, he has created an enemy for life. This is kind of exacerbated by the fact that his actions not only injure a great many Shadow Members but he seems to accidentally raze the place to the ground.
Bale plays all aspects of his character very well. As an angry Princeton graduate he returns to Gotham City to attend the trial at which the man who murdered his parents is to be set free.
He actually does look younger and more vulnerable, especially during a brave but fruitless confrontation with Gotham City's crime lord Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson):
Bruce then runs off into the darkness and disappears into the world - later to appear in the Asian prison.
Bruce returns to Gotham City to fight what seems to be a relentless wave of crime and decay which has been rising in an unchecked fashion. He is aided by his butler, Alfred (Michael Caine); a Q-like inventor named Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman); one of the city's few good cops, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman); and a childhood friend-turned-assistant DA, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes).
When Bruce embarks on his mission to bring justice back to Gotham City, in order to protect his loved ones, he adopts the guise of a sinister, almost monster-like creature - a bat...... I like the way that it is Falcone in a way who leads him to do this as it is Falcone who tells him that although Bruce may think he has nothing to lose - Rachel and Alfred are very much vulnerable. In addition to Falcone, he also encounters the freaky, blue-eyed, demented psychiatrist who calls himself The Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy). Can I point out that I am disturbed by the rash of fan fics and obsessive fans that Cillian Murphy has attracted since this movie? It's almost as if people think - because he's good-looking, he can't be as evil as he seems so he's redeemable. Since when is redemption more possible for a good-looking character? I digress.
We are then treated to a history of Batman. What prompts Bruce to choose the bat as his symbol, how did the Batcave develop, the origin of the suit, utility belt and Batmobile.
The symbol of Batman is "more than a man" but we learn that Batman is in fact just a man - with an unshakeable passion for justice and who is tormented by guilt over his parents' loss.
Out of Adam West, Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney and Christian Bale, I don't think that there is any doubt that Bale is the most talented and convincing. Can I also mention he is without a doubt the sexiest of the lot? Even though he does that strange English thing with his mouth....
He is a very tortured and sufficiently expressive. He's very good in the costume as well - although to be honest it's hard to know that it's the same guy in there.....
The supporting cast is very strong. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are very good and I particularly liked Gary Oldman who for once is playing a good guy. He was both funny and quite touching in his role as the only good cop in a city gone bad. Cillian Murphy is really freaky and I disliked him at first sight! Katie Holmes is probably the weakest - she is just the girl who is always in trouble and her character never really develops. I notice that even the reviews in Chinese criticise her. The Chinese reviews mention things like: "The only flaw to this movie is Katie Holmes, and she isn't even pretty". Ouch.
I'd like to know how she managed to graduate, become a lawyer and get a job with the DA's office when Bruce had just managed to graduate from Princeton. Was she smarter than he was? That cannot be.
There is also a side plot with Rutger Hauer playing the evil CEO of Wayne Enterprises:
I enjoyed the movie a lot. Cynthia did too. Her friend who joined us didn't like it quite so much - but given that I hadn't invited him in the first place, I wasn't too fussed.
We went on Friday night to the cinema at Wangfujing which is very nice. We watched the English version with Chinese subtitles. There's a version which is dubbed into Mandarin which would have been kind of funny. I just realised why Batman is called 蝙蝠侠 biānfú xiá (Bat Knight / Bat Knight Errant) in Chinese. In reading the reviews, I realise that Batman is also called the Dark Knight so it's a very suitable translation of the name - better than just calling him Bat Man. Cynthia and I were being stupid though, in the cab home we were giggling uncontrollably and saying:
"Who are you?" (in Chinese) and then replying dramatically:
"I'm Biān Fú Man"
"Why are you speaking in Chinese?"
"Isn't this the Chinese dub? Whoops, sorry wrong cinema". Yeah it was stupid but we were laughing and Cynthia's friend probably thought we were nuts. According to my dictionary, bats are a symbol of good luck in China, because the 蝠 fú in 蝙蝠 biānfú sounds like 福 fú which means happy, good fortune, happiness.
We had dinner at the 不见不散 bùjiànbùsàn Cafe in the basement of the Oriental Tower at Wangfujing, near the cinema. 不见不散 bùjiànbùsàn means "don't leave until the others have arrived" so it's a cute name. Here are some photos. Unfortunately I didn't take them but you can see what the place looks like at least:
Then for dessert we had a cream puff from Beard Papas, a Japanese cream puff store. I first tried Beard Papa's cream puffs when I was in Hong Kong and I love them. They are absolutely delicious with a cold, creamy custard inside each puff. I note that the advertisements say: "piping hot" cream puffs which is a little odd.
Cynthia and her friends had gone back to Mango for more shopping. They really are addicted! They had a system going, because Mango was sooooo crowded with shoppers and the queues for the changeroom was long. Some would queue for the changerooms while the others would go and look for clothes. When I arrived I decided to wait in Starbucks. I felt so sorry for a Japanese woman who was standing in front of me. She looked at the shop assistant and said: "Ko-hii!!!!" (coffee in Japanese). The guy looked at her and said in Chinese:
"Yeah but what kind?"
"Ko-hii! Ko-hii! Ko-hii!" she repeated emphatically. Gosh.
I had managed to pick up my credit card from HSBC and while I was waiting, saw three old, bald Japanese businessmen in the bank trying to get some business done. Tonight Cynthia and I are going to Pass By Cafe for Italian. She's going back to Indonesia on Thursday and we're both very sad so are hanging out until then.