Film Review: Batman Begins
Batman Begins (2005)
Rated PG-13
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy
The Plot
Having seen his parents brutally murdered as a child, billionaire Bruce Wayne decides that Gotham City is worth saving despite how far it's fallen into crime and corruption and takes it on head on--wearing a black mask and cape, of course.
The Good
In Roger Ebert's review of this film, he wrote that they finally got it right. All through the movie, that's the only thing I could think of. They finally got it right. THIS IS BATMAN. Tim Burton? Close but no cigar. Joel Shumacher? Fuck you. Christopher Nolan made a Batman film the way it should be made.
When I first heard that Nolan was directing this, I thought it was kinda cool, seeing as how he directed Memento, one of the best movies I've ever seen. But Memento is a very different style of story from Batman. Memento was, at its core, just a character-driven drama. Batman is, at its core...
A character-driven drama.
What the hell was I worried about?
What Nolan has accomplished is create a character-driven superhero movie. It's a film where the characters are interesting and complex while still being involved in massive action sequences that still seem plausible. One of the main things I was worried about is if he could accomplish the task of combining those action sequences with the quiet character moments while not allowing them to seem like the same sequences we've seen elsewhere. He did this. A lot of times, it's subtle, but in some cases, it's noticeable. Rather than being a distraction, it only adds to my respect for the man and the movie. One of the most effective methods he uses is to NOT show the action. There are a few mano a mano action sequences in this film, but you don't see everything. Even when Batman is battling the main bad guy of the film, all you see is a jumble of limbs usually, and among them shots of the characters faces as they are locked in battle. It's effective in its own way.
The funny thing is the that Nolan's ability to make character-driven films like Memento and Insomnia is exactly what made him good here. Like I said, Batman is at its core a character-driven story. It's about the neuroses and problems of Bruce Wayne and the others. It's not about the villains, the mistake Tim Burton made, and it sure as hell is not about campy humor and special effects (I said it once, I'll say it again. Fuck you, Joel Shumacher).
The big difference between Marvel comics and DC comics is the fact that while DC focuses on the bad guys--the supervillains--Marvel focuses on the quarks of the good guys. Neither gets it right most of the time, because a super strong superhero needs someone equally powerful to fight just as a supervillain needs an equal. In this film, it finally feels like Batman is the equal of his villains.
It's a film about fear, which is why the Scarecrow is one of the major villains of the movie. But what makes this effective is that Batman is scary in this film. In his first major appearance, he takes on a whole crew of bad guys, and we never see more than a flash of him. He works in the shadows, but he lets you know he's here and that you can't see him and that you can't do anything about it. That's what's so scary.
Batman's voice.
In the other films, Batman's voice was barely an alteration of Bruce Wayne's normal voice. How is Batman supposed to be scary with that? In this, his voice is inhuman, terrifying. During one scene, he has a corrupt cop go for an impromptu bungee jump as he interrogates him. But it's not that the cop is dangling upside down a hundred feet above the ground, then two feet above the ground, then a hundred feet above the ground. It's the fact that Batman has an inhuman snarl/growl as he interrogates him. It's damn scary, and it works.
I felt a lot of dread when I heard that Katie Holmes was in this, especially with all the Tom Cruise bullshit. But she does an admirable job in here. Better than Alicia Silverstone in B&R and better than Nicole Kidman in BF. And guys--watch for her to be looking very...uh...up...at the end of the film. :D Musta been pretty damn cold on the day of THAT shoot!
Liam Neeson is great as Ducard in this. He trains Bruce in the early parts of the film and manages to keep it a different performance from his role as Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars. Still, there are a couple of lines that will remind SW fans of it.
Morgan Freeman is perfect as Lucius Fox. Just perfect. You can pretty much say that about all his films, though.
Michael Caine as Alfred....well, truth be told, I had gotten used to seeing Michael Gough as the butler over the past films. I thought he was the best for the role. I was wrong. MG's Alfred was a caretaker to Bruce Wayne, a father figure whose involvement with the Batman side is merely incidental. MC's Alfred truely is a caretaker to every part of Bruce Wayne and feels like the perfect butler to him.
Back in the other four films, Pat Hingle played Commishoner Gordon. I still have no clue what the hell they were thinking. His Gordon was stupid and against Batman at all turns. That was not Jim Gordon! Gary Oldman gets it right. His Gordon is a hero. His Gordon is the Gordon that comic fans and Batman fans have been waiting for. I'm looking forward to sequels with him. Terrific casting, terrific performance.
And Christian Bale? Strange choice for Bruce Wayne/Batman, but it works. I'll have to see where else he takes the character if they do sequels.
The Batmobile. In this, it's a tank, nothing like the other batmobiles that have come past it. Reminicent of the tank in Frank Miller's Dark Night Returns graphic novels, it kicks serious ass. It is involved in one of the best car chases in movie history. Nuff said.
Thomas and Martha Wayne. For the first time, they are not just Bruce Wayne's parents. They are people for the first time and you actually feel bad for the first time when they die. It's great.
Last but not least, what is there for the comics fans? Unlike the Marvel films, this is not filled with references to the comics. Just a few thinly veiled references here and there. One to Ra's Al Ghul's immortality (which is surprisingly and refreshingly absent here) is notable. One nice nod to the NML storyline arc, and some horse action that reminds me of Frank Miller's Dark Night graphic novels. One surprise was the appearance of Mr. Zsasz, a serial killer from the comics. In the comics, he is a killer who keeps a tally by scarring himself, carrying literally hundreds of slash marks all over his body. This is not mentioned in the film, but the scars are there if you look for them.
The Bad
About the only bad I can think of is the casting of Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow. Not that he's not a good actor. Quite the contrary. He's just not the Scarecrow I grew up on. In the comics, Crane is always listed as extremely tall and extremely thin, which is where he got the nickname Scarecrow in the first place. They don't do that here. This is only a minor complaint and they do allude to his character's relation (looks-wise) to the famous Ichabod Crane in a nice headless horseman shot.
The Ugly
Man, we never get a good look at the supermodels that Bruce Wayne goofs around with in the hotel. True, the scene is more about him, but when supermodels get naked and go swiming, we need to see it!
The Bottom Line
They got it right. I'd like to see what happens with the sequels.
Five out of five.
And for good measure, Fuck you, Joel Shumacher! (but Phone Booth did rock!)
Rated PG-13
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy
The Plot
Having seen his parents brutally murdered as a child, billionaire Bruce Wayne decides that Gotham City is worth saving despite how far it's fallen into crime and corruption and takes it on head on--wearing a black mask and cape, of course.
The Good
In Roger Ebert's review of this film, he wrote that they finally got it right. All through the movie, that's the only thing I could think of. They finally got it right. THIS IS BATMAN. Tim Burton? Close but no cigar. Joel Shumacher? Fuck you. Christopher Nolan made a Batman film the way it should be made.
When I first heard that Nolan was directing this, I thought it was kinda cool, seeing as how he directed Memento, one of the best movies I've ever seen. But Memento is a very different style of story from Batman. Memento was, at its core, just a character-driven drama. Batman is, at its core...
A character-driven drama.
What the hell was I worried about?
What Nolan has accomplished is create a character-driven superhero movie. It's a film where the characters are interesting and complex while still being involved in massive action sequences that still seem plausible. One of the main things I was worried about is if he could accomplish the task of combining those action sequences with the quiet character moments while not allowing them to seem like the same sequences we've seen elsewhere. He did this. A lot of times, it's subtle, but in some cases, it's noticeable. Rather than being a distraction, it only adds to my respect for the man and the movie. One of the most effective methods he uses is to NOT show the action. There are a few mano a mano action sequences in this film, but you don't see everything. Even when Batman is battling the main bad guy of the film, all you see is a jumble of limbs usually, and among them shots of the characters faces as they are locked in battle. It's effective in its own way.
The funny thing is the that Nolan's ability to make character-driven films like Memento and Insomnia is exactly what made him good here. Like I said, Batman is at its core a character-driven story. It's about the neuroses and problems of Bruce Wayne and the others. It's not about the villains, the mistake Tim Burton made, and it sure as hell is not about campy humor and special effects (I said it once, I'll say it again. Fuck you, Joel Shumacher).
The big difference between Marvel comics and DC comics is the fact that while DC focuses on the bad guys--the supervillains--Marvel focuses on the quarks of the good guys. Neither gets it right most of the time, because a super strong superhero needs someone equally powerful to fight just as a supervillain needs an equal. In this film, it finally feels like Batman is the equal of his villains.
It's a film about fear, which is why the Scarecrow is one of the major villains of the movie. But what makes this effective is that Batman is scary in this film. In his first major appearance, he takes on a whole crew of bad guys, and we never see more than a flash of him. He works in the shadows, but he lets you know he's here and that you can't see him and that you can't do anything about it. That's what's so scary.
Batman's voice.
In the other films, Batman's voice was barely an alteration of Bruce Wayne's normal voice. How is Batman supposed to be scary with that? In this, his voice is inhuman, terrifying. During one scene, he has a corrupt cop go for an impromptu bungee jump as he interrogates him. But it's not that the cop is dangling upside down a hundred feet above the ground, then two feet above the ground, then a hundred feet above the ground. It's the fact that Batman has an inhuman snarl/growl as he interrogates him. It's damn scary, and it works.
I felt a lot of dread when I heard that Katie Holmes was in this, especially with all the Tom Cruise bullshit. But she does an admirable job in here. Better than Alicia Silverstone in B&R and better than Nicole Kidman in BF. And guys--watch for her to be looking very...uh...up...at the end of the film. :D Musta been pretty damn cold on the day of THAT shoot!
Liam Neeson is great as Ducard in this. He trains Bruce in the early parts of the film and manages to keep it a different performance from his role as Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars. Still, there are a couple of lines that will remind SW fans of it.
Morgan Freeman is perfect as Lucius Fox. Just perfect. You can pretty much say that about all his films, though.
Michael Caine as Alfred....well, truth be told, I had gotten used to seeing Michael Gough as the butler over the past films. I thought he was the best for the role. I was wrong. MG's Alfred was a caretaker to Bruce Wayne, a father figure whose involvement with the Batman side is merely incidental. MC's Alfred truely is a caretaker to every part of Bruce Wayne and feels like the perfect butler to him.
Back in the other four films, Pat Hingle played Commishoner Gordon. I still have no clue what the hell they were thinking. His Gordon was stupid and against Batman at all turns. That was not Jim Gordon! Gary Oldman gets it right. His Gordon is a hero. His Gordon is the Gordon that comic fans and Batman fans have been waiting for. I'm looking forward to sequels with him. Terrific casting, terrific performance.
And Christian Bale? Strange choice for Bruce Wayne/Batman, but it works. I'll have to see where else he takes the character if they do sequels.
The Batmobile. In this, it's a tank, nothing like the other batmobiles that have come past it. Reminicent of the tank in Frank Miller's Dark Night Returns graphic novels, it kicks serious ass. It is involved in one of the best car chases in movie history. Nuff said.
Thomas and Martha Wayne. For the first time, they are not just Bruce Wayne's parents. They are people for the first time and you actually feel bad for the first time when they die. It's great.
Last but not least, what is there for the comics fans? Unlike the Marvel films, this is not filled with references to the comics. Just a few thinly veiled references here and there. One to Ra's Al Ghul's immortality (which is surprisingly and refreshingly absent here) is notable. One nice nod to the NML storyline arc, and some horse action that reminds me of Frank Miller's Dark Night graphic novels. One surprise was the appearance of Mr. Zsasz, a serial killer from the comics. In the comics, he is a killer who keeps a tally by scarring himself, carrying literally hundreds of slash marks all over his body. This is not mentioned in the film, but the scars are there if you look for them.
The Bad
About the only bad I can think of is the casting of Cillian Murphy as Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow. Not that he's not a good actor. Quite the contrary. He's just not the Scarecrow I grew up on. In the comics, Crane is always listed as extremely tall and extremely thin, which is where he got the nickname Scarecrow in the first place. They don't do that here. This is only a minor complaint and they do allude to his character's relation (looks-wise) to the famous Ichabod Crane in a nice headless horseman shot.
The Ugly
Man, we never get a good look at the supermodels that Bruce Wayne goofs around with in the hotel. True, the scene is more about him, but when supermodels get naked and go swiming, we need to see it!
The Bottom Line
They got it right. I'd like to see what happens with the sequels.
Five out of five.
And for good measure, Fuck you, Joel Shumacher! (but Phone Booth did rock!)
