Film: Batman Begins

[codez_raver]

I hope this is going to live up to hype.
Batman and Batman Returns were the only decent Batman movies. Batman and Robin was shit.house as was Batman Forever [Even if it did have a great line up of actors]

This movie had better be good or I'm going to crack it big time. They almost killed it with Batman and Robin and if they fuck up Batman with this... it's not going to be pretty.

 

[Mysticalis]

I didn't see gary oldman in the trailer, is he going to be the scarecrow?

No. Gary Oldman's been cast as Detective (and future police commisioner) Gordon. Cillian Murphy will be playing the role of the Jonathane Crane, aka the Scarecrow.

batman begins looks to be a great batman movie without all the cheese from the later movies.

Agreed. Finally, Hollywood's moved Batman away from the campy, neon "Clockwork Orange" pseudo-futuristic atmosphere and can get back to the dark surroundings that defined it. It's quite amusing. It was Frank Miller's writing on Batman that returned it to its gritty, mature roots in the comic books and now, it's only fitting that the film return to those same roots on the same influence.

 

[Pounding_Grooves]

nice early review, looks sweet, nice and dark

JOHN MILLAR'S L.A. VERDICT: BATMAN: HORROR STORY THAT DELVES DEEP INTO THE ORIGINS OF OUR HERO Our film writer JOHN MILLAR was among the first to see the new Batman. Here's his verdict on the darkest outing for the caped crusader EVER

John Millar



THE hotly anticipated multi-million-dollar movie Batman Begins is the darkest drama yet in the Caped Crusader's big- screen adventures.

It's a psychedelic horror story, as the movie delves deep into the origins of this complex hero and blasts away memories of the camp comic buffoonery that made Batman And Robin so ridiculous.

Director Christopher Nolan tells fans what caused billionaire Bruce Wayne to become Batman. He has also given us the best Caped Crusader Batman movie ever.

Fans anxious to see how Christian Bale shapes up have to be patient.

It's almost an hour before he slips into the costume and utters the words: 'I am Batman.'

Before then, the mythology has been explained in this dark tale that is majestic and brimming with action.

The film begins with the childhood accident and tragedy that scarred Wayne for life, leaving him with a fear of bats and the consuming guilt that his weakness was responsible for the death of his parents.

He turns his back on the family fortune and vanishes on travels that lead to a brutal Bhutan prison before a mysterious encounter makes him face his demons and embark on a punishing physical and mental regime that turns him into Batman.

Bale is perfect as the conflicted Batman, who masquerades as a playboy.

Our hero faces an awesome bunch of foes.

Ken Watanabe, Oscar-nominated for The Last Samurai, and Liam Neeson are the mysterious leaders of The League Of Shadows.

Cillian Murphy is Dr Jonathan Crane, from Arkham Asylum, who uses hallucinogenic drugs to turn people's fears into his deadly weapon.

Tom Wilkinson is mob boss Falcone and Rutger Hauer the businessman who is after control of the Wayne corporation.

There's no Robin but Batman is supported by childhood sweetheart Rachel, played by Katie Holmes, who wonders what happened to the boy she loved.

Then, of course, there's cockney butler Alfred, portrayed by Michael Caine.

Morgan Freeman is solid as Lucius, a friend of Wayne's father, and Gary Oldman beautifully underplays Detective Gordon Batman Begins is released on June 16


http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/tm...nto-the------origins-of-our-he-name_page.html

 

[Sideways_Falling]

*bump*

 

[Sideways_Falling]

*bump* then merged?

 

[wanderlust]

merged... but not somewhat of a clusterfuck of responses.
the second thread begins on page two with dgitual duality's post

 

[Pounding_Grooves]

You traveled the world... Now you must journey inwards... to what you really fear... it's inside you... there is no turning back. Your parents' death was not your fault. Your training is nothing. The will is everything. If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, you become something else entirely. Are you ready to begin?

 

[LapDawg]

Yeah. I expect this movie to kick ass.

 

[psychetool]

Wow. That review rocked the house, I can't *wait* to see this movie! A supervillin who takes PSYCHEDELIC drugs to attack his enemies, what! This is gonna be off the hook.

 

[drEaMtiMe*@#]

from the admittedly little that i've seen of this so far on the ads, i have to say that it looks great, and i'm actually getting very excited about seeing it when it comes out.

i love batman

 

[Pander Bear]

just got back from the multiplex: this film is the poo, take a big whiff. Its even better than burton's batman.

 

[physix]

are you guys kidding me?

it was the poo as in a piss of shit...

uhm.... ok, maybe not "shit"
but definitely a "meh"...


meh


that's it... seriously...


meh.


that's all i can come up with.


except for Bale shirtless


WOWZER!!!

god, i love that man.

but the movie?


meh.


i couldn't figure out what was a flashback
and what wasn't....

altho' it's a cool nifty way to explain how all the
villains got really crazy and mental ... and free.

the lead-in to the next one is seriously the
most exciting part of the movie... i'm serious


i should ruin it for everyone... but i won't.



also, a call to all editors.....

it doesn't make it more exciting and fast-paced
when you can't understand what's going on
because it's all blur and shadow and quick-cut.

i'd actually like to SEE folks fighting... not
dark blurs whipping across the screen.


so... go see Bale shirtless.... or Holmes with
her cross-eyed mouth (who'd ever thought
a mouth could be "cross-eyed"???)... or
go for the last 5 minutes between Batman
and Lt. Gordon...

but don't expect much.


to quote Chappelle quoting Rick James
"i wish i had 2 more arms....so i can give
it 4 thumbs down!"

 

[Pounding_Grooves]

im not sure what movie psyhix saw, but this is the dogs testes ,if anything the flashbacks work in its favour as you get to know what motivates wayne in so far as his fears and guilt and it sets up the 2nd half of the movie perfectly,its very dark, very true to the comic , none of that joker dancing to prince crap that burton tried to pull, this is batman as batman should be.bale makes a perfect wayne,it has a lot of action, but it doesnt compromise any plot or characterisation ,this is the first batman movie thats actually about batman and not the villians, althought murphys doc is brilliant also, and neeson does the enigmatic bit very well ( doesnt he always), best movie ive seen so far this year ( and to say that about a big studio movie is something i never thought id say too often)

ill prolly go see this one again, and its a definate dvd purchase


PS THE FOLLOWING COUPLE OF POSTS HAVE MAJOR SPOILERS IN THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[axl blaze]

I have been a hard-core Batman fan for as long as I picked up a comic book and I must say I was pleased with this movie. Christian Bale performed adequetely - and by that I mean he pulled off the fairly easy role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. his "cold" acting style fit perfectly although I have one complaint - I didn't like his "Batman voice." just didn't sound right when he was masked and screaming at villains, like he was trying too hard.

the actor of Detective Gordon did a stand up job, as well as the actor of Alfred as well as Freeman. Alfred had one of the funniest lines in the movie: "what good are all those push-ups if you can't lift a bloody log!"

one major complaint though. the "super villains" (and I say that toungue in cheek were far from establishing themsevles as a force to be reckoned with. I don't know who plays Scarecrow (but he seems to come from the crop of the celebrity teen heartbreak lineup) but he actually didn't do a horrible job. it's just that I could not develop a fear or even respect for the two baddies. this is Batman. his enemies are fucking PSYCHOPATHS. look at Joker, Penguin, and even Carey's performance of The Riddler in B&R. I was expecting the Scarecrow's character to pay off in one of the ending scenes where he's on a horse chasing Rachel (played by that girl from Dawson's Creek). but no, right when he screeches his notorious line: "there is nothing to fear but fear itself" the Dawson's Creek chick shoots him with her taser and he whimpers off. BAH.

Ra's al ghul, one of Batman's most noted adversaries in the funny books, comes off easy to respect but hard to fear. also I am a fanboy that when he watches comic-to-movie adaptations, most of the general facts of the movie most be synonymous with the books and Ra's al ghul is ORIENTAL. he also learned the secret of immortality, so him dying wouldn't have been that too far fetched.

the last five minutes of the movie was probably the best, where Gordon gets promoted to Lt. and he warns Bats about the Joker.

PS - Joker dancing around to Prince, I thought, was one of the best scenes in comic-to-movie adaptations!

 

[physix]

one major complaint though. the "super villains" (and I say that toungue in cheek were far from establishing themsevles as a force to be reckoned with. I don't know who plays Scarecrow (but he seems to come from the crop of the celebrity teen heartbreak lineup) but he actually didn't do a horrible job. it's just that I could not develop a fear or even respect for the two baddies. this is Batman. his enemies are fucking PSYCHOPATHS. look at Joker, Penguin, and even Carey's performance of The Riddler in B&R. I was expecting the Scarecrow's character to pay off in one of the ending scenes where he's on a horse chasing Rachel (played by that girl from Dawson's Creek). but no, right when he screeches his notorious line: "there is nothing to fear but fear itself" the Dawson's Creek chick shoots him with her taser and he whimpers off. BAH.

well, the problem people are gonna have with the next series is
that they may think that it is supposed to fit with the continuity
of the movies that have already happened.... and they're not.

the reason why the villain wasn't psychotic was because SCARECROW
IS the reason the other villains are psychotic... they all
got handed a heavy dose of his hallucinogen/psychogen... then,
escape from the Asylum...

Scarecrow didn't need to be over-the-top because that's coming
later...

one of the only things that i really enjoyed about the movie (aside
from Bale shirtless and, you said it, Alfred's funny-as-hell line) was
that it explains more perfectly WHY Gotham City went from housing
just regular criominals to all-of-a-sudden having massive amounts
of super-psychotic crazy criminals...

the days of seeing things like people falling down and being licked
by cats until they turn into Catwoman or being dumped with
botanist chemicles until they become Poison Ivy are done... in fact,
they probably won't ever explain villain's origins in future Batmans
at all... because they've already explained how they got super
crazy and how they escaped from the insane asylum.

 

[wizekrak]

I thought it was great. I'd take character development and story over action and special effects anyday. I like the fact that it doesn't aim itself blatantly at a teenage market. I don't want cartoony over-the-top lunacy, I want dark and gritty with a malevolent undertone. I never read many comics as a kid. If this does well at the box office, I hope studio executives take note, not all comic book films need to be watered down and force-fed to teenage idiots. I definitely hope they follow up on the last 5 minutes.

 

[axl blaze]

the reason why the villain wasn't psychotic was because SCARECROW
IS the reason the other villains are psychotic... they all
got handed a heavy dose of his hallucinogen/psychogen... then,
escape from the Asylum...

the days of seeing things like people falling down and being licked
by cats until they turn into Catwoman or being dumped with
botanist chemicles until they become Poison Ivy are done... in fact,
they probably won't ever explain villain's origins in future Batmans
at all... because they've already explained how they got super
crazy and how they escaped from the insane asylum.

if a movie viewer were to watch Batman Begins and think it falls after where the early movies stopped... well they are just stupid. it's Batman BEGINS and the movie is an ORIGIN story.

and Scarecrow is a psychopath, well in the funny books at least. in the movie he was a tart, rather.

I don't think the mass production of the hallucinogen was meant to be used as an excuse for the future psychopathic villains of Two-Face/Riddler/Joker. they are already good and crazy in my guess. if they were to never discuss a villain's insanity in the future and never prodive any sense of origin just because they assume the viewers to assume that they went crazy because of the mass hysteria, well, that would be a little lame dontcha think?

 

[L2R]

(Hows about some spoiler warnings above guys?)

^ I'm with Physix with the whole hallucinogen/villain spin. That was sweet. Especially after throwing ample examples of what's it like being affected. Call me a pussy, but that was scary shit.

FINALLY.... the "caped crusader" has become one to truely fear, just as he was meant to be. Gone are the (sad but still highly amusing) days of running around a busy wharf in broad daylight in colourful tights carrying a black ball and sparkler to the line of "some days you just can't get rid of a bomb." Superbly replaced in the shadows on the top of a building screaming at the top of his lungs "WHERE WERE YOU TAKING THE DRUGS?!", makes Batman a figure I would NOT want to piss off. Blunt. To the fuckin point. Hard motherfucker.

Maybe it's the voice and costume or just the way the persona changes but this incarnation squashes the classic dilemma of Batman and Superman in that why doesn't anyone notice Wayne is Bats and Kent is Supes when they look exactly and act almost exactly the same. If I were told these were two different actors, it wouldn't be hard to believe. Such is the difference.

I got a little fidgety during the slow first hour, but was not dissappointed by it. The introductory exposition is necessary in such a first chapter.

The villains worked well for me, especially with their organisational structure and the beautiful pace with which it was revealed. A nice game of who's the boss, from the thugs, to the mob boss, to the psycho to the super.

All supporting cast were top notch except Katie Holmes. I found her annoying. Not sure whether it was her character, whom I thought had some good lines but little to do, or just her mutated face...***shudder*** and bad delivery that put me off. Probably her delivery.

I'll buy this movie.

 

[physix]

I don't think the mass production of the hallucinogen was meant to be used as an excuse for the future psychopathic villains of Two-Face/Riddler/Joker. they are already good and crazy in my guess. if they were to never discuss a villain's insanity in the future and never prodive any sense of origin just because they assume the viewers to assume that they went crazy because of the mass hysteria, well, that would be a little lame dontcha think?

well, mass hysteria and a psychopathogen/hallucinagens
are two dif't extremes ... i'mpretty sure Lt. Gordon mentioned
the fact that they didn't get a bunch of the former
asylum patients and that one of them seems to have
"developed a knack for the theatrical... just like (batman)..."
then he shows us the JOKER card...

so i'm pretty sure this was a lead in not only to Joker, but
as a point of origin behind all subsequent crazy villains.

i mean, what would be LAME is to think "ok, first all of the
bad guys were just normal folks... then all of a sudden,
there's Batman, and there's all these insance villains..."

that would be pretty lame, imo....

-shrug-


i guess we'll have to wait and see if there's another one
on how they handle it...

 

[Mystic Styles]

i guess we'll have to wait and see if there's another one
on how they handle it...

I'm pretty sure its going to be a trilogy of films.