Film: Batman Begins

[AngryPuritan]

Did anyone else think that the guy who played Scarecrow was creepier without the mask?

 

[DigitalDuality]

Heh... i finally just saw it. And loved it, better than burton's versions

 

[the_dreamer]

batman begins

last nite i just saw it. i found it pretty lame and could not stand it til the end because of these
1. how could his parents be murdered right just outside a classy opera house? where are all the security men?
2. what's the deal with all the japanese and chinese there? m sick of this trend where they just simply put all the asian cultures and kungfu in every action movies. m not into comics, so is it originally written in the comic? or ppl just made it up for batman begins?

 

[L2R]

yeah and the dude wears a bat suite! wtf's up with that?! 8)

oh and by the way, use the fucking search engine

 

[Pleonastic]

Yeah, it wasn't very realistic. But a story about a guy who dresses up like a bat and runs around the city stopping bad guys with a taste for theatrics was never going to be all that true to life.

Try suspending disbelief - does wonders for watching fantasy movies.

 

[Morrison's Lament]

Yeah, for sure, it's based on a friggin' comic book - it's not supposed to be realistic in the slightest. They didn't get wasted outside a New York opera house, it was a Gotham opera house.

No one is safe anywhere in Gotham city, ever. We're talking about a place that gets blown up by supervillains five to ten times a year.

--- G.

 

[eltoro]

While i do agree appropriating asian culture shamelessly into action films is aterrible trend, it can be done well like this film and kill bill, vs say, anything by Chuck Norris (except Way of the Dragon, but that was a Bruce Lee film, so even Chuck couldn't fuck it up). But in answer to your question, yes it was in one of the comic books.
Anyone who says the Burton version was better, obviously isn't a true batman fan. True that the villains were better (I too am worried to see how they are going to tackle the joker after nicholson, hopefully better than the guy who tried to follow in his shoes in the remake of the shining), but Batman is such a pussy in those films, he relies almost totally on his vehicles and has little or no stealth, not to mention his utility belt looks like my arse hole.
I am the only one who was absolutely blown away by how ridiculously over the top and exquisite the chase scene with the Batmobile was. Over roof tops through wall, not to mention the extremely high police casualties (I love seeing pigs burn)
physix your comment about bale being shirtless, discredits your opinion on the movie. While I hate it how fast cuts can ruin the action of a movie, i.e. The Bourne Supremacy, Nolan, in my opinion, got the balance between beigh able to see whats happenning and capturing Batmans stealthy, keep to the shadows feel from the comics.
Katie holmes should be shot, and Scarecrow should have had a better pay off, preferably on her. Rape not out of the question.

 

[fengtau]

I just saw it and I think it is greaaaat! I think it makes sense that he learned all his batman tricks from the Ninjitsu Art rather than the original from the comic.

Of all the Batman movies, I still think the 1st one with Jack as the Joker is still the best. This one came in close 2nd. Batman Return is still OK but after that.... thumbs down!

 

[Tanuki_23]

I just finally saw this movie, and I must say I thought it was really good. I feel like I owe Mr. Nolan a big thank you for restoring the franchise, hell even surpassing previously set standards. Honestly the quartet of male actors: Liam Neeson, Michaell Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Christian Bale, and the characters they play, is the best casting Ive seen for any movie in a long long time. Not the biggest fan of Katie Holmes, but she did a good job. What a bitch though, first she gets onto him about not being deep enough with his deeds, then when she finds out his true, remarkable identity, she kisses him, but then esentially says "save the city, then you can have me". High maintence, lol.

 

[fengtau]

Not to mention it's a movie with a "drug" theme...

 

[Shnouzerpuff]

I would say "spoiler warning" but this movie has been out for ages. So I won't.

Wow... Everyone here is raving about this movie... I thought it was a complete waste of 2 hours.

I cannot be bothered summarizing when one of my favourite review sites does such an excellent job, so from The Filthy Critic here is what he wrote, and I totally agree with:

Katie Holmes is so fucking pretty. I don't mean in a sexualized way, which is how I use that word when referring to most women, some small animals and the more desirable ketchup bottles. I mean she is wholesome pretty; your first thought is not to screw with her like monkeys off their lithium. Your first thought is to simply spend time with her, take her home and talk for hours about Vladimir Guerrero. A truly rare beauty.

You wouldn't know she is that beautiful from Batman Begins. They tart her up like the Joker in discount makeup that turns her face into a series of sharply-defined geometric shapes. The cadre of children at the midnight show I went to shouted "Circle! Triangle! Square" when they saw her cheeks, chin and forehead. It's the filmmakers fucking fault, though, for glopping rouge onto her in a desperate attempt to turn a girl into a woman. Katie Holmes a District Attorney? Sure, and I'm qualified to pull the Harelip's rotten molar. Of course, I'm not, but five bucks is five bucks.

Batman Begins is all about overreaching, trying to turn kid's stuff into grown up's stuff. Those dumbasses want to pretend to tell a poignant and powerful tale when what they have is a guy who dresses like a bat and fights bad guys in bad Mexican wrestling masks all fancied up with simplistic psychobabble. Batman is a God damn comic book for kids, something with mail order seven-foot ghosts, X-ray goggles, Sea Monkeys and 132 Army Men for $1.95. But it has been clung to by legions of fucking freaks who would rather drag their childhood obsessions into old age than grow up and move on. Try some books with more words and fewer pictures.

I know I will get plenty of e-mail from people who love Batman and think they are grown up. They aren't, especially not if they have the time to e-mail me and whine. These are the same assholes who stole him from the kids, and now children can't even see the movie. It's PG-13. They probably can't buy the action figures either, since slobbery fatsos will horde them all the first day to populate the tops of their monitors in computer-science-job cubicles. The fanboys have beat the shit out of poor Batman for years, dressing him up in ever darker and more lugubrious histories in order to justify their own refusal to mature. Rather than move on, they just keep redressing Batman. And now the story meets their idea of what becoming a grown up means. To them, this Batman is like finding hair on your balls or switching from Cap'n Crunch to Grape Nuts. The problem is that for all the dress up and revision, it's still a really superficial story with simplistic right and wrong, a mess of connect-the-dots psychobabble, and not at all relatable to the vagaries of real adulthood. Its supporters call it an allegory or legend, but it isn't even close, unless you're being tormented by a man who wears makeup, waddles like a penguin or tells horrible riddles.

Director-writer Christopher Nolan takes more than half of the movie not only to give shape to why Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, but also why he can fly, he's impervious to bullets, has really rad toys and a crazy car. Who gives a shit about how he got this shit? And if the story is compelled to legitimize the absurdity of a Batman, why not also give some backstory on all the over-the-top cornball villains? There are too many to care about in Batman Begins, and they are all one-dimensional horseshit. Apparently only the good guy needs motivation.

Seems to me moviegoers are in two camps. Either you are willing to suspend disbelief for a movie about a guy in tights and a black cape who can swoop through a city and fight crime. Or, you don't buy into it. There is no camp of people who are only waiting for lots of explanation in order to believe in Batman. "Hmmm, a bat man? I'll see it only if they can make me believe."

Christian Bale plays Bruce Wayne, billionaire philanthropist, who as a boy falls in a well and gets scared by bats. Then he sees his parents murdered by a bum after leaving the opera. He blames himself and wander off to learn how to ease his guilt by avenging his parent's death. Yes, the world of Batman is this explained by such simple causes and effects. Smells like someone took some psychology in junior college. Somehow, Bale ends up in Mongolia where he is trained in the martial arts by a justice league and tutored by Liam Neeson. But, when they demand he return to his home in Gotham and destroy the city and all its inhabitants. He refuses, and this is supposed to make him a hero. Wow! What moral strength it must take to do exactly what any normal person would do.

Back in Gotham, he and his trusty butler (Michael Caine) start plotting for Batman. Luckily, Bale's mansion is directly above some caves. Equally lucky, he has access to all sorts of fancy gadgets from the multi-national corporation his father left to him. A quick coat of black paint and all the military hardware becomes batgear. Maybe three minutes should have been spent on this sideshit, but about a half hour is. It tries hard to explain how the devices work and are secretly acquired, but fails to mention how Bale secretly built an elaborate trap door to the batcave in his library. More detail means more flaws, so why fucking bother give irrelevant detail? I guess because Fanboys feast on it nearly as much as HoHos and Mountain Dew. Their arteries are clogged with minutiae.

Despite the laborious backstory and mood lighting, the movie is chock full of standard comic book hokum. Batman is good, his girlfriend (Holmes) is good and innocent and he must protect her. Cartoonish bad guys include: a supercilious psychiatrist (Cillian Murphy) who wears a scarecrow mask and makes people crazy for no clear reason; a mobster who controls everything (Tom Wilkinson, who looks like an older Colin Quinn but probably isn't as smug an asshole) with scenery-chewing glee; a fat-cat industrialist with greed issues and, behind it all, Neeson, the man who trained him. The plot is some comic-book nonsense about people filling the water supply with hallucinogens that'll drive the city crazy, and Bale has the antidote.

There are multiple fights, car chases and shit blowing up in unoriginal ways. I wouldn't be able to discern them from any other comic book movie. The fights are all close-up, out-of-focus karate chops; just blurs on the screen that leave the hard work to the sound effects specialists. And, as in every comic book movie, bad and good guys aren't killed when they should be. They are left to die, only so the enemy can act surprised when they return to action.

All the backstory and heavy import don't mean shit when Batman is trying to stop one-dimensional bad guys. Add in a deserted docks scene with a bunch of cowering, villainous longshoremen, a runaway train and the inexplicable appearance of bats. Plus, of course, the movie ends with Bale not quite getting the girl, and the villain for the sequel announcing his presence in Gotham. Holy fuck, for all the setup, this sure is a hell of a lot like every other comic book movie, working within the same limited idiom that the fanboys won't let any superhero movie escape.

Bale looks fucking ridiculous as Batman. He's moody enough in his regular clothes, but once he puts on his mask, his cheeks bulge out and he reminds me of people I've seen eating at Hardee's in Lincoln, Nebraska. Throughout the movie, he appears to be trying to outpout Hayden Christensen. Holmes is so damn lost she looks like she'd say yes if a gay scientologist asked her to marry him. Caine is having a fairly decent time as the butler. He even smiles, which is remarkable and probably required written approval from Nolan.

Two Fingers for Batman Begins. Fuck Hollywood for so readily bending over for the fanboys. They are the minority. Loud, sure. Annoying, yes. But they're the assholes who would rather steal from kids than grow up, and as long as the grassfuckers listen, we're doomed to more of the same juvenile shit.

Anyone agree? Or are there a lot of people spluttering in disbelief at their keyboards right now? :D

 

[DigitalDuality]

out of all i love to debate movies aren't one of them most of the time. i leave my little like or dislike comment and leave it at that most of the time. This is the time for my brain fart and i like it that way.

But i do have one complaint.. a "grown up dragging a cartoon into my adult world" type of complaint if you will...

As much as i loved this film.. i can't for the life of me figure out why a Microwave emmitter that EVAPORATES ALL WATER... DOESN'T KILL OR IMPAIR ALL LIFE ON CONTACT. We're ALL MADE OF WATER.

That bit of fucken idiocy pissed me off. They go to such great lengths to make this into a realistic film.. to make the once cartoon fantasy seem plausible in the modern world... and they leave such an open loophole in the story..

 

[OneTooManyMornings]

Yeah that bothered me a bit too DD. People should've been reduced to shrivelled skeletal type things in the face of that machine. But whatever, it's a movie, it's a fucking Batman movie, it's meant to fun and like the original comics, it's meant to be kinda dark.

I really enjoyed it. I thought the review Shnouzer posted was fairly amusing but don't agree with a word of it. Seems the only thing that reviewer liked was Katie Holmes, and she's the one main part I didn't like, so he obviously would prefer to be watching Dawson's Creek or some crap like that and should stick to what he likes instead of whinging about some movie that was just a lot of fun.

 

[Rollin_to_Oakenfold]

I must say that I had very very low expectations for this movie. The trailers were not appealing to me, my conceived publicity hoax of Cruise/Holmes had me skeptical, and the first 15 minutes of the movie had me terribily confused.

However, the movie was one of the best I have seen this year! The second half brought everything together quite smoothly, and the conclusion solidified it into the rest of the Batman saga.

Four stars, easily.

 

[Banquo]

best comic book movie ev4r! great performances. great direction.

 

[sn0wburt0n]

i watched this movie last night on dvd... by far the best batman movie i've seen. looks like they will do a sequel to it with the intro. of the joker at the end. awesome special effects and i like how the enemy trips everyone out. would love to watch this movie while im trippin myself. nice action scenes and the batmobile is sick! the batmobile is always goin slow though

 

[Dj DaZ]

i hafta say this is the best batman film evAR!!!! i think they put more detail bout his orgins than the orginal batman. plus the new cool gadets are a bonus.

 

[L2R]

The Dark Knight
is the title of the sequel according to imdb

and HEATH LEDGER is listed as The Joker

 

[tambourine-man]

Crooked cop steals some money from street felafil vendor
Vendor: Hey, I’ve got 5 kids to feed!
Cop: What, they don’t like felafil?

Heheh... yeah, that was a great line.

Just watched this for probably the fifth time last night. Can't get over what a great job they did with it. Perfectly pitched, great acting, wonderful backstory... and very little of the spandex or metallic knob-protectors/enhancers that made the previous incarnations of the franchise an embarrassing joke.

Yes, there were a few plot-holes, but nothing that ruined the fun. The hallucination scenes were done well (batman as a leather-skinned demon was a sight to behold). I really can't see how they're going to top the story with a sequel.