Posted on 06/15/2005 7:56:12 PM PDT by Destro
`Batman Begins' terffic superhero movie
www.chinaview.cn 2005-06-16 09:38:13
BEIJING, June 16 -- Pre-adolescent Bruce Wayne falling into a well and being frightened by a flock of bats released from an underground cavern!
No. That opening scene is just about the last sour note in the 140 minutes or so that follow. "Batman Begins" is a terrific slice of Hollywood fantasy, a wonderful example of what can happen when good people spend a lot of money in service of getting it right.
Spider-Man was a great comic adaptation. X2 was masterfully written. And Christopher Reeves' Superman oozed with humanity.
Batman Begins has all those traits and more.
Director Christopher Nolan (the "Memento" guy) and his co-screenwriter David S. Goyer have returned to the comic-book character's roots to show how millionaire orphan Bruce Wayne became the Caped Crusader of Gotham City.
When we first meet Bruce Wayne (played here by Christian Bale), he's in a hellhole prison somewhere in Asia. Turns out he's on a deliberate quest, to learn fighting skills and toughen his body.
Freed from prison, he's put under the rigorous tutelage of Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) and Ducard (Liam Neeson), who train a wild-sounding vigilante organization called the League of Shadows. I grew a little impatient to get to Gotham during these sequences, but it all pays off.
Back in the big city, Bruce lets faithful manservant Alfred (Michael Caine) in on his secret plans to become a justice-seeking crime fighter. (Good thing there's that cavern lying underneath stately Wayne manor, with lots of closet space for fear-instilling costumes and just right for parking a souped-up car - let's call it a Batmobile.)
Other aspects of the saga are deftly woven in: a policeman named Gordon (Gary Oldman), who appears to be the only honest cop in a corrupt Gotham. A friend of Bruce's father, now the overseer of the Applied Sciences department at Wayne Enterprises (a delicious role for Morgan Freeman, who does some lovely eyebrow-raising). An Enron-style CEO (Rutger Hauer) suspicious of Bruce's return to his father's corporation.
There's a love story, with childhood sweetheart Rachel. She's played by Katie Holmes, who used to be an actress but has recently been reclassified as Tom Cruise's girlfriend. But don't worry, this doesn't get too much in the way of the story.
In his first big challenge, Batman must battle Dr. Jonathan Crane (the unsettling Cillian Murphy, from "28 Days"), a psychiatrist with a crackpot plan to poison the city. One of the problems with keeping a "Batman" movie from getting too silly is the flamboyance of the archvillains, who can be pretty out there. "Batman Begins" comes up with an ingenious and logical reason for Crane to morph into a masked character known as The Scarecrow.
Of course, a superhero film requires more than likable actors. There has to be nasty villains, and Batman Begins delivers good ones. The most recognizable is The Scarecrow, portrayed with frightening credibility by Cillian Murphy. Although he dons a mask and does evil, the camp aspects of the super-villain prototype are missing, again adding believability and strength to the story.
If Batman Begins isn't the same extraordinary success Spider-Man was three years ago, it will be a huge disappointment. That's not because the movie studio could suffer, but because fans will if they don't see the film.
This is the real deal, a movie that comic book fans can point to as the perfect adaptation of their beloved medium.
(Agencies)
See it.
This is a different animal all together from those previous films. Forget them. Batman comic fans did not like them very much. Burton and the others werent even close.
This one nails it. This one is why I read comics. This one they got right. This is what they should have done the first time around. It really is that good.
For non-comic readers, You are seeing this character for the first time. Extremely powerful. The comments at internet film database are raving from everyone.
I'm going to take my 10 yr old nephew who loved Spiderman.
This is awesome. I think Ebert (yes I still read his reviews, I've learned to decypher them for my taste whch I haven't managed for anybody else) nailed it with this one, as he said this is the Batman movie Batman fans have been hoping for. Leagues better than the first with Nicholson, and since that was leagues better than all its sequels we don't need to get into a comparison on that front.
And best of all they avoided the big mistake of the previous movies, Scarecrow is defeated but not killed. Always leave yourself open to re-use a good villain, there aren't that many, and when you kill all the good ones you're stuck with Poison Ivy and other lesser talents.
Seriously. Go see it. They did a very good job with it. The cast is great. The plot is fairly well done, and the characters are all played completely straight. (Well, Michael Caine may have been hamming it up a little.) I only had two complaints with it: (Well, three, but I can't tell one without a spoiler.)
1) I didn't recognize Rutger Hauer until about an hour an a half after I finished watching the film. (I think I thought he was Jon Voight.)
2) There's an 8-year old version of Bruce Wayne in the film. I'm sorry, but I don't can't see Bruce Wayne as ever having freckles.
BTW: Why are is a Chinese newspaper reviewing this? Surely the bootleg DVDs won't be out until next week.
"If I hear more good FReeper reviews on it."
Well, go see it. I just got back from the 11 AM matinee, it's great.
I saw Batman Begins yesterday. I highly recommend it. Great movie, great story, great acting, great action! Loved it, loved it, loved it..... Christian Bale is one of the best actors out there and nobody knows him.
I'm extremely picky about the movies I see, but I will put this on my very short summer list of movies to see.
:)
I like Rutger Hauer. Have you ever seen the old 80's film "The Hitcher" with C. Thomas Howell. A bit on the cheesy side now, but at that time it was scary to me.
Bladerunner, Ladyhawke. I would much rather see Rutger then most of the big stars any day.
The first Superman was funny.
I didn't see any of those, I mostly rememeber him from the one I mentioned. The other one I recall was with Rebecca Demornay (sp?). The name of the movie escapes me, but he was good in that one too.
Yup. I loved the focus on Bruce Wayne, and seeing him as a human being strengthens whenever we see Batman because we know there's a real guy underneath the mask.
I also enjoyed how Alfred is portrayed as his surrogate dad; this leads to both funny scenes (like when Bruce wants to sleep in) and touching ones (such as in the elevator). Both Caine and Bale were excellent.
This movie... WOW WOW WOW!!! Yes, it is THAT good! An amazing comic adaptation! You must see this film. I rarely see a film more than once in the theater but this movie grabbed me enough, and then some, that I WILL go see it on the big screen again. They got it perfectly "right" with this one!
How did Katie Holmes do?
I want to highly recommend "Because of Winn Dixie" in case you didn't see it.
Holmes did okay. She was probably the weakest member of the cast, but considering the fact that the rest of the cast included Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine, any of whom would frankly blow most actors out of the water...
In any case, she wasn't bad.
She was cute, apt, not brilliant, didn't stink.
I just saw Batman Begins, I would suggest going to see it. It was the best batman movie ever made. Sure thats not saying that much, but it was still pretty good.
One draw back was that the fight scenes were some what hard to follow, which is a real shame seeing as their was alot of fighting in the film.
The scarecrow was pretty creepy and Ra's shal Ghul was a pretty good villian.
Lock me up. I have seen all five of them. Batman Begins is excellent. The actor plays a great Batman and Bruce Wayne, which the other three - Keaton, Kilmer, Cooney - could not pull off. Either they were good Bat's or good Bruce's. This guy pulls off both. Michael Caine is an excellent Alfred. Liam Neeson is an excellent villian. The guy playing Scrarecrow - when he has his glasses on - looks like George Stephanopulos. Morgan Freeman is excellent. He gets better in every movie. Oldman is a good Jim Gordon and the ending when he shows Batman the Joker card is great. I will probably see it again this weekend.
My favorite part of the film was there was actual dialoge and not just snappy, corny, one-liners. I loved the scene when Bruce meets with the mob boss who explains the facts of life to him. If they make a sequal to this one, I would like the villian to be Dr. Hugo Strange, an extremely scarey and worthy adversary of The Batman. To me, the best villians were the ones who played with the mind of The Batman.
Best Batman movie.
after 69 years they finally got it right.
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