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June 18, 2005

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Batman's Back

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Batman Begins is super, super good. It is both a good Batman movie (which would be enough to satisfy a comic book nerd) and a good movie (which should be enough to satisfy anybody).

It’s not perfect. But the cast, from Christian Bale to Liam Neeson to Morgan Freeman to, of course, Michael Caine (who I think might be my favorite actor ever) is charismatic and convincing all around.

Worth noting: One thing that’s been missing from previous movies, and even a lot of previous comics, is the sense that Batman is scary. That is ostensibly the whole point of his outfit, but it never quite gets realized: He’s always more grim techno-ninja than terrible monster of the night.

There’s plenty of techno-ninjitsu in this version, too. But thanks to the setup — the Scarecrow, a classic Batman foe, plays a big role, along with his hallucinogenic fear gas — we get the opportunity to see what Batman looks like when you’re running scared in the streets of Gotham. And I — a hard-core Batman fan — actually felt like I “got it” for the first time.

Nerd extra: This movie’s story draws from the plot of the first Batman comic I ever got, a thick Batman annual that had Ras Al Ghul poisoning Gotham’s water supply. The key difference: In the comic, Ras was going to use a giant lens orbiting in space to filter the sun’s rays and activate the poison. So Batman took a shuttle up to his space station to stop him. Um.

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Posted June 18, 2005 at 10:52 | Comments (5) | Permasnark
File under: Movies

Comments

I agree, Batman Begins was excellent. Good movie all around, and an awesome Batman movie.

You know, I think the movie was better off without the giant orbiting magnifying glass. Apparently Ras Al Ghul was remembering his days as a fifth grader burning ants.

Just saw it, liked it tons. Really liked the bats. I agree with a lot of people that Katie Holmes is totally the weak link, though. She didn't seem to belong with all the other heavyweights. Also, I'd never been exposed to quite so much of the Asia back story, and so much of it all at once came felt a bit old and over exoticized to me.

I have to say, what they really did an excellent job of was making me want to see the next one. I hope they let Nolan direct again.

The Snark WAS a Boojum! And right as rain about "Batman Begins."

Simply a splendid movie.In which everyone worked extremely good.My favourite is Liam Neeson.What a great movie.I'll always admire and ofcourse the rest of them also because it is always a team work. Splendid, outstanding effort.Will be remembered everytime.

Posted by: Ali Kamran on August 3, 2007 at 04:24 AM

I like this movie too much espacially Christian Bale.He is a master piece sort of actor and has performed the character extremely well.I am dying to see his upcoming movie.

Posted by: Hashim Ali on August 3, 2007 at 04:29 AM
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