Batman Begins *SPOILERS*
POSTED BY: Misguided By Voices
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 22, 2005 08:49
VIEWED: 5021
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According to the comics, Gordon had a son in Year One, Barbara Gordon was his niece that was later adopted by him. Of course my memory could also be wrong.
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Saw it last night. Great movie, though it reminded me of why I hate crowded theatres.
Does the "Special Hell" clause extend to the people on the other side of a cell-phone conversation? 
Quote:Escaped? No, probably not. He just survived.
Originally posted by Tomanta:
And you know Ra's somehow escaped from the train...
Broken bones, massive soft-tissue damage, third-degree burns over every inch of his body, but he survived.
Ra's is a metahuman. He's unkillable.
I especially liked how the movie resonated with the comics (and the tie-in novels I've read). I especially liked that line at the end about how Bruce Wayne is the mask. He is Batman.
I do think Alfred was mis-cast, though. All respect to Caine, but his voice is just too casual and folksy. Alfred is supposed to be prim and proper.
I think I'm in love with the new (old?) Batmobile, though. It's tough-ass but still cute, like the USS Defiant on wheels.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cybersnark:
Saw it last night. Great movie, though it reminded me of why I hate crowded theatres.
Does the "Special Hell" clause extend to the people on the other side of a cell-phone conversation?
That's why I went to a 10.30am showing - too early for the annoying people to be out and about! Have to admit there are few things in life I hate more than a packed cinema - I always get strange looks when I purchase tickets because whilst everyone else rushes to the middle of the theatre, I ask for a seat at the back and to the side - can usually end up with a whole section to myself!
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I've gotta support those fight scenes too. I thought they were excellently done. They were much more similar to fight scenes in a horror movie- where Batman's the monster slowly picking off the others, one by one. Less is more, and this is what Nolan stuck to. By filming this way, also, we didn't see too many full shots of Batman. No matter how cool he is, he's still a guy in a bat costume, and after a while, that's gonna start to look silly. As the movie was all about fear, this was the correct way to film action scenes- playing up the uncertainty and fear, showing the audience why the scum of Gotham is so afraid of Batman.
I loved this movie, and probably agree it's the best comic/superhero movie I've seen. Each of the actors did a great job, bringing nice personal touches to the characters. And, lol, it was nice to see the female lead get one hint about the superhero's alterego is and actually guess it correctly *cough*MJ*cough*. And though the lack of an easily identifiable musical theme is one of the most repeated critiques I've heard about BB, I prefered this style of orchestration and composition. The whole point of Batman Begins was to make Batman more real, to make, as someone mentioned earlier, more of a biopic than a comic book movie. One way this was done was making Gotham look realistic. Another way this was done was with the music. No larger than life dramatic swells of strings, no "oh, this part's gonna be awesome, here comes the theme", but instead much more subdued and subtle phrasing. Though it may have been nice to hear, for example, the theme from BtAS (Batman: the Animated Series) over the credits, it wouldn't have fit with the rest of the movie's music or tone.
All in all, an excellent film. And here's hoping they get everyone back for a few more (most especially David Goyer and Christopher Nolan).
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Quote:
Originally posted by Confederate:
According to the comics, Gordon had a son in Year One, Barbara Gordon was his niece that was later adopted by him. Of course my memory could also be wrong.
Oooh, you're prolly right. My DC comic knowledge can get sketchy and I occasionally get the cartoon mixed up with the comics. I remember two versions of Batgirl's history: one with her as Gordon's niece that he adopted and the other with her as the daughter. Either way, he sees her as a daughter, which I've always loved.
On the fights: I actually liked the first appearance of Batman in the movie. The quick cuts really showed how he did become something to fear. But after a while the excessive cutting just killed the fight scenes.
Comments: The Bat signal was a brilliant idea. And I'm sure they can bring Ra's back to life. That is his thing. His daughter also would make for a good love interest. I also liked the Bruce Wayne mask thing. After Kill Bill v2 I had a huge debate with my friends about Batman is just like Superman in that his civilian identity is his mask. Cybersnark's right about Caine's accent, but as an actor he was just such a likeable Alfred.
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Quote:
Originally posted by luciddreams:
Cybersnark's right about Caine's accent, but as an actor he was just such a likeable Alfred.
I actually really liked Caine's Alfred as a whole - guess I'm not overly wed to the DC continuity though. I seem to recall (in one of those timelines no doubt ret-conned out of existence in this or that Crisis) that there is something of a dark background to him at some point, and with Caine you can believe that.
"I threw up on your bed"
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Kinda a dark side, and an impressive resumé. He's been British Special Forces, and a classically-trained actor. In fact, he returned to the stage for a while after leaving Wayne's employ in KnightQuest (a "death of Batman" storyline a few years ago --Alfred left 'cause of personality clash with the replacement Batfreak), before Nightwing (Dick Grayson) went and brought him back.
And LucidDreams, I've determined that Batman & Superman are polar opposites in the costume/real identity issue. Batman is the "dominant" personality that wears "Bruce Wayne" as a mask, but Clark Kent is the real person who wears the "Superman" identity. Put another way, Batman could give up being Wayne, but Superman can't give up being Clark (if he does, he becomes the Eradicator). It's kinda why their friendship is such an interesting thing to watch.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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I LOVED Batman Begins. I would eagerly have sat through the sequel had they cued it up right away. So happy that they finally got Batman right on film.
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex
/display?slug=batman19&date=20050619&query=Batman
(registration required. if the link doesn't work, run an archive search on "Why do we love Batman?" dated Sunday, June 19, 2005)
I checked out Batman and Robin: The Complete 1949 Serial from the library. Horrible! I watched it the same weekend I watched Batman Begins just to see how far the characterization of Batman has come. The distance and difference are both startling. But when I remind myself that 2009 will mark the 70th anniversary of Bob Kane's creation of Batman... I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the character's different depictions throughout the decades.
mattro
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This from IMDB:
Quote:
Holmes Dropped from 'Batman' Sequel
Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman have signed to star in a second Batman movie, but love interest Katie Holmes has been dropped. Movie bosses are thrilled with the response to Batman Begins - it took $46.9 million in its first weekend at the US box office - and have snapped up the film's stars for a sequel. Bale as Batman was the first to put pen to paper, followed by Caine as butler Alfred and Freeman as Bruce Wayne's business associate Lucius Fox. But Holmes won't reprise her role as district attorney Rachel Dawes - reportedly because Warner Bros is angry her engagement to Tom Cruise has stolen media attention away from the movie. A source tells Pagesix.Com, "Everyone is in agreement that the movie's strength is with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman." Adding of Holmes, "She won't be in the sequel... the next romantic interest will be a much stronger actress. Warner is happy that people are now focusing on who'll be playing the Joker rather than Katie and Tom."
Whilst I had no qualms with Katie's character, can't say this bothers me one way or the other. But I'm a little tired of going down the "will the new love interest guess the secret identity" route. From the recent films, Elle McPhearson's character (such as it was) is the only one who didn't catch on to that little secret!
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At this point I'm getting a little tired of the "token love interest" in each movie. It just starts to scream "trite and artificial."
I mean, really, "Bruce Wayne" is not the kinda guy to go for any sort of human relationship, and part of what attracted Bale to this one was that it's the first time we've had a really "accurate" Batman on screen.
I'm all in favour of a Catwoman arc that stretches across several movies, though. Just give it a good chunk of time, instead of being squeezed into a handful of acts.
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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.
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