June 20, 2005
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Last night I went and saw ‘Batman Begins.’ I didn’t know much about it, other than it’s the origin story of Batman, and that Christian Bale plays Bruce Wayne.
Then all these really big name actors started showing up in supporting roles. Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Rutger Hauer, Morgan Freeman, and Gary freakin’ Oldman, who has to be one of the best actors of our generation.
Rutger Hauer, by the way, seems to be doing his best to land the role of Donald Rumsfeld in the movie version of the tragedy that is the Bush administration.
But be that as it may. This movie is really good. If you’ve followed Batman at least a little, you know the story basics. Boy falls down a hole, is traumatized by bats, watches his parents get killed, runs off to Tibet to learn the ways of criminals in order to get revenge, etc. And thankfully the story is merely a vehicle for a lot of questions about corruption, both institutional and personal. The screenwriters are taking the central myth as a skeleton, and hanging a lot of good material off it. The direction makes the whole thing somehow believable, with not much emphasis on a guy in a bat suit, and much, much more time given to the emotional realities of the characters.
Basically, it’s the first decent comic book movie. It’s about the characters, one of whom just happens to be a billionaire with a secret identity. I left the movie hoping there would be sequels. But there probably won’t be, even though they kind of already exist.
Comments (8)
Yes.
Fully agree. I am hoping there will be sequels. I loved seeing Christian Bale as the lead, as I’ve never seen him in a film before, and he’s a really great actor (and easy on the eyes). It’s just nice to see some new(er) talent on the screen.
I also loved Dr. Crane (Scarecrow). What a brilliant character. The perfect guy to play that part. And the intense character-development almost made you forget it was a superhero story (of which I am not a huge fan). But it was very enjoyable. I’d actually see it again.
Christian Bale will always be ‘American Psycho’ to me. But he was also in an interesting low budget sci-fi distopian flick called ‘Equilibrium’ recently, and a horror flick I didn’t manage to see called ‘The Mechanic.’
Rutger Hauer is in it?! (girlish squeals) Now I will have to go see it. A good review doesn’t hurt, either.
Yeah, I looked through his filmography but hadn’t seen any of them, not even ‘Empire of the Sun’, which garnered him his fame. I’ll have to check some of these out.
I really liked it too. Pleasantly surprised.
Way too long in the first half hour (or was that an hour), but after that, it rolled and I titally enjoyed. They could have lost a few meaningless scenes, but no one knows how to edit these days.
I actually thought that it had interesting things to say about vengeance and personal justice vs. societal roles, and interesting things to say about the essential American foreign policy theory that “we will destroy an evil society to save it”
So it was a big step beyond the typical action flick, yet Christian Bale’s Batman was fully dark, conficted, angry, and on the edge (like Michael Keaton’s but with a bigger world view). And I’ve always loved the only truly human superhero.
Two thumbs up from me too. Michael Caine is teh r0x0r.
“Basically, it’s the first decent comic book movie.”
What about The Crow?
What about the first Batman, with Michael Keaton – generally regarded as quite well done?
What about Sin City? Like it or not, it was deeply faithful to the comic book.
What about Judge Dredd? All those fuckin’ Taco Bell’s made that movie pretty special.
Ok. Forget Judge Dredd.
But what about Spider Man? And Two? Both were excellent, and Tobey Maguire made a decent Peter Parker.
Dark Knight should have been made. That’s a Batman story.
If I could fun any single comic book movie, it would be an adaptation of the original Wolverine mini-seried – four issues of Frank Miller induced orgasms.
Ronin should be made too.