BATMAN BEGINS (2005) - Saw a 4th of July showing of this film in a IMAX theater at 10:00pm. Went with my wife and daughter and we all liked it. Decent story that gets better as the film goes. I thought the whole Asian training thing was going to be the best part as I had heard he received training, but it wasn't the best part of the film. Actually the movie starts to pick up as Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham and gets his gear together. The Scarecrow was interesting. The film is about Justice over Revenge. The expensive IMAX experience at $14.00 a seat was ok, but not sure it added anything to the film.
(http://www.twitchfilm.net/pics/Intl-Batman-Begins.jpg)
Couldn't watch another BATMAN film after that one with Jim Carey as The Riddler. Really liked the first one with Jack Nickolson as the Joker.
Post Edited (07-06-05 06:34)
I'm a huge Batman fan (didn't like the last few movies though) and this movie was fantastic. It held as true to Batman as I could've hoped for in a movie.
It wasn't a good movie, but it wasn't a bad one, either. I could tell the people who made it were really trying, which is something I don't often feel from movies these days. However, Batman Begins had some serious problems.
I thought it was very poorly filmed and edited, especially the fight scenes where you couldn't even see what was going on.
Katie Holmes was completely wrong for her part. Christian Bale didn't quite pull off Bruce/Batman, but he could if he works at it. I wasn't fond of his "I've got a sore throat" Batman voice.
I hate the Batmobile. HATE it.
I'm not buying Bruce Wayne being trained as a ninja by Qui-gon Jin -- er -- R'as al-Ghul, especially in the short amount of time it felt like. In the comics, Bruce spent his entire childhood, adolescence, and most of his twenties training his mind and body. Batman Begins felt like it took only a year or so for his training.
(And ... the parts where the immortal man was teaching his eager but unfocused pupil how to swordfight strongly called to mind a certain movie starring Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert.)
What a great performance by Ken Watanabe, eh?
SPOILIERS BELOW
When Batman knew he was going to face the Scarecrow the second time ... WHY DIDN'T HE TAKE THE FEAR DUST ANTIDOTE WITH HIM? Anyone with half a brain would have!
Speaking of the Scarecrow, he didn't do a damn thing. He was almost the movie's McGuffin, providing the fear toxin to R'as. Too bad, because the guy playing him was perfect for the part and deserved much more screen time.
Bruce didn't want to chop off the guy's head to complete his training, but I guess he was perfectly OK with blowing him up along with all the people in R'as's compound.
For being a "reality based" movie, Batman Begins was about as comic book as a movie could be. A man trains as a ninja in order to fight crime. He dresses up like a bat-man to frighten people. This man can perform incredible acrobatic feats while wearing his costume which appears to be very, very heavy and clunky. A villain creates a fear toxin that he dumps into the water supply so that another villain can evaporate said water supply with some kind of microwave (or ultrasonic or magic or whatever) gun. There's a huge, huge multi-ton car capable of doing 200 MPH and jumping a few hundred yards.
END SPOILERS
I could go on, but it isn't worth the effort. I hope the next movie raises the bar significantly.
here's a review (http://www.kiddlive.com/MovieReview617.rm) our radio station gave it (they sing all their reviews to the magnum pi theme song)
I was'nt big on the batmobile either but I can see where they were trying to go with it. It was supposed to look more like a military combat vehicle rather than a stylized hotrod.
The combat suit used as a superhero suit seemed to be copied from spiderman to me. The Green Goblin is explained by a modified combat suit as well. I like how they tied in the ninja gauntlet thing though.
Overall I liked the movie even though I agree with some of your points. It all comes down to personal preference. Some people will like it, some wont.
Akiratubo,
Well stated, I agree the whole training thing of Batman should have been better done. The location was kinda interesting, but the whole Ninja (Japanese training) training in Tibet which didn't seem right. The location seemed to be a place apparently near Tibet's Himalayan mountain range, or maybe Western China, but then again it appeared to possibly be near a glacier, so I really don't know where they filmed it. and Leslie Neesom as the bad guy Master. It didn't work for me. The fight scenes where terrible. Worse than even Ridley Scott and just image seeing those blurry moments on an IMAX.
Over all the film is better than most films that have come out lately. Yes, like you said whom even was making the film was at least making an effort to create something good and also like you said there are even more flaws in this film than you mentioned.
The idea and intent was there to make a good film. Maybe we can give it an A for effort.
The best part of the film was when Bruce Wayne tells all those stiffs to leave his home during the high society party.
Post Edited (07-06-05 21:06)