Batman Begins (appropriate title)
There are some who actually enjoyed the first set of Batman movies. One frequent comment is that the first one was good, and they got progressively worse. I'd agree with the latter comment, but I never thought the starting point was very good to begin with.
The biggest problem with the first four, especially the Joel Schumacher episodes (catastrophes), was that they made the stories and characters so hokey. The villains in particular were flat-out awful. Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Uma Thurman, Arnold Schwarzenegger...BLECH. The worst bunch of overactors in this type of venue.
Batman Begins, on the other hand, has a solid origin story and a bunch of great actors who play it straight, and the results are awesome, not unlike X-Men. Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Rutger Hauer, Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy...the film was full of heavy hitters with substantive parts, and it kept rolling them out impressively, one after the other.
Like the director and writer, who decided to disregard the previous four Batman movies when creating this one, I consider this the first Batman movie. It's so far superior to its predecessors, it's hard to believe it comes from the same mythology. It does a great job of showing Bruce Wayne's transformation into Batman and how the relationships, gadgets, traditions, etc., come into place.
The end also hints (okay, screams) at the upcoming sequel, with a reference to the Joker. I'll be in line for it opening night. If you haven't seen this first one, check it out this weekend. There is nothing big coming out until War of the Worlds in July, so now's the time.
I'll be headed down to LA today for the weekend to hang out with Alan, who is in town from Ohio, and the rest of the gang. If any of you down there haven't seen it yet, I'm up for another showing!
The biggest problem with the first four, especially the Joel Schumacher episodes (catastrophes), was that they made the stories and characters so hokey. The villains in particular were flat-out awful. Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey, Uma Thurman, Arnold Schwarzenegger...BLECH. The worst bunch of overactors in this type of venue.
Batman Begins, on the other hand, has a solid origin story and a bunch of great actors who play it straight, and the results are awesome, not unlike X-Men. Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Ken Watanabe, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Rutger Hauer, Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy...the film was full of heavy hitters with substantive parts, and it kept rolling them out impressively, one after the other.
Like the director and writer, who decided to disregard the previous four Batman movies when creating this one, I consider this the first Batman movie. It's so far superior to its predecessors, it's hard to believe it comes from the same mythology. It does a great job of showing Bruce Wayne's transformation into Batman and how the relationships, gadgets, traditions, etc., come into place.
The end also hints (okay, screams) at the upcoming sequel, with a reference to the Joker. I'll be in line for it opening night. If you haven't seen this first one, check it out this weekend. There is nothing big coming out until War of the Worlds in July, so now's the time.
I'll be headed down to LA today for the weekend to hang out with Alan, who is in town from Ohio, and the rest of the gang. If any of you down there haven't seen it yet, I'm up for another showing!
posted by Chang Kim at Friday, June 24, 2005
4 Comments:
man, i really want to see that...everyone has given it such rave reviews.
btw, i finally updated my blog!
watch it. watch it now.
hey i hate to burst your bubble but Batman Begins ends where the very first Batman movie was created. The first Batman Movie was made in 1966 according to IMDB and has the Joker as one of its main antagonists. It would be fun if they made a remake but i dunno if they'd do that to a classic (??)
Jeff, I'm learning that you like to talk out of your butt.
The primary players from Batman Begins are signed up for two more movies, the first of which will focus on the Joker (not a remake). Batman Begins does NOT end where the original Batman starts. The original was completely disregarded in the making of this version. For instance, the deptictions of the parents' death in the two movies are completely inconsistent with each other.
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