Batman Begins

[Jester of the FoS]

Well, I don't see the ending so much a set-up as another reference to Millar's Year One and nod to the larger rogue gallery. It'd be neat to see another Joker but not necassary. Especially with the great adaptation they already had.

Personally, I'd much rather see a revamped Catwoman, Penguin, Bane, Ivy, Two-face, Riddler or Freeze. They're the ones that came of silly. Joker was bang on. But, there's alot of other villians they could do.

Clayface for one. Killer Moth. Croc. Soloman Grundy. Calander Man. Zzazsa (more than the brief cameo he recieved here). Mad Hatter. They could bring back Scarecrow for a real fight between Batman and him, if only at the begining. Heck, if they really wanted they could bring in Holiday or Hush.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

No, I'd like to see the Joker and Harley Quinn.

[Jester of the FoS]

OOOoooOOO
Harley. Now that would be cool.

[Jasper]

They need to do a full live action Batman Beyond movie. That would not only rock but it would give the film makers a new movie franchise so they can stop betting the dead horse that the batman franchise has become.

[JinnTolser]

I think they missed a good opportunity to pair Scarecrow with Mad Hatter. What a team they would have made...

[Jester of the FoS]

They need to do a full live action Batman Beyond movie. That would not only rock but it would give the film makers a new movie franchise so they can stop betting the dead horse that the batman franchise has become.

Dead horse? Opposed to the TV shows where Batman has logged in 20x the number of screen hours? Or the comics where he's been around non-stop since 1940?
He's an iconic character now able to be revisited, reimagined and reinterpreted. There's alot of life in something so simple and yet so complex as Batman.

[Jasper]

I say dead horse due to thast fact that dispite all the new flash and "updating" of the Batman mithos its essentualy the same story every time.

Batman is very two dementional.
He is on one hand Bruce, a playboy millionare trained by matrial arts masters and schooled in detective skills that rival Sherlock Holmes- as far away from the common comic book reader as you can get.
On the other hand is Batman. Emotionless, cold and posessing skills and technbology no other mortal man could possably obtain. Again not in any way close to the readers/viewers. At least Superman his a nerdy reporter in his alter ego.

And as hard as they try to capture the "Dark and gritty" feel of Batman the plots are allways the same- Villian to be A has something go so horably wrong with life that they become Villian B. Villian B tries to pull off some eleborate plot to kill off gotham/get money/get revenge etc IE: Plot C: Batman shows up and stops plot C by defeating various minons (were do they get the minion anyway? Minions R Us?). Insert sappy love intrest scene. Love intrest gets captured by Villian B as he/she pulles off Plot D. Batman shows up due to some deductions that would make a MIT grad weep and saves the day.

Thier is no 3rd demention so needed in a good hero- the human demention. They never write a story about how Batman dosn't want to fight the villian of the week due to a bad case of the flu as he can just fly to Europe buy a dose of some exparamental Flu cure and jet back in time to don the cape.

The love intrest angle is even tacked on for most stories. He realy dosn't have to ever worry about missing a date he had planed for weeks due to a villian attack. He is rich enough to just buy a new date for every day of the year.

And finaly the biggest thing that urks me is that Batman never seems to have a off day. All his punxhes land, every cut wire is the correct one, hell he never even fails to catch the dang batarangs. The only times he has ever done something that hasn't turned out perfict in the end is the death of robin II and olny that because 5000+ readers demanded it.


This has been a test of the emergancxy ranting service. If this had been a acctual rant it would have been longer and filled with bad words. This has been a test. Thank you.

[Ivana_Boritsi]

I thought Batman Begins was terrific. I'm not a fangirl, but I still though it worked on alot of levels. Primarily, I like how everything in the movie has an explanation. Like...why does Batman have a friggin' costume? Well, the movie gives us a reason. Why does the Scarecrow bother with a weird mask? Hey. There's a reason. I love that.

This is where the movie surpassed things like Spider-Man for me. Why does Spider-Man all of the sudden upgrade from lame costume to super-awesome costume? Why in the heck does Norman Osborn don a power-rangers mask? Why does he bother getting on his weird glider? Why not hire someone to do it?

As for the idea that Batman is very two-dimensional? No way. Go see the movie, dude.

The character of Bruce Wayne/Batman is very three dimensional in the latest movie. There's alot of internal struggle. In fact, the entire movie is based around Bruce's coming to terms with this parent's death. And not in the cheesy, "I will have my revenge" way. The movie shows us a variety of emotions that Bruce his going through - guilt, anger, sadness, confusion....

I also love the fact that seeing his parents die in the film really messes with Bruce. Finally! There are real consequences for a traumatic event! I'm so tired of movies where a character sees their parents die...and as a consequence turn into a badass. In Batman Begins, his parent's death turns him into his pathetic loser. Their death has real meaning.

There's a great moment of self-doubt when Bruce believes he has failed his parents and his vision of justice. All of these things point to a three dimensional character.

We see alot of development even in Bruce's development of his own various personas. We see how he comes up with the "playboy" image, but at the same time, we find he's disgusted by his own surprise.

I loved the viilains in the movie, too. The villains have interesting motives besides, "I want to kill people." Or, "I want money."

Especially the main villain in the movie. I won't spoil it, but I thought the main villain's motives were especially intriguing.

[Reginald de Curry]

Batman Begins

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Rating: 5 corpses.
Is it -worthy? Nope, sorry.
Movie's Theme: FEAR (IMBD was right about that one.)

The Good:
True to the comics; Joe Chill kills the Waynes, Jim Gordon starts off as just an honest cop, and characters who are supposed to be just normal men and women stay normal.

The story is insightful, giving an view into the psyche of Bruce Wayne, showing not just how he became the Batman, but why. He becomes a real person to the viewer, rather than just an archetype (kudos to C. Bale). Michael Caine makes an excellent Alfred, combining dry wit with a depth of character (the father figure, the strategist, etc.). Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox (a character completely ignored by the previous films) is a welcome addition to the film, providing a plausible source for Batman's "gadgets", while Rutger (sp?) Hauer shows us the "dark side" of corporate business. Gary Oldman makes for a surprisingly well-played Jim Gordon (he's a good guy for once?!? I didn't think that was possible!). And Liam Neeson made for a near-perfect Ras Al Ghul, with a commitment to "the Greater Good" that resonates with history. Scarecrow was not a throw-away villian, either.

The Bad:
Stealth-mode? I like the new Batmobile, but I found it a little difficult to believe that it could disappear from police car headlights and a chopper's spotlight. The rooftop drive, while great entertainment, was also a tad hard to swallow. And Batman's a ninja? Well, he had to get the training from somewhere, I guess; and I admit they made it work quite well.

The Ugly (truth, that is):
I loved the Burton films, and Jim Carrey's Riddler made for great comedy, even if Two-Face was wasted (as for the fourth film, ugh *shudder*), but Batman Begins had an epic feel that the others couldn't hope to match. It had everything you could want in a Batman film, and I can only hope they'll be able to match this when the sequel comes out.

[AdamGarou]

Well, I don't see the ending so much a set-up as another reference to Millar's Year One and nod to the larger rogue gallery. It'd be neat to see another Joker but not necassary. Especially with the great adaptation they already had.

Personally, I'd much rather see a revamped Catwoman, Penguin, Bane, Ivy, Two-face, Riddler or Freeze. They're the ones that came of silly. Joker was bang on. But, there's alot of other villians they could do.

Clayface for one. Killer Moth. Croc. Soloman Grundy. Calander Man. Zzazsa (more than the brief cameo he recieved here). Mad Hatter. They could bring back Scarecrow for a real fight between Batman and him, if only at the begining. Heck, if they really wanted they could bring in Holiday or Hush.

I suppose I can agree about the Joker. On one hand, you wonder if anyone in the role would top Nicholson's performance. On the other, Steven Weber did a MUCH better job of portraying Jack Torrance in the new version of "The Shining" than Nicholson did, IMHO--Weber's version showed the slow descent into madness of a basically decent guy who had severe emotional problems, a violent temper, and a weakness for alcohol, whereas Nicholson's version was just plain nuts to begin with.

Catwoman was okay, in my opinion--as portrayed in the comics she's very sensual, even playful with her life of crime... and I think Michelle Pheiffer pretty much hit it dead on. Danny DeVito's Penguin was not as good, but not terrible either (although the completely weird re-write of his backstory was probably unnecessary). Bane, Ivy, Two-Face, Riddler, and Freeze were all pretty ridiculous as presented in the movies, but I guess it was intentional.

Croc and the Mad Hatter would be great to see. Clayface (Matt Hagen) has some amazing possibilities as well, but the CGI shapechanging effects might be tough to pull off believably--and VERY expensive.

No, I'd like to see the Joker and Harley Quinn.

Mmmm... Harley Quinn... *drool*.

[VAN]

I saw the film yesterday and I liked it very much, but I think that the duration could be very well 90min and not 2h and 20 min! Come on all the first part was how Bruce decided to be Batman, I don't think that needed to saw the part in jail etc.

I have noticed also many similarities with Spiderman which I prefered not to see. It's true that Batman had a whip and several... bat hooks but from that seeing him jump to the roofs like that and hung men and roll them with his strange whip was exagerated for me.

I liked very much the special effects.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

This film rocks. I agree with all the good points, but have to add another:

SPOILER!:






I like the fact Scarecrow survives, it annoyed me in the other films when Joker, Penguin and Two-Face died.

[ScS of the Fraternity]

I don't know, I kind of had the oposite feeling. I liked the idea that each movie dealt with a villian fully, and then got rid of them. Scarecrow would be an example of a villian that wasn't fully explored. He didn't do all that much, he didn't have an origin, ect... and he lives to bug us later.

[JinnTolser]

I finally saw this yesterday, and I thought it was a very good movie.

A few little gripes though: *Watch out for SPOILERS!*

Scarecrow could've had a bigger part. I wasn't too fond of the way he was portrayed as just another henchman, either. But the actor was good and definitely portrayed Dr. Crane as at least as crazy as the people he studies.

The Batmobile was all wrong. Don't get me wrong, that thing was a cool vehicle, but to me it just wasn't the Batmobile. And the two most unbelievable spots in the movie dealt with this thing: the impossible rooftop jump and the little "stealth" thing.

Overall, the actors did a phenomenal job. Christian Bale played a better Bruce Wayne than Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer or George Clooney, and wasn't too bad in the Batman department either.
Morgan Freeman did a great job, as did Michael Caine. The Cockney accent bothered me a bit, but he made up for it.
Liam Neeson was excellent, although I wish the movie had at least mentioned Ra's Al Ghul's little immortality thing.

I didn't particularly like Katie Holmes though. I think she should stick to what she's good at, and this kind of movie isn't it.

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

SPOILER!










I like the way that after the DA was murdered, another wasn't instated, leaving the way open for Harvey Dent in the next film.