Batman Begins #1: (SPOILERS) Look out Scarecrow and Ra's al Ghul!

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I just watched it again for the second time with my parents (it was their first time). Big thumbs up all around. I loved it even more the second time. And my mom is now officially on the Christian Bale love train. In fact, this was a conversation we had in the theater.

Mom: Poor boy has no muscles.

Me: *After giving her weird look for 10 seconds* You're being sarcastic, right?

Mom: Well, yes!

;)
 
I love this film. It raised a lot of questions about humanity, justice, fear. Bale gave so many things to the character that made it so interesting. Seeing Bruce's journey and understanding why he became Batman is a feat to watch. Cillian Murphy and Oldman were amazing. And so were Neeson and Freeman and Caine. Katie Holmes was OK though (I just hated how they tried to squeeze in a love angle by the end of the film). But then she redeemed herself when she told about Bruce's "real mask". She's ok...

My favorite part was when Bruce saw his house burned down, and asked Alfred "what have I done?" Bale's expression there was so heartbreaking. Like he almost want to cry. Greatness! And the ending is cool too! And so was the Batmobile car chase.

"Why do we fall, Bruce?" :) Brilliant film.
 
Rachel is not in the comics. She was invented for the movie. Her character and Rutger Hauer's "Earle", the head of Wayne Enterprises, are the only ones of the major characters who didn't come from the comics. And in my opinion, she was unncessary.
 
WHOAH! I just downloaded the new trailer and now I can't stop watching it! The music is really cool! Especially by the end when "Batman Begins" shows and the background music was sort of like that of bats flying. Coolness.

I can't wait to see this film! Doesn't hurt too to see Christian Bale without his shirt on ;) And how does he do that? From Machinist to a buff Bruce Wayne/Batman?!

Wicked poster :D Thanks for the link.
 
my review(contains MINOR spoilers)...

Batman Begins

Review

By

“Xmenfan/Darthkush/Slave4buffy”



“Are you ready to begin?”



Well, it’s finally arrived. The reboot of the Batman franchise. The film that is supposed to erase the horrible memory of the final(and worst) installment(“Batman and Robin”) of the previous film series and make Batman a cash cow for Warner Bros. again. It seems like there’s no way it could fail. It was written by superhero film fan favorite David Goyer, it’s directed by Christopher Nolan(of “Memento” and “Insomnia” fame) and it stars Christian Bale, the undisputed choice for Batman by many fans. Does it work?



For the most part, yes. Batman Begins follows Bruce Wayne from a very young boy seeing the murder of his parents to an young man traveling the world in an attempt to learn how to fight and to learn everything about the criminal world all the way to his return to Gotham City where he finally dons the cape and cowl of Batman. After Wayne becomes Batman, he soon faces the evils of the Scarecrow(Cillian Murphy), crime boss Carmine Falcone(Tom Wilkinson), and one enemy who Wayne thought was long gone. During all of this, Wayne is also trying to deal with his feelings for his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes(Katie Holmes).



Batman Begins (initially)did not quite live up to my expectations. Maybe they were too high but that’s what happened. But then something happened. I went to the film a second time, lowered my expectations and all of a sudden, EVERYTHING was better.



The first half of the film is all about Wayne’s origin, training, and how he acquires all his bat-gadgets and it’s incredibly well done. Wayne trains and learns how to fight from a cult of ninjas led by Ra’s Al Ghul(Ken Watanabe) and his 2nd in command, Ducard(Liam Neeson) and that entire sequence is masterfully written and directed. Liam Neeson as Ducard gives the single Best Bat-Villain performance I have ever seen(yep, even better than Nicholsan’s Joker). He is that character in so many ways and every time he spoke(he has an marvelous monologue near the climax of the film) it was like beautiful music that gave me nerd-bumps lol. And wait till you see the “twist” on Neeson’s character. It’s brilliant. Another thing that works so well in the first half is all of the scenes with Bruce Wayne and his family and his fear of bats. Again, just great storytelling. I also love Tom Wilkenson as the villainous gangster, Falcone. The character is prominently featured in the Batman graphic novel,”The Long Halloween” and he plays that character incredibly here. Michael Caine brings a realism to Alfred that hasn’t been seen before and in doing so Caine becomes the best Alfred ever. I wasn’t expecting Morgan Freeman to have much to do(as Luscius Fox is something of a minor character in the comics) but he gets a lot to do and it works. He sort of functions as Wayne’s own Q from the Bond films and it makes perfect sense here.



The second half of the film is where problems arise. Pretty much the moment Wayne first appears as Batman. For starters, the fight scenes in this film are not shot too great. During my first viewing, I felt the fights were almost impossible to understand due to choppy editing. Well, as it turns out, half the problem was that I was sitting a tad too close to the screen. I moved back a mere 3 rows the 2nd viewing and it was much better. Still problematic, but much better. Another problem is that some scenes are just downright cheesy. For example, there is a scene where a young boy sees Batman and goes on some goofy tirade about “how the other kids are never gonna believe this” and Batman gives him his grappling gun and smiles at him. That could’ve worked but it just doesn’t. Batman’s voice is not quite what I was expecting but I got used to it and by the end of the film, I liked it.



Then there’s the “doomsday weapon” that the main villain uses. It has cool aspects but overall it’s just as silly as the “Mutant making” weapon Magneto used in the first X-men film. Then there’s the Scarecrow. He’s a wonderful character here and Cillian Murphy completely understands how to play him but he’s simply not in the film enough. The worst part of it is how we last see the Scarecrow in the film. Someone ought to be smacked for letting his last scene be like that. Yes, it elicits giggles but it definitely doesn’t speak highly of the character. Katie Holmes’ Rachel character neither bothered me nor excited me. She was just there. Katie does a decent job but nothing that blew me away. Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon does a fantastic job but my irk with him is what they have him do in the climax of the film. It’s just kinda silly. Gordon seemed to be used for comedy in the final act and while some parts worked(he has a really funny one liner when he first sees the Batmobile), others didn’t(what Batman gives him to do as his “job” at the end is just silly). But again, it’s a forgivable problem. It’s not what I really would have wanted to see but it doesn’t hamper the film down too much.



So what’s my overall assessment of it? The acting is brilliant all around(though Holmes is nothing mindblowing),the action is pretty good but the fight scenes could’ve used a bit more work, the directing is awesome(save the fight scenes), the plot is good enough, and the dialogue is magnificent. Batman Begins is a very good start to a new Bat franchise and there are many, many “geekout” scenes sprinkled throughout the film(Scarecrow’s gas effects, the final scene that pretty much announces who the next villain in the franchise will be, and many more) but it’s still not the ultimate Batman film. I believe whatever the sequel to this film is will be though. All the problems this film had(which were small) should be ironed out by then. I liked it a lot but didn’t love it quite as much as I thought I would. That’s okay. Truth be told, I didn’t love X2 as much as I do now until after seeing it a couple more times and now it’s my 2nd favorite movie of all time. Who knows? A few more viewings and Batman Begins could be in my top 5 of all time as well. Is this a better film than the previous Bat-films. God yes. It obliterates the last 2 and although the first two weren’t bad films, it does make them feel a bit silly and unrealistic. Batman is back folks.



4.5/5 stars movieman’s site.

note:the three names are my three names online. i'm different people at different sites. also, the film is so great, i've already seen it twice and plan on a third this weekend :)
 
I think it has been said somewhere before in this thread that Rachel and one more character whose name I can't remember at this moment are the only ones that are not in the comics.

But I believe someone can give you a better answer, since I'm not really a Batman comic book fan (not that I wouldn't maybe like them, I've just never read them). :look:
 
Thank you so much for the scans!

I told someone I had seen Batman Begins twice, and she basically told me she didn't want to see it because of Katie Holmes. I told her, like Cathangel says, that she really doesn't have that many scenes in the film. So, hopefully, she'll change her mind.
 
I've only started to get hyped up these past few days. I'm seeing the movie and getting the game and cd all on the same day so I'll be happy :D I wish the special edition of the original was released though.

I hope (but I know) that an hour into it I don't feel as I did when I saw Batman and Robin in theaters 8 years ago. I wanted to throw up :lol:.
 
I just want to add...

With the huge failure "Batman & Robin" was (with Joel Schumacher at the helm) Warner Brothers and DC Comics are (were) desperate to revive the series and shake off the "stink" the last few films gave the series which is why they are letting non-U.S. talent try their hand at the franchise because of the success of Underworld, Resident Evil, 28 Days Later and other similar UK/Euro based fillms had.
 
I have a question for all the Batman comic book fans: Was Rachel a part of the comic books? I was just wondering since I don't remember her being in the other movies and I read that this movie was a better portrayal of the comics.
 
Ooo, thanks for that.

As always Christian looks hot without a shirt. :drool:

Can't wait to see it.
 
I just saw the movie the acting was amazing Christian and Liam especially. I think Batman Begins really redeemed the Batman franchise that was nearly destroyed by Batman & Robin. As much as I like Christian's performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman Michael Keaton still remains my favorite tho Christian is a close second.
 
I was quite partial to Kilmer as Batman, but I know Bale will be my favorite of them all. :)

Batman Sex :love:

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