Batman Begins a New Franchise?
By stephanie - Sunday, July 30th, 2006
I finally saw Batman Begins, belatedly. I had heard how amazingly good it was, so I was frankly surprised that it wasn’t all that and a bag of chips.
I think the “excitement” about this latest version of Batman is that it was somehow “darker” and less campy than previous versions. Yet, I really enjoyed Tim Burton’s vision of Batman, where a post-modern art deco Gotham City rose up out of the night like some sort of macabre caricature of New York City. The visual flare isn’t there in this latest version: The new Gotham City sadly mixes in a few bright moments of CGI-created artistic vision with shots from a real city: The effect falls flat and loses its magic.
Christian Bale broods perfectly as Batman – though I’m not sure if I love or hate how his voice gets all husky and sexy once he dons the suit. Michael Caine makes a great Alfred, and I liked Morgan Freeman’s appearance.
Still, for all the dark “realism” of this latest Batman, a few glaring plotholes really bugged me. (Minor spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen it.) The entire beginning of the film fell flat for me. Somehow Bruce Wayne is in a Chinese prison, gets set free by some guy whose identity I never quite figured out (played by Liam Neeson), and then joins a Ninja training camp. Only, Bruce doesn’t figure out until the last day of training that this group is out to destroy Gotham City!
Doh! You think they might have mentioned that in the job interview?
From there, Bruce nobly refuses to kill one criminal, only to set fire to the entire Ninja fortress, thus killing a whole slew of Ninjas and probably the guy he was trying to protect in the first place. Real smart.
From there, a ludicrous, convoluted plot develops involving a crime boss and Arkham Asylum…which is always a good thing to bring in, but only if used properly. (In this instance, Arkham is mostly wasted as a plot device, instead of being revealed in all its creepy, gothic insane asylum glory.)
Mixed in with this is some sort of minor non-plot involving the meanie CEO of Wayne Enterprises taking the company public…we find out later that Bruce himself bought up all the shares, so now he’s the majority owner and can finally oust the loser. (This made no sense to me. Wouldn’t Bruce have been the majority shareholder when the company was private? The whole thing was ridiculous.)
All in all, I thought this was a bloated piece of crap that was saved only by Bale, who makes a good Bruce Wayne and does have some presence as Batman.
A sequal is in the works…or, should we call the next one installment six in the series (or seven, including Catwoman)? Let’s hope the writing is better next time around.
Vote in the discussion forums: Who’s Your Favorite Batman?
July 30th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Katie Holmes was a bag of cement in this movie. She didn’t add spark, chemistry, or anything remotely resembling charisma.
Bale, on the other hand, is so watchable. I liked the change in his voice–it seemed like suppressed rage and madness, and that worked for me.
Watching Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman,well, those guys are just talented, period. And Morgan Freeman is one of my top-fave actors, so I’d watch him in anything.
I liked the film, but wondered, like you, why the praise seemed so over-the-top. It’s a watchable movie and Bale is wonderful, but it’s not…well…I don’t know, it didn’t rise as high as the reviews claimed. But I’d love to see Bale do Batman again. Only I hope they ditch Holmes. What an overrated chick.
I’m starting to feel like I’m picking on my gender–first Alba, then Holmes–but really, if they can cast a Caine and a Freeman, couldn’t they find in the whole of the US a pretty actress who could keep up with Bale?
Mir
July 30th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
I didn’t like Holmes either. She just looked like a wide-eyed child throughout the whole thing and had no *presence* as a full-fledged woman.
Think about the great actresses they had in the old Batman movies: Kim Basinger, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, and Uma Thurman. Now there are some fantastic women!
July 31st, 2006 at 12:26 pm
Katie Holmes was a waste but the rest of the movie was pretty damn good. It was more realistic than the other movies (if realistic involves a four wheel tank driving on roof tops).
Two roles that were cast so perfect it was scary, Gary Oldman as Lt. Gordon and Michael Caine as Alfred. They looked and acted as if they had always been in their roles.
July 31st, 2006 at 7:26 pm
I remember when Michael Keaton was picked to play Batman back in the eighties. Prior to viewing Burton’s Batman, I thought Keaton was a strange choice to play the caped-crusader, but once I saw the movie, thought (and still think Keaton is THE BEST of the batch).
Kilmer is my #2 and Clooney…well I just like to pretend did not exist (dear god he was awful, but so was everything and everyone in the Batman and Robin disaster).
I liked Bale and feel he is right for the latest take on the series.
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