"batman begins"

[rone]

I think i've avoided writing about the movie because it would just be an exercise in nerdiness that i could avoid.  But then mmcirvin posted his thoughts on the movie and, gosh darn it, if he's not above it, why should i?

I didn't mind Katie Holmes's acting; i think that the character was poorly written (perhaps even poorly conceived), and she made the best of it.  I was surprised by the special guest appearance of her nipples in the final scenes; maybe Christian Bale's a hell of a kisser.

I liked Bale's Batman voice.  I thought it was effective.  I was confused by the juggling of Ra's Al Ghul's identity — was Ken Watanabe really Ra's and Ducard usurped the name afterwards, or was Ducard Ra's all along and Watanabe played... someone else?  Gah!  CONFUSION.  Gary Oldman was so good, it pissed me off that they deviated so far from Frank Miller's Batman: Year One; the book gives almost equal time to Gordon (as well as Catwoman, but she's not even in the movie, so whatever), and the lack of development of Gordon's character is a huge missed opportunity.  Tom Wilkinson kicked ass and needed more screen time (but i've liked him in every movie i've seen him).  Cillian Murphy was spooky.  Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine, well, i won't say they phoned it in, but they didn't exactly stretch themselves, either.

One thing that really bothered me was Batman's rush to save Katie Holmes.  I know i'm being a big nerd here, but Batman would never be so careless as to crush civilian and cop cars just to save some chick's life.  Another annoyance was the conversion of Flass from an overbearing Green Beret asshole to a seedy donut-eater who was more apathetic than corrupt.  Overall, though, the movie was fun, well-written, and well-paced (people who complained about the "slow beginning" should be locked into an Ingmar Bergman festival until they recant).

In conclusion, go read Batman: Year One. You might even find it at the library. Do it now.

Comments

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

See, I thought that Michael Caine rescued nearly every scene he was in, just by underplaying things while everyone around him was Emoting their little guts out.

I took the exact opposite view about Ducard's identity: Ducard picked up Ra's' name when the original Ra's was killed by the falling beam. Confusingly written either way, and that was the least of it: what was the League of Shadows' motivation, again? Kill petty criminals in the name of Law, but also sack and destroy major civilian cities in the name of Balance? That was either two script rewrites away or five rewrites past making any sense whatsoever.

And incidentally, this movie deserves its own entry on the Evil Overlord List: when I am an Evil Overlord, I will not keep open barrels of gunpowder in the main chamber of my mountain fortress. My wooden mountain fortress. The gunpowder, and all other explosives, will be stored in a locked metal shed at least 200 meters from my fortress, and only my trained combat engineers will have keys.

Every time Katie Holmes appeared on screen, it was like the film had an intermission. It was almost spooky: a perfect Negative Zone of non-acting.

The fight choreography and editing was baaaaaad. I know Liam Neeson is not a spring chicken any more, but would it have killed them to hold a single shot for more than .5 seconds?

For all of that bitching, I basically liked the movie a lot. The supporting cast was (excepting Holmes) great, and Bale was pitch-perfect even though he got saddled with all of the film's worst lines. I'm cautiously optimstic that they'll work out the kinks for the next film: less need for expository dialog and a conspicuous lack of crazed scientologist starlets can only improve matters.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Heh, i thought of the Evil Overlord list in the blowing-up scene, too.

I thought that in the early ninja fights, the crappy choreography was OK, as it conveyed the confusion you might experience in such a fight. But it was really terrible in the train fight.

Also, note that this is pre-brainwashing Katie. I can only imagine how bad she'll be after this.

Finally, your absence from your own journal has been very conspicuous, so it's good to know you're still around.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I plan on making a triumphant return to my journal as soon as I can figure out a new set of things to talk about -- half a year and change after watching my entire country decide that group suicide was fine as long as they got to shit on my immediate social group in the process, politics is still a little too raw a subject for me, and I haven't had any major travelling to write about since Vietnam. Feh.

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

I am super sick of that school of editing, mostly because what it usually means is that your actors aren't up to fighing convincingly, so you cut around them like a Dr. Katz episode. I would have liked the editing to have maybe changed in style over the course of the movie; either direction would have done. A couple of individual shots in the train scene showed what it could have been like had _all_ the editing been comprehensible, but that only served to highlight the miasma of aimless direction-free editing in the rest of the movie. Boo.

Read me Doctor Memory?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

so you cut around them like a Dr. Katz episode.

Not that you would, ah, know anything about that, eh?

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

Hey, I didn't have anything to do with the editing. That was some guy named Ivan.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Read me Doctor Memory?

Yessssssss, worker?

[sanspoof.livejournal.com]

I will refrain from asking about the porridge bird, so as not to make you broken.

When I first heard that album, I thought Dr. Memory's voice was a specific Reagan reference. I guess it is still possible, since he was governor when Bozos came out, right?

[merde.livejournal.com]

when I am an Evil Overlord, I will not keep open barrels of gunpowder in the main chamber of my mountain fortress.

and that's why they'll never let you be an Evil Overlord. you obviously need to go back and re-read your notes from class. it clearly states in the regulations that all secret fortresses must have a fatal flaw. i think an open barrel of gunpowder lying around in a wooden fortress meets that requirement just fine.

re: the fight choreography, i actually kind of liked it, and i'm a huge action/kung fu movie fan. to me, it felt quite realistic -- things happen so fast you don't even have time to understand what's going on, in the bits with ra's (and i think it was liam neeson all along). and in the bits with other guys, it just shows you that bats is so good that no normal even has a chance against him.

ok, i admit, i'd have liked to see a little more of what was going on. but it didn't ruin the movie for me. nothing could've ruined that movie for me, except maybe giving katie holmes more lines.