The Juice Bar

My muses, thoughts, ideas, and whatever

Friday, June 17, 2005

I saw the new Batman movie, Batman Begins, and loved it. I give it 4 star rating. This is the first true Batman film!

The film had a dark gritty look, yet it was real, too. The shots of Gotham were clear and striking. And I thought the scenes with the bats flying around were done quite well too. The cast is to die for, and everyone delivered quite well, even Katie Holmes, though seeing her as a tough DA was a little bit of a stretch, she was better than Kim Basinger or Nicole Kidman were in their films. Gary Oldman nicely underplays his role as Inspector Gordon, and Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are terrific as well. The best line was Morgan Freeman to Christian Bale when showing him what would become the Batmobile, "Oh, you wouldn't be interested in that." :)

The opening sequence is unusual, but I liked it quite a bit. Ninjas rock! The Iceland scenery was beautiful, too.

The Burton films were OK for their time. Burton is a great visual director, but his tone wasn't appropriate for Batman. And Michael Keaton as Batman was too detached and aloof, a hobby for a bored rich man. Burton was more interested in his villians than Batman himself. And the non-Burton Batman films were pure comic book camp and best left forgotten.

This time, Christopher Nolan gave the film more depth and an appropriate tone, a graphic novel rather than a comic book. And finally here we get to know the character of Batman himself in a way that the other films never showed. Christian Bale shows the internal angst and motiviation that goes into Batman, and as Batman he was intense, a guy who doesn't fool around.

I hope that Christopher Nolan sticks around for some more Batman films.