Monday, June 20, 2005
BATMAN BEGINS
Here's the rambling review I wrote last Thursday for Batman Begins.
Batman is still my favorite comic book superhero (sorry, HB) and it's nice to see the character done so right in live action. I really could go on and on. My biggest pet peeve with any of the live action versions of Batman was that they never got the point that Bruce Wayne is the costume and Batman is the real identity. This movie drove it home, to the point that I almost wept (I'm such a nerd). Seeing Bruce Wayne cavort with two girls in a hotel which he buys just so they can fuck around in the restaurant's fountain was a scene I've been waiting to see for a long time.
Rooting Gotham City in reality was the first step in making the characters believable. Anton Furst's designs for Gotham in the first Burton movie were beautiful and groundbreaking, but now that I think about it, Burton's Gotham City could have been built by Batman. It shared his design aesthetic. Nolan's Gotham is an amalgam of big American cities and Asian slums that looks like it could actually exist. Seeing Batman in these surroundings was the way to go.
The characters and the actors bringing them to life were note effing perfect, particularly the portrayal of the Scarecrow. Cillian Murphy was dead-on. He was truly frightening, scarier than most of the horror movies to come out of Hollywood in the last few years. And speaking of fear...that element of Batman was never really explored in any version (even the excellent cartoon series). There were scenes in this movie where Batman was genuinely scary (and I'm not just talking about that wonderful moment when he confronts Crane). R'as Al Ghul was beautifully realized and I'm glad the filmmakers even went in that direction. He's one of the more esoteric villains in Batman's rogues gallery and the fact that he was chosen as a live action nemesis (not to mention the excellent cameo by one Mr. Zsasz) was already impressive. That they played him perfectly is doubly impressive. And it goes on....Alfred: perfect. Gordon: not just a useless old man...a real cop. Lucius Fox: outstanding. I can't believe I saw a Batman movie with Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman. It's still all just a little overwhelming how much this movie doesn't suck.
There have been some complaints regarding the fight scenes. Normally I'm all for seeing fight choreography. It's usually a sign of bad filmmaking when fight scenes are shot close-up with lots of cutting (same with dance numbers....they hardly ever cut away when Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire were doing their thing). But with this movie, I think it contributed to the overall feel of Batman's M.O., confusion and fear. It made the audience (me, anyway) feel like they were right in there, having the crap beat and scared out of them by a ghost.
I thought the movie might get bogged down in all the Bruce Wayne training stuff, but it was done so well that I wanted there to be another hour of it. The build up to seeing Batman was excrutiatingly well done.
I'm having trouble picking this movie apart (which I don't do anyway...but an excellent movie almost demands it). Even the music was great and erased the memory of the camp scores of the Schumacher movies. Hell, this movie even makes Tim Burton's efforts look cartoony by comparison. I can't believe David Goyer had this in him. Bravo to Christopher Nolan for bringing it to life.
The first thing that popped into my head when I woke up this morning was "when will I be able to see Batman Begins again?"
I wish Hellboy was this good (and I liked Hellboy.)
(0) comments
Here's the rambling review I wrote last Thursday for Batman Begins.
Batman is still my favorite comic book superhero (sorry, HB) and it's nice to see the character done so right in live action. I really could go on and on. My biggest pet peeve with any of the live action versions of Batman was that they never got the point that Bruce Wayne is the costume and Batman is the real identity. This movie drove it home, to the point that I almost wept (I'm such a nerd). Seeing Bruce Wayne cavort with two girls in a hotel which he buys just so they can fuck around in the restaurant's fountain was a scene I've been waiting to see for a long time.
Rooting Gotham City in reality was the first step in making the characters believable. Anton Furst's designs for Gotham in the first Burton movie were beautiful and groundbreaking, but now that I think about it, Burton's Gotham City could have been built by Batman. It shared his design aesthetic. Nolan's Gotham is an amalgam of big American cities and Asian slums that looks like it could actually exist. Seeing Batman in these surroundings was the way to go.
The characters and the actors bringing them to life were note effing perfect, particularly the portrayal of the Scarecrow. Cillian Murphy was dead-on. He was truly frightening, scarier than most of the horror movies to come out of Hollywood in the last few years. And speaking of fear...that element of Batman was never really explored in any version (even the excellent cartoon series). There were scenes in this movie where Batman was genuinely scary (and I'm not just talking about that wonderful moment when he confronts Crane). R'as Al Ghul was beautifully realized and I'm glad the filmmakers even went in that direction. He's one of the more esoteric villains in Batman's rogues gallery and the fact that he was chosen as a live action nemesis (not to mention the excellent cameo by one Mr. Zsasz) was already impressive. That they played him perfectly is doubly impressive. And it goes on....Alfred: perfect. Gordon: not just a useless old man...a real cop. Lucius Fox: outstanding. I can't believe I saw a Batman movie with Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman. It's still all just a little overwhelming how much this movie doesn't suck.
There have been some complaints regarding the fight scenes. Normally I'm all for seeing fight choreography. It's usually a sign of bad filmmaking when fight scenes are shot close-up with lots of cutting (same with dance numbers....they hardly ever cut away when Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire were doing their thing). But with this movie, I think it contributed to the overall feel of Batman's M.O., confusion and fear. It made the audience (me, anyway) feel like they were right in there, having the crap beat and scared out of them by a ghost.
I thought the movie might get bogged down in all the Bruce Wayne training stuff, but it was done so well that I wanted there to be another hour of it. The build up to seeing Batman was excrutiatingly well done.
I'm having trouble picking this movie apart (which I don't do anyway...but an excellent movie almost demands it). Even the music was great and erased the memory of the camp scores of the Schumacher movies. Hell, this movie even makes Tim Burton's efforts look cartoony by comparison. I can't believe David Goyer had this in him. Bravo to Christopher Nolan for bringing it to life.
The first thing that popped into my head when I woke up this morning was "when will I be able to see Batman Begins again?"
I wish Hellboy was this good (and I liked Hellboy.)
(0) comments
