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June 15, 2005
Batman Begins
I promised Geoff I would provide him a forum to talk about Firefly and Serenity, so here is my trial entry for the 'Movies' category.
First of all, I liked Batman Begins a lot. It's right up there with the 1989 Burton original in my opinion, and an excellent summer movie. That being said, I feel like it could have been a whole lot better had they not tried to pack so much in.
I enjoyed the little bits from Year One and Dark Knight Returns and appearances by both Ra's al Ghul and Scarecrow, but taken all together it seemed hectic. Both villains are formidable enough in their own right, and might have been more interesting had they been given room to fill out a sequel of their own.
I was also particularly disappointed by how little development Gordon's character was given, having put arguably the world's greatest actor in the role. All the great, interesting stuff from Year One was omitted: Gordon's conflict at being a good cop in a hopeless situation, the marital problems that brings, the co-worker he gets a crush on, his wife's pregnancy and the kidnapping of his son, etc. Year One gave Wayne's and Gordon's characters almost equal time, paralleling their dueling arcs with lots of insight into what makes each of them tick.
I also thought the movie had to sacrifice too much of Batman's character to make the film both believable and satisfying to the audience. Bruce Wayne doesn't have a 'Q' to make all his gadgets for him: he develops them all over time, little by little after successive trial and error in the field battling criminals. His mental abilities (both in solving crimes and developing gadgets) are essentially his 'superpower'. I understand the need to have cool flashy gadgets in a short amount of time, and no one would have believed anyone could have put it all together so quickly, but in Begins all we got to see Wayne doing is some basic metal shop work, making Batarangs and spray-painting the suit someone else made for him.
The casting also threw me for a loop. Bale and Neeson were great, but for some reason when I saw Gary Oldman's name in the previews I assumed he would play Scarecrow. He might be sick of playing the villain, but he would have been perfect for the role. The actor they cast instead seemed too much of a young Superman, reminding me of the actor who plays Clark on Smallville.
Still, I'd watch it again - but I'll be sure to have my copy of Year One handy to point out all the missed opportunities to my fellow moviegoers.
Posted by Jacob at June 15, 2005 9:18 PM
Comments
The Gordon stuff didn't bother me. It's "Batman Begins," after all, not "Gordon Goes to Gotham."
And I had no qualms with the equipment backstories. I found them to be more believeable than the idea that he's got time to invent everything himself.
But I totally agree that the movie definitely tried to do too much. It should have focused on Batman bringing down the mob boss from the diner, and set up the Ra's al Ghul and Scarecrow stuff for the sequels.
All of that said, I had a blast and thought it was the 2nd best movie I've seen this year.
Posted by: Jonesy at June 23, 2005 9:27 AM