Friday
Well-Known Member
And so it has begun. Wensday morning, at 12:01 am the newest Batman movie was released nationwide. To start let's get a few things straight. This is not a remake, sequel, or prequel to the progressivly worse Batman franchise of years past. There is no Joel Schumacker mucking about with neon lights or overly colorful villains. There is no Bat-visa, and there is certainly no outlandishly designed Batmobile with floppy fins. This movie, much like the dearly departed animated series of the 90s, is what Batman should be, both in comics and in film.
The movie opens with Wayne in an Asian prison, fighting inmates for his meager food until he's thrown into solitary for striking back against them all. From there we see a series of flashback, obviously filtered through the eyes of a child. Wayne's father is a perfect person, his mother a kind, caring woman. Even his fears are magnified beyond what a person would experience, but fit perfectly with a child's larger than life view of the world. Through his eyes we see the death of his parents, and the building of the lost soul he's become by the time the League of Shadows finds him fighting for scraps in hell. The movie shows his training, the building of the man who would become Batman, and his finding of a purpose instead of the near aimless wondering he's done till now.
Once the film moves to Gotham City it gets into the meat of the plot. Bruce Wayne, steadily moving towards becoming Batman, starts by arming himself out of the Wayne Tech laboratories, with a series of not-improbable, and fairly utilitarian devices such as grappling guns, high quality body armor, and lightweight fabric that snaps into a makeshift hang glider at the jolt of a current. The Batmobile is particularly impressive, dropping all of the silliness of the vehicle designs over the years and making it a streamlined, military ATV with impressive capabilities. And boy does the bass thud in your chest when he goes to full throttle. The designs and trials Bruce and Alfred had to go through to get parts for the Batsuit itself were particularly amusing.
The final act revolves around Batman foiling the plot of Ras Al Ghul and his lackey, The Scarecrow. Ras himself was excellently portrayed in the film. For the uninitiated to the comics Ras Al Ghul is the head of a worldwide criminal empire called The Demon. His plan with it is nothing so simple as world domination, but world reclamation. He wants to bring the human population under control, and is willing to do almost anything to achieve this goal. In the film Ras is similar, but instead of attempting massive genocide he is more like a surgeon. He removes the most decadent bits from civilizations, and has set his sights on Gotham City.
The cast and crew for this film are perfect. I literally could not have come up with a better team to handle Batman. From Christian Bales always outstanding performance, to the underutilized Ken Watanabe the cast does a stellar job of bringing these abstract characters to life. The screenwriting and directing duo of David Goyer, a longtime comic writer and scribe of the Blade trilogy, and Christopher Nolan, director of such mind bending thrillers as Insomnia and Memento, show a true love for the characters, each one getting his time in the spotlight. No one got shortchanged. And damn if Gary Oldman didn't make the perfect Jim Gordon.
In conclusion, this is an excellent adaptation of Batman to the silver screen, for one reason: it keeps Bruce Wayne as the main character, instead of just being a cover for Batman to assume when he needs to. If you enjoy strong, character driven thrillers then go see Batman Begins this summer.
9/10 :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:
The movie opens with Wayne in an Asian prison, fighting inmates for his meager food until he's thrown into solitary for striking back against them all. From there we see a series of flashback, obviously filtered through the eyes of a child. Wayne's father is a perfect person, his mother a kind, caring woman. Even his fears are magnified beyond what a person would experience, but fit perfectly with a child's larger than life view of the world. Through his eyes we see the death of his parents, and the building of the lost soul he's become by the time the League of Shadows finds him fighting for scraps in hell. The movie shows his training, the building of the man who would become Batman, and his finding of a purpose instead of the near aimless wondering he's done till now.
Once the film moves to Gotham City it gets into the meat of the plot. Bruce Wayne, steadily moving towards becoming Batman, starts by arming himself out of the Wayne Tech laboratories, with a series of not-improbable, and fairly utilitarian devices such as grappling guns, high quality body armor, and lightweight fabric that snaps into a makeshift hang glider at the jolt of a current. The Batmobile is particularly impressive, dropping all of the silliness of the vehicle designs over the years and making it a streamlined, military ATV with impressive capabilities. And boy does the bass thud in your chest when he goes to full throttle. The designs and trials Bruce and Alfred had to go through to get parts for the Batsuit itself were particularly amusing.
The final act revolves around Batman foiling the plot of Ras Al Ghul and his lackey, The Scarecrow. Ras himself was excellently portrayed in the film. For the uninitiated to the comics Ras Al Ghul is the head of a worldwide criminal empire called The Demon. His plan with it is nothing so simple as world domination, but world reclamation. He wants to bring the human population under control, and is willing to do almost anything to achieve this goal. In the film Ras is similar, but instead of attempting massive genocide he is more like a surgeon. He removes the most decadent bits from civilizations, and has set his sights on Gotham City.
The cast and crew for this film are perfect. I literally could not have come up with a better team to handle Batman. From Christian Bales always outstanding performance, to the underutilized Ken Watanabe the cast does a stellar job of bringing these abstract characters to life. The screenwriting and directing duo of David Goyer, a longtime comic writer and scribe of the Blade trilogy, and Christopher Nolan, director of such mind bending thrillers as Insomnia and Memento, show a true love for the characters, each one getting his time in the spotlight. No one got shortchanged. And damn if Gary Oldman didn't make the perfect Jim Gordon.
In conclusion, this is an excellent adaptation of Batman to the silver screen, for one reason: it keeps Bruce Wayne as the main character, instead of just being a cover for Batman to assume when he needs to. If you enjoy strong, character driven thrillers then go see Batman Begins this summer.
9/10 :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:
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