Original Batman Quadrillogy Discussion Thread

[Joe Kalicki]

Citizen Kane isn't my favorite movie, although I believe it's at number 41 on my Flickchart currently, but it's just the standard when people talk about good movies. It's the Watchmen of movies!

(ironically the Watchmen movie is terible)

 

[E]

It's the Watchmen of movies!

Yeah. I get that it changed the industry and whatnot. It just doesn't make it any less dull.

When I watched it it was for a class in college (some kind of psychology class or something like that) and I was actually pretty excited to see it. It literally bored me to sleep. I fell asleep in class. I'd never done that and didn't ever do it again.

 

[Planet-man]

I don't get how anyone can find Citizen Kane boring. Kane's as magnetic a character as Indiana Jones or Travis Bickle to me. I don't get why it's frequently listed as the greatest movie ever made, but it's certainly a classic. I expected to be bored the first time I saw it and wasn't at all, or either of the times since. The Dark Knight is a much more flawed film, and I probably prefer Kane.

Batman Returns is goofy and sort of immature, and definitely not one of the best movies about Batman by a long shot, and certainly a crazy black leather fetish movie, and still great.

Ben Kingsley as Penguin? Meh. Phil Sey-Hoff would still be my choice. Nolan dismissing the character out of hand as too campy worries me. Mob boss Penguin is like the most realistic theme-villain Batman has.

 

[Langsta]

Ben Kingsley as Penguin? Meh. Phil Sey-Hoff would still be my choice. Nolan dismissing the character out of hand as too campy worries me. Mob boss Penguin is like the most realistic theme-villain Batman has.

Maybe Nolan is just too familiar with the Penguin from Returns. I don't think he's that big of a Batman fan, at least he wasn't before making the movies. I remember him saying that the main reason he did Begins is because he saw it as something that had never been done before on film with the character.

 

[Gothamite]

Mob boss Penguin is like the most realistic theme-villain Batman has.

The problem is that there isn't really any good characterisations of mob-boss Penguin. He's usually just relegated to background mobster status and is never given any great motivations or character arcs. Even in TNBA, he just wasn't as interesting as an illegitimate businessman as he was as the bumbling, socially clueless drama queen he was in the original animated series. Nolan probably doesn't want to use such a popular and well-known character only to relegate him to the kind of role Eric Roberts and Tom Wilkinson played.

Maybe Nolan is just too familiar with the Penguin from Returns. I don't think he's that big of a Batman fan, at least he wasn't before making the movies. I remember him saying that the main reason he did Begins is because he saw it as something that had never been done before on film with the character.

I certainly think he's not a Batman fan who has a stack of comics from his youth, signed by their writers at comic conventions his Dad drove him to in the snow for two hours, but he has enough of an interest in the characters and their development to do extensive research on other incarnations, to the point where it shows wonderfully on the screen. Tim Burton is certainly less of a Batman fan then Nolan.

 

[Planet-man]

The problem is that there isn't really any good characterisations of mob-boss Penguin. He's usually just relegated to background mobster status and is never given any great motivations or character arcs. Even in TNBA, he just wasn't as interesting as an illegitimate businessman as he was as the bumbling, socially clueless drama queen he was in the original animated series. Nolan probably doesn't want to use such a popular and well-known character only to relegate him to the kind of role Eric Roberts and Tom Wilkinson played.

I'd still rather see him as that than not have him appear at all. Other than the rampant "PENGUIN IN NAME! ONLY!"ing from caper-Penguin purists, even just PSH in a solid one-scene cameo as crime-boss-Penguin would be fun, like they did with Mr. Zsasz. And if they never got around to developing him more, so be it.