I am a great admirer of Christopher Nolan's movies...Memento, The Following, etc...So, when he decided to take the reigns of the next Batman Movie, I felt a sigh of relief. After the original classics by Tim Burton had almost been butchered by Joel Schumaker...any self-respecting Batman fan would agree as to what an outrage those two movies were to the image of Batman...while Tim Burton had cast the Dark Knight in his typical, dark, brooding atmosphere, Joel Schumlaker made a travesty of the entire situation, what with his ridiculous neons and post-apocalyptic visions ! .
Finally it seemed like Hollywood was getting its senses back to order...in the hands of Christopher Nolan, one can expect that Batman would regain his true self on the celluloid, as comics fans for decades have known. To say the least, the movie doesn't disappoint...in fact, in my humble opinion, this is the BEST Batman movie to date....why ? Simple...although Tim Burton's movies did a good job of capturing the darkness that lay beneath the cape and mask, as well as the criminal, desperate feel of Gotham City, they did not venture forth into the psyche of Bruce Wayne...except for the obligatory parents getting killed, mightmares. etc. In Batman Begins, Mr. Nolan seems to realize that Bruce Wayne is the character that must be really explored...Batman is nothing if not a product of Bruce Wayne's tortuous past and his darkness which flooded over onto the mask and cape...his addiction with finding out about the criminal psyche at all costs and his meeting of Ras Al Ghul( that criminal mastermind with the twisted morality and ideas of good and evil ), etc. have been captured extremely well...
The only "flaw" that I can see in this movie that didn't exist in the comics, is the excessive violence and pyrotechnics...yes, Batman is a violent vigilante, but NEVER in the comics does he resort to tearing down Gotham City in high speed chases and having total disregard for police officers and civilians...but then one must, begrudgingly, allow for aritistic liberties taken for making the cinematic version !
Of course, Christian Bale seems like the perfect foil for Mr. Nolan's direction...one must watch The Machinist" to see the amount of dedication and intensity that an actor can put into a role...the same intensity and dedication is visible throughout "Batman Begins"...
1 comment:
I disagree with the violence not being present in the comics part. One instance i can think of is Batman's battle with Bane, when he's critically injured in the "Knightfall" series. Bane had already released all the inmates of Arkham, each of whom is recaptured by Bruce with increasing difficult, until the battle with Bane, when Bane breaks Bruce's back.
Even Azrael wasn't all that mindful of the damage caused to Gotham.
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