Batman Begins
Okay, holy crap!!!! What a great movie. It was everything I had hoped for. The acting, writing, and storyline were all solid. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. I mean, really. Leave your house now and go see this movie. It is the best movie so far this year. There are more to come that could possibly top it, but I don’t see it happening. I am giving it a 9 out of 10.
Now, for those of you who want to know more about the movie, I give you my in depth review.
Christopher Nolan who directed Insomnia and Memento has a way of giving layers to movies that make you really want to know more about the characters on screen. He also has a way of shooting movies that keeps the mysterious edge that seems to allude most of today’s directors. I normally don’t comment on directors very much, because they seem to all run together. But this guy really seems to know what he is doing. He is a true director who is very young at only 35 and has been directing for merely 8 years. He really has a future and by doing this movie the way he has, his next 10 are probably laid out before him as the Batman franchise will have many more chapters to tell.
The movie starts out with a background story of the young Bruce Wayne and how he became Batman. As I am sure everyone knows, his parents were killed by a random guy in an alley and Bruce always felt gulity and wanted revenge. Not just for his parents, but for all of those who have endured similar experiences. He wants to get away from all that reminds him of his parents and past and ends up with Ducard (Liam Neeson) as his trainer. He pushes him to physical limits and then pushes past those to make him as strong physically and mentally as possible. He returns to Gotham ready to change what has been on his conscience for all of these years and becomes Batman. He also meets back with a former interest in Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes). He then must face the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) who is also a doctor of psychiatry in Arkham Asylum. There is also a nice little twist at the end that makes it a lot of fun, but I won’t spoil that for you.
So the movie. I can not imagine anyone more perfect than Christian Bale to play Batman. He really has made himself into a superstar with this movie. I have enjoyed quite a few of his other movies, but they weren’t really the cash cows that this one is. And he has never had the marketing budget to get pushed into stardom that this one will afford him. He plays the dual life of Bruce Wayne/Batman so well that the other batmen(notice the small b) couldn’t have imagined to play it like this. He really is the perfect Batman. The guy went from under 125 lbs for The Machinist to almost a hundred pounds heavier for Batman. He really is a method actor as he completely makes his body into his canvas for his work. I’m not saying that it is healthy, but it really is amazing to see that type of committment from some actors. It seems that it is the greatest actors who do this kind of thing to their bodies as a complete transformation for the craft. He really was one of the biggest guys I have seen in a movie that looked realistic. There is a scene where he is sitting up in a bed and he leans on his arm and speaks and there is a shot of his bicep that is just ridiculous. I mean it was probably as big as my thigh. I was completely blown away by how huge he was. Plus he puts a serious amount of emotion into the Batman character. You really believe that he wants the bad guys to pay and the way he feels he is doing it is the best way. Like I said, he plays both roles amazingly. You could completely believe that he was a rich playboy, and a monster out taking people down when he needed to.
There are so many other big names and amazing actors in this movie that I don’t know where to go next. I guess I will start with the weakest, Katie Holmes. They really could have gotten so many other actresses to do the same part and do a much better job than she did. There just wasn’t an emotion that was needed from the actress for the part. She just seemed like she was pushed into the role. I am not saying that she did a bad job, but she didn’t do a great one either. If there is a weakness in this movie, she is it. She just didn’t make a believable character out of her part. She could have done a lot better or a lot worse. I just wasn’t very impressed. I told Glenn after we left the movie that she is attractive, but not gorgeous. He said it was just the smile. I think I have to agree. She has this little girl smile that goes a long way, but in this movie it doesn’t fit. She is supposed to be an assistant D.A. and she would have to be a lot harder and less girlish to be in that line of work in a city like Gotham. That naivete would not be present if she was that far down the line. Again, I am not saying that she did a bad job, but the casting and acting could have been better. Her part was great. They did some really fine writing of her character and I believe that it is integral to more movies as to his social life that she be introduced to the audience.
Liam Neeson. I can’t believe this guy hasn’t done more action movies. He did a killer job. I am just enamored by his acting skills. I saw him in Kingdom of Heaven earlier this week and again, he did a great job in the action role. I was completely blown away by him. And this movie just backed it up. There is a scene where Bruce Wayne has climbed a mountain to find him and Neeson just kicks the crud out of him, and it makes for a great scene. Why he ever chooses to be in anything but action flicks is completely beyond me. He really could pull the Sean Connery bit and be an amazing older gentleman actor who could take on several faces in a single role.
Morgan Freeman. They show him in the trailers for about 2 seconds and that is it. So I assumed that he was going to have a bit part and really was only in it to be another name on the billing. But instead he is a great addition as Lucious Fox. As I have said before, Morgan Freeman is an amazing actor and kills in any role that he decides to take on. He can really play any role to a T. And he shows evidence of this once again in his role in Batman Begins.
Micheal Caine does an amazing job as Alfred. I really can’t imagine anyone else as Alfred either. He shows a compassion that Micheal Gough never brought to the role. There really seemed to be a genuine concern for the young Bruce Wayne. It seemed like he truly was a part of the family that had become his through service. It always seemed like Gough was simply a servant and friend, but was always left out when it came to the personal side of Bruce Wayne. That is not the case with Caine in the role. You truly feel like he has been doing things for no money at all, but for the love of the family he is a part of. A few exchanges between Bale and Caine seem like they have known each other for years and were very comfortable together. Even though they had never met until they were on this set. I guess that is another sign of good actors.
I have left Gary Oldman for last. The reason being that I don’t know much about him. He is Jim Gordon, who eventually becomes Commissioner Gordon. He is pretty much the one cop who stays true to justice instead of the crookedness of the rest of the community. Oldman blew me away. I truthfully didn’t realize who he was until I checked out what movies he had been in. I found out that he was the crazy southern talking guy from The Fifth Element. He was Sirius Black in the most recent and upcoming Harry Potter movies. Also, he was Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK. He seems to take the crazy and eccentric roles, but went against that with this film playing a down to earth, calm character. He does still have a little bit of a shiftiness like I heard Doug Nagy say on The Movie Blog. But it works for him. It actually works extremely well for his character as he is really having to sort many things out for himself instead of having to rely on the others of the police force to do it. He is having to think of the best for the people, instead of taking it to those who are higher up than him. I always find it funny that there are so many actors that wear masks so well that you don’t even realize it is the same person from movie to movie. This is one of those actors.
I do have a couple of quirks that stuck out to me during the movie. Apparently it was a cold set for the last half of the movie. Because Katie Holmes was cold the entire last half of the film. I am a guy, and even if I wasn’t, I don’t see how anyone could miss this. It was killing me. I just kept thinking "Get the girl a sweater". Makes me kind of wonder if they did that on purpose too. Also, there is a chase scene that is really cool with the new and improved Batmobile where he beats the cops to an abandoned road and they apparently lose him as he gets to the Batcave. Why these cops couldn’t figure out where he went, I don’t know. This movie is amazing at filling in holes in the storyline. Everytime there was a question as to how something was going to be relevant or structurally sound, there was an answer that followed very quickly. Not in a bad way, but in a well written way. But why these cops couldn’t figure out where the Batmobile went, I’ll never know.
Overall though. It was an amazing movie. I was completely blown away. I really thought this was the best movie of the year thus far. It was a great bit better than Star Wars III, and head and shoulders above any other movie prior this year. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it. If you have, then I am sure that you agree. Go see this one now. I give Batman Begins a 9 out of 10.