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Why? For a number of reasons: They’ve hired a face -
not a name to play the Caped Crusader, they’ve hired
someone to helm the film that’s not on the payroll of
the toy company, they’ve spent years actually writing
a script, and predominantly, come up with a screenplay that
rocked harder than a heavy metal festival hosted by Rob Zombie.
In short, with so many fine, fine, elements in place even
before the film had started rolling – the failure to
success ratio was always going to weight to the right. Like
a planned night-out to your favourite watering hole with your
friends, you just know this is going to rattle your rump.
Considering there’s now been five Batman movies,
and only a couple of those – not excluding the one we’re
discussing – have had some sizzle, it’s quite a
revelation for a Batman movie to make the grade.
First things first, forget that the first four Batman
movies ever existed. I know, it’s hard. Many people still
blame their insomnia on Schwarzenegger’s bothersome Mr
Freeze from the hour and a half toy commercial that was Batman
and Robin.
We’ve got a clean slate now – it’s out with
Prince, it’s out with the middle-aged actor wearing a
nippled-rubber suit, it’s out with a Gothic-looking backdrop,
and it’s back to pure storyline: Bob Kane style.
David Goyer’s script is the most important element here
– because it tells a story. The effects, the adventure,
the identifiable cast, and iniquitous villains work around
that. First and foremost, this is a tale of a man turned Bat.
A bewildered, troubled soul – the subject of his own
psychological thriller.
Eternally-affected by the death of his parents, Bruce Wayne
(Christian Bale) skips his home place of Gotham City for the
East where he seeks guidance from the dodgy but honourable
Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) and his mysterious accomplice,
a ninja cult leader known as Ra's Al-Ghul. Eventually returning
home, he returns to a city overrun by crime and crooks, and
a company he inherited being cunningly pulled from his tenure.
Needing an out to fuel his anger and convinced the city needs
cleaning up, Wayne invents himself a new alter-ego: Batman,
a hero in black – someone strong-enough, determined-enough
and scary-enough to strike fear into the wrongdoers of Gotham.
If you’re looking for merely a big fat cartoon, you’ve
come to the wrong movie. Writer Goyer has basically written
a solid, absorbing movie with crooks, conspiracies and psychologically
tattered characters and plonked Batman in the midst of it.
In other words, this is the most grounded, most realistic
Batman movie to date.
Gotham looks like a real city (not some purple-coloured gothic
township of the 1930s), the characters - even the villains
- are realistic and never over the top, and even the character
of the Caped Crusader is much easier to relate to – believe
it or not – than he has been in the past.
This is no more than a mixed up guy whose actually created
a suit, a persona and a set of gadgets from somewhere –
not just out of cinematic thin air, as we’ve been led
to believe in the previous films. Batman isn’t a superhero
with powers, he’s a guy, like you and me, that’s
built himself an armour, done up a car for himself and got
his hands on some cool toys. That we can swallow.
Christian Bale is the best screen Batman to date. As Bruce
Wayne, he’s hugely likeable and has the charming, slightly
cocky billionaire playboy thing down to a tee. Bale’s
Bruce Wayne is a fully rounded character with a compelling
psychological impetus and place in something resembling the
real world.
As Batman the British actor doesn’t have as much to
do but slowly utter big words through a space in his mask
– but he still looks (the muscles on the guy are huge)
and acts the part. Best of all, he’s not overshadowed
by the villains, which he has been in the previous movies.
The all-star support cast do a good job too. Michael Caine
is good as the loveable and even faintly witty Alfred the
Butler, Cillian Murphy is appreciably baleful as Jonathan
Crane/Scarecrow, the cinematic chameleon Gary Oldman plays
against type as the sympathetic all-round good guy Jim Gordon
and does a fine job, and though he seems to be channelling
his “Star Wars” character Qui-Gonn Jinn for most
of his screen-time (or maybe it’s just the fact that
he’s playing the same sort of mentor character), Liam
Neeson fills the part of the perplexing Ducard quite well
too.
In fact, the only weak point in the film is Katie Holmes,
in the fictional love interest slot. Rachel Dawes is one of
the blandest characters in the film, and it’s very hard
to swallow young Katie Holmes as a ballsy district attorney.
As for the chemistry between her and Bale? As non-existent
as nipples on the bat suit. Could have really have done without
her.
There’s not a lot of DVDs that are worth shelling out
the green for these days – prices seem to be getting
dearer by the minute – but Batman Begins, at two
and a half hours in length, is a film you definitely get your
value from. It doesn’t let up. It’s got characters
you care about, action sequences to die for, a script that
takes precedence over the smoke machine, and best of all,
it’s an adult experience. Yes, adult experience.
I truly believe kids are still going to enjoy the previous
“Batman” movies more. This one’s too dark for
them, and they’ll be getting restless waiting for the
guy in the suit to turn up. Where the caped crusader turns
up pretty much instantly in the previous films, he doesn’t
enter the picture here until fifty minutes in.
But hey, adults make up a huge sector of the Batman fan club,
so why shouldn’t they be treated to a solid, dark depiction
of the complex character? And the kids will learn to appreciate
it post-braces, graduation and puberty.
If you’ve read the script, you’ll know that the
end of the film sets up a sequel – and boy, is it going
to be a doozie – well, that’s to be determined post-screening,
but it’s promising. Looking forward to see how this new
Batman ‘Continues’…
Considering I nodded off half-way through the last “Batman”
film, it seems unimaginable to be saying this but Batman
Begins is an early contender for best film of the year
and the best Batman movie ever. Hopefully the refurbished
franchise has wings.
Compared to the recent “Batman” Special Edition
DVD’s - The Burton/Schumacher ones – Batman Begins,
the DVD, is a bit of a disappointment. Still, it looks superb
and sounds superb – and when the movie is just so darn
good anyway, you’re going to find it hard not to resist
all the same.
DVD Extras
Now for the bad news – well, it’s not entirely
bad news, but it’s definitely a bit of a blemish: the
DVD. Yeah, I know, I know, but how can a 2-disc special edition
be a blemish, you ask? Because, well, it ain’t all that.
First, to that extra disc where the special features lay
– it's ever so scattered. Whilst not quite as maddening
as navigating through the Harry Potter DVD (that’s a
frickin’ headache and a half) the comic book that you
have to delve through to find the extra features is a real
pain. Okay, so it might look good, but jeez, what if we just
want to watch the goods?
Even when you find those goods they aren’t all that
special. Firstly, So much for a revealing exhaustive documentary
about the making-of the film - it runs for about 15 mins and
tells us jack all.
As for the tease on back-cover about the bit on ‘Casting
Batman’ – what a ruse, we simply get the ol’
‘Christian Bale was always our first choice’ line.
Um, what about Murphy? Gyllenhaal? Boreanaz? And so on (imagine
how interesting a featurette dedicated to the all the jocks
that walked in the door wanting to wear the cowl would have
been?).
In addition, there’s some featurettes on the car, the
suit, the effects, the city, the characters, the poster designs,
the evolution of the character, how secretive the script was,
and a bit on how Bale pumped up.
Unfortunately, you’ll find no deleted scenes (C’mon
Nolan, we know there’s plenty!) and no commentary from
Goyer, Nolan, Bale or any of the cast or crew, which is strange.
Very strange. Maybe they’re saving that for a special,
special, special edition?
Conclusion: Movie 95% Extras: 65%
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