The New Dark Knight

Rating: 10/10 (27 December 2005)

I originally wrote something much longer but I had to cut a lot of it. When I first herd that a new batman movie was coming out I as over the moon. However, that quickly faded away when I discovered that it was not to be a sequel to the sequel to the sequel to the sequel or even a prequel but it was to be a remake. This initially put me off because I thought, 'How the hell can you top the original?' It's a classic; we all know this. Eventually I got that itch, I'm a movie fanatic and I just love watching movies from Finding Nemo to The Godfather, from Star Wars to Old Boy. I watch pretty much anything and everything and like anything and everything. You do sometimes just get those movies that are a cut above the rest. I can safely say that this is one of them. I can also say accurately that this is one of the best movies I've seen this year because we are at the end of it, nearly. I hate it when in March you have people saying the best movie of the year, I didn't know that 3 months was a year...
The Writing - David S. Goyer, I love the dude. I do, I thought the Blade Trilogy was awesome and the Threshold pilot he wrote was definitely a great start to a gripping series. I have not seen many of Nolan's movies but he's a fellow Londoner who's made it big stateside and co-wrote a good screenplay, so I gotta give him his proper respects.
The Cast - It's good that it had such a huge amount of talented actors from the UK. Christian Bale is just an amazing actor and anyone who says otherwise probably thinks that a lamppost could act better. Then you got veterans like Morgan Freeman who is one of the greatest black actors if not actors in general to ever grace the screen, if I do say so myself. I think Caine portrayed Alfred very well. Liam Neeson played the bad guy very well and I also liked the fact that the bad guy was just as normal as Batman himself. I didn't even recognise Gary Oldman who is an actor I love because he just plays the bad guy so well in some of his other movies. It was good seeing him be the good guy though. Tom Wilkinson played Falcone and did a very convincing accent. Katie Holmes was OK at best in her role. I just felt she didn't really sell it that much, she wasn't impacting enough. Now, I know all those actors are greatbut I really have to say bravo to Cillian Murphy  this guy is someone to watch out for. 28 Days Later was definitely his big break and I'm just amazed he pulled off an American accent so well; I almost forgot he was Irish. He is definitely a versatile talent and a great UK import. I feel that American cinema might see a lot more of him in the future.
The Batmobile - I think it's the best one so far, although the others were pretty awesome. I do honestly wish I had one, If I did, I would laugh at anyone thinking their special because they have a Porche  my damn car has a flamethrower as an exhaust pipe!
The Story - I very much enjoyed the story and I think it really showed his origin. I liked the fact that everything was done in a very real way. All the gadgets pertained to present day perhaps 5 or 6 years on and they were not something that looked like it came out of a cereal box. This story is something that could very well happen in our world. The fact that Batman is just an ordinary frail man in a suit was really brought out a lot more in this movie. I was actually waiting for some silly super villain to come along but he/she never did which fitted the feel of the movie. I like the little ode to The Joker too, maybe that's a hint he will appear in the next one.
Complaints - Although I really really enjoy watching all the Marvel and DC movie adaptations my only complaint is that well they are PGs and 12s which means they are childish and watered down. I mean to be honest I find it quite silly that not one person in these moves says the F word or anything because to me that's unrealistic. In real life people swear, a lot. If the things that happen to people in these movies were to happen to me real life I know for sure I'd be cussing my head off. In the real world you don't get criminals watching what they say because they are breaking the law; I think censorship is the least of their worries. I did not enjoy the very fast editing for the fight scenes, I could hardly see what was going on. Did anyone actually hit anyone or did they just wave their arms and legs around near each others faces?
Overall this is a brilliant movie and I think it's safe to say that a new Batman Franchise is on the horizon. With the expectation of the "Untitled Batman Begins Sequel" that should be called "Batman Continues" if you ask me, I think there will be at least 2 more movies. I'm glad to see that Goyer is on board to direct the 2008 movie and that Bale is returning for the second but --
The question is will they all star Bale as The Dark Knight or will Warner randomly switch it up like before?