Tricks you into thinking its good

Rating: 5/10 (10 July 2005)

I find that some movies use music, 'witty' or attempted dramatic dialogue, British people, and ninjas to make you think that its a good movie before you can form your own opinion. I'm not saying that these elements (among many others of course) can't be used correctly, just that they are often used to trick the audience in the same way as special effects or 'lots of colors and noises' are (in a brainwashing kind of way).
One of the main tricks I found in this movie was the gimmicky premise to try and put batman in the so-called real world. Here we have Gotham with normal skyscrapers, supposedly normal, real people, and an attempt at explaining everything that Batman goes through. But to me, this is where the movie shot itself in the foot--the ideas of Batman don't belong in this world, and it's obvious in the attempted explanations throughout the plot. For example, Alfred says that the only way to avert suspicion about buying bat-ears for the costume is to order them in bulk. Of course, this is nonsensical, because they are still ordering tons of rubber ear shaped things which could be tracked veeeery easily (its not every day a private party orders ten thousand rubber ears).
In the beginning, I found the mystical ninja society of justice to be completely misplaced next to the otherwise realistic prison camp that appeared in the opening. I mean, they both 'looked' realistic (they had real tables, real people, etc...), but one of them had criminals being punished for crime, and the other was a league of unknown ninjas whose predecessors had sacked Rome 1500 years earlier (or whenever that happened).
I would have liked it better if the movie had stuck with Tim Burtons style by making the prison and cities look less realistic, because then the transition from normal to absurd would not have been so obvious. When its all absurd, its believable, but when it tries to be both absurd and believable, its just silly.
Additional things that bothered me a little each, and all together made the movie less fun (most of this has to do with the 'realistic twist' of the movie failing in my opinion):
-Why didn't anyone from Wayne enterprises recognize that batman was using a car designed by their company and thus realize that it was Bruce Wayne who was Batman.
-If Batman was real, his shenanigans would kill many civilians via use of the stupid tank (can you tell I didn't like the new car), which goes completely against the theme of justice.
-If people could call a hundred thousand bats with a sonar device the size of a cell phone (and from inside a building), then that would be pretty amazing--where can I find one? Oh... I can't. Just because some bats use sonar as a guide doesn't them all come to me when I make a certain noise (even if i made a sexy mating call).
-*warning: cheap shot* Why was the Gotham DA ten years old?
-MICROWAVES THAT COULD BOIL WATER AT AN ENORMOUS RADIUS WOULD BOIL THE WATER IN ALL HUMANS THAT WERE ANYWHERE NEAR IT, KILLING THEM ALL (yes, even Raz-al-gul and Batman who managed to fight next to it near the end).
-Why would someone build an armored rocket powered jumping car just to cross a river with a rope. (wouldn't it be easier to fire the rope across without the car?)
-Batman made all of his bat-stars with a grinding wheel? Wow!
-I didn't know that memory alloy was the secret to human flight (I always thought it was only good for making wrinkle free clothes or bending spoons). Why haven't inventors jumped all over this one yet. Again, why did they try to explain all of this?! It just sounds stupid to people who know a little about it.
-It's a good thing that Morgan freeman had enough time to spray-paint the tank black. Because it wouldn't have been kewl otherwise.
-All the goons were stupid in this movie! Argh! And not in a comical way like in other Batman series/cartoons/movies.
Anyway, I thought that the movies was okay when I left the theater, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was just one big gimmick with a bad plot. My rating for it has subsequently dropped. Besides my complaints though, it was somewhat entertaining. I wouldn't see it again though.
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5/10