its batman...a batman we have all seen

Rating: 3/10 (19 June 2005)

I can only mildly recommend this movie out of the strength of the cast, The plot and dialog of this movie is horrible and not the enduring caped crusader i grew up loving in DC comics. The cast is a dream cast except for Bale (whos work i love and thought he did OK as batman)
although I feel is too young and looks more like Robin than stoic batman). But enough of that lets get down to it and my main complaint..this has the same plot as 1989's Batman with Keaton..What am I saying ?!?!...let me explain..
PLOT OF 1989 BATMAN: The Joker Kills Bruce Waynes parents and wants to destroy gotham city by POISIONING and robbing them ( a poison which drives everyone insane which he released in float balloon leaving them with joker smiles, DEAD, remember that movie?).
PLOT OF BATMAN BEGINS: Ras Al Gul, leader of the League of Shadows a vigilante group of Ninjas wants to destroy a corrupt Gotham city with..you guessed it A MICROWAVE INDUCING RAY GUN THAT POISIONS GOTHAM CITY DRIVING THEM INSANE..THEN DEAD)..
You got it bat heads, this is the same movie, different villains. This is why i am so disappointed in the bad taste of reviewers and fans. This is not the Batman of my youth, this Bruce Wayne is written like an obnoxious snob (Bruce Wayne would have never have done what he did when he bought the hotel, a funny scene but completely out of character and unbelievable for a rich person yet alone a Wayne), hes a doormat to his childhood sweetheart whom he acts like he tolerates and is not a love interest. Another scene has Wayne acting like an a** to save guests which probably politically would have cost him everything in real life and ignoring Alfreds remarks of be the person your father wanted you to be (again acting like a prissy snob, although slightly unintentionally), in every scene of Wayne we see him acting unbecoming whether its rude "funny" quips like these or remarks to Luscious Fox of "gee, do you speak English" when Fox talks about poison antidote ingredients (hardly the detective genius batman i grew up loving). This wayne is ruined by horrible dialogue that is unbecoming of a person, if I had kids I would disown them if they acted the way Wayne/batman did in this movie.If you wish to know how a hero should ask when writing a plot for a hero in a film or book then just ask yourself, If you were sitting giving advice to your child when they asked (the characters are fictional but as example:) "dad/mom if i ever have to fight Ras Al Gul on a train should i leave him or kill him...OR SHOULD I ARREST HIM AND SEND HIM TO ARKHAM ASYLUM THE WAY A REAL BATMAN AND HERO WOULD DO.)
, what would you tell them to do? For those who like the dark batman i have this to say,a superhero is a hero not because of their powers, but because of the values that they instill and endure in spite of their powers.You want to make a movie about a vigilante running around in a cape fine..don't do this to batman, its beneath him.That is the essence of the batman comics.
Superman is a hero because he protects people, has values about human life and protecting people being an adopted earthling saving people and criminals alike, arrests them and doesn't vaporize them with heat vision.Spiderman is a hero because he has kids bullying him, has great powers, but doesn't beat them to a bloody pulp for doing so or flip out and go on a rampage because he's teased. Batman is a hero in the comics because he suffered greatly at the loss of his parents to crime and still does the right thing, he arrests villains and is always a POLICEMAN, a lonely detective, he is not a vigilante. These hero's know the difference between right and wrong, the difference between the good fight, fighting what you hate and not becoming what you are fighting. This is not the fatherly, stoic, broad shouldered police detective i grew up loving as a child but a sad shame.This batman the cops fear yet in every Batman comic i grew up reading he was the police mascot..they even gave him a signal..he never acted like a vigilante (and yet i think the graphic novels completely got him wrong, have the joker committing acts of violence but Batman, other than a good beating..no)To me the writer completely missed what a hero is about and what batman comics were about, as did reviewers of this movie and franchise. A sad sign of the times when preachy inhuman values are being taught by filmmakers, even more so watching movies like this and wondering why i have to sit through movies like Terminator 3 and Episode III(both given rave reviews which I disagreed), this film and its undue praise are why.I don't mind a dark batman, I don't even mind a violent Batman film but remember a superhero is a hero because of how they act, not because of their superpowers. I can only mildly recommend this film out the strength of its cast, watch the original for a much better (and darker) Batman with Keaton and Nicholson.