Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 1.0
Liam Neeson's goatee...
..is the most interesting thing about this film. it (the film, not the goatee) is long, boring, unoriginal, and overserious. Early reviews would have you think that this film has something new to offer the superhero genre but it doesn't. What the film DOES do is take the FUN out of the genre.1.it's long and boring: the film takes forever to get going. It seems like about the first 45 minutes of the film is Bruce Wayne sortof 'finding himself' - which is fine, but it's just so boring. We see him in a temple in the mountains talking uber zen psycho babble mumbo jumbo with Liam Neeson for what seems an eternity. That would almost be okay if the stuff they were saying didn't come off as nonsense. I can't believe Neeson could keep a straight face talking that trash. They finally start fighting eventually, but Nolan's style detracts from the effect he is obviously trying to create: excitement. It's hard to get excited or roused by action scenes shot almost in close-up. Remember the scenes in the original Matrix where Neo fights Morpheus in the gymnasium? that was shot from wide angles and you could really get into the acrobatic nature --the ballet if you will-- of the fight scenes. Batman Begins was mostly like watching two or more people fight in a closet with invisible walls.2.unoriginal. You get all the requisite action crap as you'd expect. Car chases, car crashes, more badly shot fight scenes, grappling hooks.. well basically that's it. Absolutely nothing you haven't seen done countless times before. The Batmobile flying across rooftops.. semi cool but not nearly cool enough. Since we've seen this stuff before you'd think the director would try to make it special. he doesn't. (we get it: the Batmobile is really fast n stuff.)3. Overserious. This might be the biggest flaw. Nolan needs to realize that a film about a man whe dresses up like a bat and goes chasing after a bad guy who calls himself the Scarecrow just ISN'T MEANT TO BE TAKEN ALL THAT SERIOUSLY. That's why all the psycho babble crap comes off as so ludicrous. We don't watch this stuff for the insight it might give us into anyone's psyche.I'll reference the first (and by FAR best) Batman flick to close: that film had a few things this films wholely lacks. Style for one, and panache for another. The film had a vibe that just worked. Batman Begins doesn't work.. for me anyway.