Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 2.0
Batman Begins, The Only Problem Is You Can't See Him Do It!!
This film would have gotten three stars from me if ONLY the fight scenes were not so HORRIBILY directed. Shot at extreme close-up, one has to struggle, unsuccessfully, to follow them. I cannot believe the crappy way those scenes were shot, it ruined the whole movie for me. The clueless director should have taken a cue from Spiderman 2 or the X-Men movies. People want to be able to see the action in fight scenes. Maybe he did not want us to get to good of a look at that terribly designed bat-suit. In fleeting shots, it looks okay, but if you get a good look at it, forget it. This film probably would have done better at the box-office (it limped to 200 million, good, but look nothing compared to the spidey movies, a fact which I am sure disappointed Warners, but that it is what they get for having a director ill-equipped to direct coherent fight sequences) if these flaws had been fixed before release.Also, it looked like he tried to rip off the far superior "Blade Runner" in some of the claustraphobically obvious set scenes. (hell, he even has Rutger Hauer (Nexus Six) in a barely there supporting role!) The use of real world settings like Chicago, does NOT mesh when mixed in with these scenes, which also have some laughably chessey cgi, exspecially for a film with a supposed $ 200 million budget. Most of that budget must have wound up in someones pocket, or more likely, it was only there on paper.Bale was merely okay as Batman, to me he has an overall sinester appearance unsuitable for the role. Katie Holmes was a baby doll so she could have been awful and I would not have cared, but she was servicable in a thankless damsel in distress role. Neeson was good, but too beefy for the role of Ras. Why do they always do that? Way back in ' 89's "Batman" fat ass, bald nicholson was all wrong visually for Joker, yet he undeniably stole the show with a great performance. Neeson was unable to overcome this asthetic flaw to to make the role his own. And where was his hot daughter Talia, or his hulking henchman , Ubu ? The only cool thing was the red herring thrown at us concerning Ras's true identity. Oldman made an okay Gordon, but being able to not only drive that crappy looking batmobile with no training, but succeeding in his mission with it? Gimme a break.Now for the one thing that made this movie cool for me , Cillian Murphy's STANDOUT performance as the "Scarecrow"!! He was incredible and truly made the role his own, the one real casting gem in this seriously flawed film. But, he did not have enough screen time. Why do these idiotic movie executives feel the need to have two major villians in every "Batman" movie since the original? Again, have they learned nothing from Spiderman's incredible success? The first Batman film had a gross none of these seguels could remotely come close to, especially if you factor in adjustments for inflation. Why in the hell are they so retarded? If Scarecrow had been the only villian, the movie would have been much more solid. He should definately return as the main villian in a sequel.It was way too long. That's right , you don't even see Batman until the film is half over. The boring first hour spends WAY too much time focusing on Bruce Wayne's transformation into becoming Batman. Again, the incoherent fight scenes do NOT help matters, although for some stupid reason, Bruce's fight scenes are easier to follow, which is really dopey, 'cause people laying down their hard earned cash expected to be able to see BATMAN in action, not all this training crap. I am damn glad I did not pay money to see this in the theater. Matter of fact, I pretty much never pay to see movies anymore, because of crap like this. The simple minded exec's who greenlight this stuff try way too hard to suck in every possible demographic, (this reached a pinnacle with Batman and Robin) diluting the movies into averge pap unworthy of my hard earned cash.So, I am still waiting for a truly good Batman movie. I think that one with a different director, better shot fight scenes, a better looking batsuit, more like the one from the actual comics, complete with visible bat symbol with the yellow , a utility belt that looks like it could actually hold stuff, and a better looking cowl, along with the return of Scarecrow as the major villian. Or Joker, if he is done right. Which I doubt will ever happen.Why does hollywood hate comic book fans?