Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 3.0
Not bad, not bad....
They FINALLY got somebody who can do a good Bruce Wayne AND Batman! (And no eyeglasses!) Christian Bale looks exactly like Bruce Wayne ought to look: blandly handsome and spiffy...the way ol' BW's been portrayed in the comics since I can remember. Keaton wasn't quite right for the role, (though he did make a passable Batman,) and, while Kilmer was closer, he STILL wasn't bang on the mark. Bale is! However, as to whether this movie is as good as the best of the Tim Burton produced films is another matter. This film is NOT better than "Batman Returns" or "Batman Forever"! Both of these movies had incredible, tour-de-force portrayals of at least one character....Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman in "Returns" and Jim Carrey's Riddler and Chris O'Donnell's Robin/Dick Grayson in "Forever". Schumacher's Gotham City was a little more dazzling, as well. This version is TOO dark, and Batman comes off as a bit of a maniac. The character "Ra's Al Ghul" is also misrepresented here as well. "Ra's" is not oriental nor did he WORK for one, but was of some sort of aquiline nosed/Arabic-English background in the comic books, working entirely for himself. And he's a relative newcomer to the BM rogues' gallery, even though this film delineates the early days of Batman's career. "Ra's Al Ghul" is also a middle-eastern name, meaning "The Demon's Head". Where's Talia, his daughter?! The rejuvenation pool? He's also supposed to be a few hundred years old, something never covered in the movie! Scarecrow is ALSO a relative newbie! What gives?!I also take issue with using Gary Oldman for Commissioner Gordon. OLDMAN DOES VILLAINS...[[NOT]] heroes or friends of heroes! Just like they should have saved Keaton for The Riddler or Catman or someone, they should have saved Oldman for The Joker, or Deadshot or somebody...someone like Tom Selleck or Sam Elliot should have played Gordon! And when are they going to get Alfred right? Since the fococta TV show, Alfred has been portrayed as tall, white haired, old as the hills and bespectacled.... he's actually supposed to be about average in height, bald with dark haired fringe, mustachioed and proper-Brit-city, with 20/20 vision! Granted, Michael Caine is a decent actor, but it's hard to buy him as Alfred!The plot for this movie seems confused, as if Nolan's still getting his sea-legs with the franchise...the first Burton movie suffered from this same problem, differently: IT looked hurriedly slapped together...this one looks like they just made a stew of every element they could think of! In fact, there were elements of the first Burton movie in it, re: the mixing of separate elements to get a viable poison eventually. None of this really seems to tie together as a coherent whole. For instance, why does Ducard become a villain, after initially TRAINING Bruce in the ways of the ninja? Why was Wayne Manor burned down? I also might add that Batman has NO bulletproof, Kevlar civvies in the comic book...never has had it! Just his utility belt, cape, cowl and leotard! Here, like in the Burton movies, he's outfitted like a S.W.A.T. team member! Makes sense, of course, but on the other points, why don't they stick to the source material?AND THAT CAR!! The new Batmobile looks like a cross between a Lamborghini Countach, a Meyers Manx dune buggy and a Humvee! Whose bright idea was this? The danged thing looks like some device from the "Half-Life" computer game, not something you'd expect a millionaire crimefighter to be driving in deepest, darkest Gotham....Get an old boattail Riviera from the 70s out of mothballs, or the one Val Kilmer drove in "Batman Forever"....All in all, it's a nice diversion, but if you could re-inject SOME of the jocular quality of the two excellent, middle Burton flicks into this new series, (and I'm sure there's going to be a sequel,) it would do the character a service.The Last Voyage Of The Cassiopeia