Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 1.0
This movie stinks on hot ice.
I really wanted to like this movie, but I was largely ambivalent about the first half, and then the second half just went to the crapper (only saving part was some dignity in the last 5 minutes). Where to begin? The League of Shadows. What was the deal with that?? They bring down bloated or decaying empires, yeah, nice gimmic, geez. Why do they even seek and train Bruce Wayne, they do what they want without him anyways. And what is with Liam Nielson knowing EVERYTHING about his environment, even about soft ice patches and falling, flaming posts, does he have ESP? Then there is Bale, who is as stiff as a board. And his love interest, who has the face of a 12 yr. old, and the two have ZERO chemistry (there isn't even an intimate scene between them). Compare this to Maguire and Dunst in Spiderman, who rule together. And then there is the whole story, what a mess! Why on earth would the toxin be mixed with the drugs, then seperated, then put in the water, but then have to be vaporized by a super whizz-bang microwaverator. Idiotic.And what about that clown spraying gas in the freaky mask? First he's a lawyer, then he's a psychiatrist? And for all the background in the first half of the movie, we really learn nothing about Bruce, except that he's scared of bats. Big whoop. And everytime batman talks, it's so husky and deep one can hardly understand it, as he growls and shows his teeth like a dog. What's with that? This movie is too dark. It stealslines, scenes and ideas from the original batman shamelessly, but to less or zero effect. The second half moves jumbled and confused and there is no fun nor depth nor anything of value. When they set up a sequel in the final minutes, i could have laughed, who cares! And the freaking action sequences, one can't see sh#%! And all those bats flying in at the climax, whatever. Some suspensionof rationality is required in the comic genre, but this movie goes from serious to ridiculous back and forth that it ends up a blended mess. Oh yeah, and then Morgan Freeman is in the basement cookin' up the medicine, finding an antidote lickedy-split. Whatever. As Chaz Palmieri says in Bullets over Broadway, this movie "stinks on hot ice". Nick would havekilled someone over this production as well.