Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 4.0
A new interpretation
Your overall opinion of this movie is entirely dependent on your personal relationship with the Batman franchise. Let me explain: I saw this movie with my fiancé. He grew up reading the Batman comic books. I have never opened a Batman comic in my life. My impressions of Batman were solely based on watching reruns of the old Adam West TV series and then seeing the first four Batman films. Therefore, it's not surprising at all that my fiancé enjoyed this movie a lot more than I did. I can appreciate the film for what it was trying to do, but it just didn't win me over completely."Batman Begins" basically throws out everything that happens in the first four Batman films and starts from scratch. We get to see Bruce Wayne as a child and as a young man. The film does a great job of exploring Bruce's character, which I thought was fabulous. According to my fiancé, there are also a lot of incidents and characters in this movie that are taken from the original comic books which have never been utilized in the movie franchise before, such as Morgan Freeman's character. That was pretty cool.Here are some things I liked and disliked about the film:+ Christian Bale did a great job as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Some people have complained that his Batman voice and characterization are too similar to his Bruce Wayne persona. I think that's the effect they were going for, though, and I had no problem with it. (Bale looks like a young Dylan McDermott, though...it's creepy. I was like, "Why is that guy from 'The Practice' wearing the Bat Suit?!'")+ I love the fact that the Bat Cave was an ACTUAL CAVE that Bruce fell into as a child. The whole concept of him having to overcome his fear of bats was brilliant. (And those bats were SPOOKY! Great special effects!)+ When the first publicity photos of the Batmobile were released about a year ago, I was disgusted by them...why were they making it look like a Monster Truck? I sorely misjudged the new vehicle, though...it was AWESOME! I love the scene where the police radio a description of the car: "It's a black...tank."+ Michael Caine did a great job as Alfred. No one will ever take Michael Gough's place in my heart, but Caine made the character his own and brought a lot of classy humor to the role. ("All those pushups every day and you can't even lift a bloody log!")+ Liam Neeson. He's fabulous in everything he does, and this film was no exception. He did a great job in all those fight scenes!- Katie Holmes...she was SO AWFUL! I laughed out loud during the scene where her character slapped Bruce Wayne twice in the car...she looked like she was swatting at flies! It was SO PAINFUL to watch!- The Scarecrow character really freaked me out. My fiancé tells me that he was exactly how the comic books depicted him, so I guess that's a good thing, but I miss classic villains like Catwoman and the Joker.- I really didn't enjoy the first 40 minutes of the movie, and the idea that Bruce Wayne was trained by a pack of Ninjas in the mountains still does not sit well with me. I understand the need to explain how Bruce was trained, but the whole Ninja concept was just a tad overboard, in my opinion.The bottom line with this film is that it's really good for what it is, but people who were expecting this to be like the Michael Keaton movies are going to be slightly disappointed. I think that the most important thing is that the Batman franchise has been reinvigorated. Hopefully there will be more movies in the future...and with any luck, Katie Holmes won't be in any of them! (Who will they get to play the Joker, though? I just can't picture anyone but Jack Nicholson in that role.)