Product: Batman Begins (Two-Disc Deluxe Edition) (2005)
Rating: 3.0
Hollywood on a journey to what makes a good movie - as well as money
"Batman Begins" is your typical summer spectacular: the deals with McDonald's for chatchkis were made long ago; your Happy Meal will be endued with everything-Batman until the end of the season. But somebody is getting the word in Hollywood that blockbusters *aren't* sustainable at the box-office unless you have story, character and both evolved into an interesting implication massaged by effects. Well, that is exactly what "Batman Begins" is (as "Spider-Man II" was). The story is an old one: a boy marked by trauma or tragedy must become a man. That involves the ages-old myth motif of hero "journey," meeting along the way a "mentor" and learning about himself, his powers and what he must do. (Did someone say "shades of Yoda"?) This, children, is myth: it is the hero-story of long ago, remade and recast (in this case, well enough) for the mass audience. The production cast, director, writer/s, producer/s, all understand *now* (at last) that the audience wants more than effects. Back they go, they have gone and they will go, to the well of mythology. Why? Because the stories are timelessly pleasing and renewing - and they're the sure thing!As in the best of the Star Wars episodes, "Empire Strikes Back," the conflict is about youth and age, paternal and filial, right and wrong.After all, the entirety of "Batman Begins" is a run-of-the-mill, comic book summer movie. (Katey Holmes's presence is a throwback, a surrender perhaps by the production people to the target audience - lusting 14 year old boys - but her lack of acting craft really points up the cynicism - and the truth of what "BB" really is.) The saving graces are a) the serious actors, and b) the old hero-journey story line. I've said enough about the latter, but the former deserves some observation. Michael Caine is excellent as Alfred, the paternal surrogate for Bruce Wayne's murdered father; Gary Oldman is superb (and admirably understated) as a straight cop. (You'd think he'd be a villain in this.) Liam Neeson is much better in his role as an ultimate heavy than as lead in "Kinsey": he established very well, even as Darth Vader does for Luke Skywalker, the pole of evil that can lure the unformed young, particularly in the person of paternal figure.(Indeed, I think he just may have found his niche: the estimable Christopher Lee, who has really worked the sense of menacing paternalism/authority, will eventually require a successor.) But really what makes this movie a "need to see" is Christian Bale's humanizing of Bruce Wayne: that is what makes this better than a mere summer blockbuster. Bale manages to convey a very complex individual, one easily believed as struggling amidst a sea of conflicting emotions. He is someone trying to do the right thing, but not knowing what it is. But that is what the best of myth - and what life - is all about.(Compare Toby Maguire's rather shallow Peter Parker with Bale's far deeper, more profoundly troubled Wayne.) Bale makes this movie, even as a blockbuster. Watch for him in future to occupy the space just about vacated by Russell Crowe. Five stars for his performance and four for those of the others; two for Hollywood failing to give us a story about a torn guy who's witnessed his parents being killed and then trying to decide what is right and what he should do - without the need to resort to a comic book source. Maybe by next year, Hollywood will complete its own journey and grow up. Probably not.