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The Official Batman Begins Thread.
- Thread starter loib
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
devilot76 said:
Nice! Sounds like you were quite the mischievous little handful when you were younger - I approve! Yes, I had quite the "casualties" when I staged my GI Joe wars as well. As for whatever reason, I always liked making the situations stupidly unfair for the Joes, giving Cobra all the advantages... I'm sure that says something about my personality, but meh, whatever...
cr2sh said:
Alright then, fair enough!
I just thought that if you could back up your swear-filled reactions with a little more substance, it might bring some more credibility to your viewpoint, and I was curious to hear your arguments. But of course, if you didn;t like the movie, you probably don't want to go on and on in detail about something you did';t like. And as I said, not everyone likes everything that everyone else does, so that's totally fine - it's what keeps things interesting after all! Definitely wasn't trying to be judgmental, so I hope I didn't give you that impression. cr2sh said:
Heh heh - touche'. Nothing wrong with being in the minority.
CubaTBird said:FREAKIN' AWESOME... wow this is like batman done right... and at the end with the joker reference... wow.. its great... so i guess now if they make a new one they gotta continue after the one with arnold as mr freeze eh? hopefully if they do they pull it off good...
Glad you liked it CubaTBird, thanks for sharing! Although I can't say I was a big fan of Arnold, so he wouldn't get my vote if Mr. Freeze makes an appearance. But hey, to each his own, right? (And perhaps it was just because I didn't enjoy that movie as a whole that I didn't like his role, who knows...)
CubaTBird said:
Relatively, I liked Forever better than Batman & Robin, but I still thought both movies were lacking, and too campy, at least when compared to Burton's 1989 movie. I also liked Keaton better than Kilmer (I found Kilmer too stone-faced and bereft of emotion), but again, personal preference. Tommy's performance was good, yes, but I just disliked the movie as a whole - I loved Burton's dark Batman, and Nolan + Co. have done a great job in bringing back this great vision of The Dark Knight.
CubaTBird said:
Nope. Batman Begins "restarts" the Batman franchise. I.E. It's as if the other four movies never existed. They can do whatever they want, even if it goes against something that happened in the other four. For example, the person responsible for the death of Bruce's parents...
Comparing BB to B & BR, next villains & crime drama directors
How can anyone compare Batman Begins to Batman and Batman Returns? Begins makes those two films look campy. Tim Burton brought a lot of creativity to the character but his style was not suited to it. He would be better with something like Sandman or Swamp Thing.
Has anyone seen Catwoman? No-one compared Batman Begins to that. Maybe Hale Berry should have a part in the bat-sequel. Catwoman, Joker and Two-Face are the characters I want to see in the next one. The conversation about escalation that Gordon had with Batman at the end of this movie suggested more villains. Scarecrow also got away in this one; his final shot got a lot of laughs in the cinema when I saw it. "Tell them that joke you know" did too.
I compare Batman Begins to the X-Men movies. They were both made by young directors who made their names in good crime dramas.
How can anyone compare Batman Begins to Batman and Batman Returns? Begins makes those two films look campy. Tim Burton brought a lot of creativity to the character but his style was not suited to it. He would be better with something like Sandman or Swamp Thing.
Has anyone seen Catwoman? No-one compared Batman Begins to that. Maybe Hale Berry should have a part in the bat-sequel. Catwoman, Joker and Two-Face are the characters I want to see in the next one. The conversation about escalation that Gordon had with Batman at the end of this movie suggested more villains. Scarecrow also got away in this one; his final shot got a lot of laughs in the cinema when I saw it. "Tell them that joke you know" did too.
I compare Batman Begins to the X-Men movies. They were both made by young directors who made their names in good crime dramas.
Big DC/Batman fan here.
Just to be short and sweet.
Saw it.
Loved it.
Can't wait to see it again!
Just to be short and sweet.
Saw it.
Loved it.
Can't wait to see it again!
Sol said:
I think that's cuz most people are trying to forget that Halle Berry's Catwoman even exists...
Saw it Saturday Night
Saw the movie on Saturday night with my two brothers. We had all traveled down to the St. Augustine area for a big family get-together and were anxious to see the movie.
I liked pretty much everything about the movie except for Gary Oldman's performance as Lt. Gordon, and that's probably because I have such high expectations for him as an actor that anything less than "perfect" is going to be a disappointment.
I know that Christian Bale has been around for a while, but I honestly had heard of him before this; I thought he did a great job with the part. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, of course, turned in great performances. Had never heard of Cillian Murphy before this either, but I thought he was great as the Scarecrow. I suppose Liam Neeson and Katie Holmes did fine, but it's one of those cases where you could have dropped in a different actor and I wouldn't have noticed the difference; very bland performances IMO.
As a long-time Batman fan, I'm really pleased with this "restart" to the series and am looking forward to the next installment.
Saw the movie on Saturday night with my two brothers. We had all traveled down to the St. Augustine area for a big family get-together and were anxious to see the movie.
I liked pretty much everything about the movie except for Gary Oldman's performance as Lt. Gordon, and that's probably because I have such high expectations for him as an actor that anything less than "perfect" is going to be a disappointment.
I know that Christian Bale has been around for a while, but I honestly had heard of him before this; I thought he did a great job with the part. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, of course, turned in great performances. Had never heard of Cillian Murphy before this either, but I thought he was great as the Scarecrow. I suppose Liam Neeson and Katie Holmes did fine, but it's one of those cases where you could have dropped in a different actor and I wouldn't have noticed the difference; very bland performances IMO.
As a long-time Batman fan, I'm really pleased with this "restart" to the series and am looking forward to the next installment.
Well I needed to chime in and say that this was a great movie
I'm a casual comic reader at best but I saw the Batman movies as a kid with my parents, and really loved the first one. The music, opening image, dark stylistic city, all making an impression on a little kid. But I don't live and breathe Batman and I actually knew very little about this movie. I also thought the 10 second TV spot trailers I had seen were corny.
But this movie was very impressive in motion
What made it more special were seeing my parents, who are first generation immigrants, watching it on Father's day with me, and having my father, who had been squirming in his seat due to recent injury, turn toward me as we see the actual title of the movie for the first time at the end of the movie and say "That was a really good movie!" And my dad's favorite movies were seeing imports of Clint Eastwood westerns in his home country as a kid! Both of my parents didn't want to leave. They had seen the first two Batman movies with me when I was a kid, but they were really floored with this one.
Great cast too! My parents were like "wow I recognize all of these great actors" and they appreciated how the movie explored the main character's psyche and raison d'etre CLEARLY while not being pedantic or heavyhanded, and I couldn't stress this more than enough. Funny thing was, I kept waiting for Oldman to blow up with contortions of facial tics and coprolalia--it's so hard seeing him play so straight while providing "earnest" comic relief
And the score: So commensurately understated, Zimmer is my new favorite composer...
Yeah I too had problems "seeing" the fight scenes--so close up, fast edits, black vs black on black backgrounds, but it was a stylistic choice. It seemed the choice of style was for claustrophobia/blending with shadows/ambushes with tension culminating with fisticuff action that symbolized more a specter of human drive and fury than poetry in motion.
But I find it humorous in hindsight how explosions are treated with much more reverence/or disreverence! Think about it--things took a REALLY long time to blow up in this movie!
I'm a casual comic reader at best but I saw the Batman movies as a kid with my parents, and really loved the first one. The music, opening image, dark stylistic city, all making an impression on a little kid. But I don't live and breathe Batman and I actually knew very little about this movie. I also thought the 10 second TV spot trailers I had seen were corny.
But this movie was very impressive in motion
What made it more special were seeing my parents, who are first generation immigrants, watching it on Father's day with me, and having my father, who had been squirming in his seat due to recent injury, turn toward me as we see the actual title of the movie for the first time at the end of the movie and say "That was a really good movie!" And my dad's favorite movies were seeing imports of Clint Eastwood westerns in his home country as a kid! Both of my parents didn't want to leave. They had seen the first two Batman movies with me when I was a kid, but they were really floored with this one.
Great cast too! My parents were like "wow I recognize all of these great actors" and they appreciated how the movie explored the main character's psyche and raison d'etre CLEARLY while not being pedantic or heavyhanded, and I couldn't stress this more than enough. Funny thing was, I kept waiting for Oldman to blow up with contortions of facial tics and coprolalia--it's so hard seeing him play so straight while providing "earnest" comic relief
And the score: So commensurately understated, Zimmer is my new favorite composer...
Yeah I too had problems "seeing" the fight scenes--so close up, fast edits, black vs black on black backgrounds, but it was a stylistic choice. It seemed the choice of style was for claustrophobia/blending with shadows/ambushes with tension culminating with fisticuff action that symbolized more a specter of human drive and fury than poetry in motion.
But I find it humorous in hindsight how explosions are treated with much more reverence/or disreverence! Think about it--things took a REALLY long time to blow up in this movie!
Who DID kill Wayne's parents in the comicbook? The Joker, I thought?
oh, and yes..the movie rocked.
oh, and yes..the movie rocked.
Nope, it turns out that Joe Chill ALWAYS killed the Waynes... this was established in the comic book waaaay back in the 1940s (in issue #47, something like that). Burton changed it for the Batman movie to give Bruce/Batman more of a reason to want to kill the Joker.Jschultz said:
Well I guess count me in the minority that didn't like this movie.
I too thought the action scenes were WAY too closely shot. IMHO, it's a copout. It's a way of shooting action scenes easily...like a cheap magician. "Watch this action scene...we made the action so close to the camera that you can't even tell what's going on and it looks really fast!!"
I'm all for having to use my imagination, but not when it comes to fight scenes. Having to use your imagination during a fight scene is like having to do Geometry to study history. While a lot of people enjoy Geometry, there's a time and place for everything. Action and fight scenes should not *for the most part* be left up to one's imagination. For that matter, why shoot the action scenes at all if you're not going to show the freaking action?? Why not just tell us who fought who, and who won, and let us IMAGINE what the fight scene might have been like.
Also, while I dug the training and "becoming batman" parts, I felt like the whole thing of one's "inner fear/demon, etc" was way too played out. That's only interesting for so long.
I also thought the villans were completely uninteresting. I liked Scarecrow, but they needed to feature him MORE. One thing I liked about past Batmans is that there was a central badguy...not so in this one. He's struggling with his inner demons mostly, and the mob, and a little with Scarecrow. oooooooh...the mob! what a fantastic villian, and how fresh!
*yawn*
I started literally dozing off somewhere near the end. I just found it to be completely uninteresting once he comes back to Gotham after being gone for so long.
Although Morgan Freeman, the batcave, and the car were enjoyable sequences.
Katie holmes bored me to tears as well.
I too thought the action scenes were WAY too closely shot. IMHO, it's a copout. It's a way of shooting action scenes easily...like a cheap magician. "Watch this action scene...we made the action so close to the camera that you can't even tell what's going on and it looks really fast!!"
I'm all for having to use my imagination, but not when it comes to fight scenes. Having to use your imagination during a fight scene is like having to do Geometry to study history. While a lot of people enjoy Geometry, there's a time and place for everything. Action and fight scenes should not *for the most part* be left up to one's imagination. For that matter, why shoot the action scenes at all if you're not going to show the freaking action?? Why not just tell us who fought who, and who won, and let us IMAGINE what the fight scene might have been like.
Also, while I dug the training and "becoming batman" parts, I felt like the whole thing of one's "inner fear/demon, etc" was way too played out. That's only interesting for so long.
I also thought the villans were completely uninteresting. I liked Scarecrow, but they needed to feature him MORE. One thing I liked about past Batmans is that there was a central badguy...not so in this one. He's struggling with his inner demons mostly, and the mob, and a little with Scarecrow. oooooooh...the mob! what a fantastic villian, and how fresh!
*yawn*
I started literally dozing off somewhere near the end. I just found it to be completely uninteresting once he comes back to Gotham after being gone for so long.
Although Morgan Freeman, the batcave, and the car were enjoyable sequences.
Katie holmes bored me to tears as well.
Just saw it today. It was a good movie. Not great.
Worth a night out with friends for a good time.
Worth a night out with friends for a good time.
Finally got round to watching this a few hours ago and I have to say that I was blown away.
I must've watched Burtons Batman 100 times over the years and I've loved it each and every time. Having said that I think what I saw tonight (and dont shoot me) was better.
I cant put my finger on it though I've had a few hours now but the story, the cast, the sets and attention to detail. The whole picture was just perfect.
Dare I say that even Katie Holmes (who I understand has been universally slated) was pretty damn good in it!
It's showing on an imax screen in London for the next couple of weeks so I'm gonna take a trip down there and watch it again. Might eve take in the Regent St store while I'm in the area.
Blown away. Absolutely gobsmacked and so bloody happy that they didn't blow it.
The UK dvd release is scheduled for Oct 24 with each preceeding Batman dvd being released as a special edition earlier in that month.
Did I mention that I loved it?
I must've watched Burtons Batman 100 times over the years and I've loved it each and every time. Having said that I think what I saw tonight (and dont shoot me) was better.
I cant put my finger on it though I've had a few hours now but the story, the cast, the sets and attention to detail. The whole picture was just perfect.
Dare I say that even Katie Holmes (who I understand has been universally slated) was pretty damn good in it!
It's showing on an imax screen in London for the next couple of weeks so I'm gonna take a trip down there and watch it again. Might eve take in the Regent St store while I'm in the area.
Blown away. Absolutely gobsmacked and so bloody happy that they didn't blow it.
The UK dvd release is scheduled for Oct 24 with each preceeding Batman dvd being released as a special edition earlier in that month.
Did I mention that I loved it?
devilot76 said:I agree... but isn't the second one already being made?!
Another Catwoman? Please tell me you're joking! If it's true, it's good to see that Halle Berry is putting her Oscar to good use.
I love that they dropped her from the sequel... not only because she really wasn't that good in this movie, but also because of the backlash it represents against all the crap that's been going on lately.xli_ne said:
dejo said:Another Catwoman? Please tell me you're joking! If it's true, it's good to see that Halle Berry is putting her Oscar to good use.
I really hope there isn't a Catwoman sequel. I don't know how they could justify one though due to the poor reviews and ther lack of box office returns. To me that makes it a no-brainer...
xli_ne said:
Wow, that's pretty blunt of them - signing up everyone EXCEPT Holmes, and then essentially stating why they're not signing her - I approve!
She won't be missed though - her performance was nothing special.
Kate Holmes
She was not bad in the film. I thought that her character added a new dimension to the Bruce Wayne story and best of all, she took down Scarecrow at the end. There is no need for her in the sequels but if she came back it would not be a bad thing.
Alan Cumming, who is mentioned on the bottom of that IMDB page would be a great actor for the sequel. He did a good job as Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 and I can see him playing the Joker from The Killing Joke, the best Joker story written so far.
~Shard~ said:
She was not bad in the film. I thought that her character added a new dimension to the Bruce Wayne story and best of all, she took down Scarecrow at the end. There is no need for her in the sequels but if she came back it would not be a bad thing.
Alan Cumming, who is mentioned on the bottom of that IMDB page would be a great actor for the sequel. He did a good job as Nightcrawler in X-Men 2 and I can see him playing the Joker from The Killing Joke, the best Joker story written so far.
Sol said:
FaIr enough, and I agree - I wouldn't go so far as to say her performance was bad, but, as I said, it was nothing special. I won't miss her at all with her not being in the sequel.
But yes, I liked how she took care of Scarecrow at the end...
Sol said:
I haven't read that story, but may have to now if you give it such high praise. (One of my favorite Batman-Joker stories is still "A Death in the Family".) Yes, Cumming has the potential to be a good Joker as well, although I would like to see more of his acting skills first. Although he did an excellent job in X-2, his character was such that it didn't give him a chance to show us what he could really do - it wasn't a huge, dynamic role such as the Joker would have to be, at least in my opinion.