Batman Begins

I managed to catch a showing of this much awaited summer blockbuster (much awaited AFTER Episode III of course) last Friday night.

Bats in Batcave

Well...let's break the movie down to my regular The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, eh ?

The Good
Christopher Nolan, the director, is a genius!

He has managed to rejuvenate the ailing bat-franchise by showing us HIS vision of Batman.

If Tim Burton who did the first two movies had a darkly gothic view of Gotham and its denizens with homages to 1940s architecture, clothing and design; Nolan on the other hand takes the opposite approach and makes Gotham as modernly realistic as possible!

Gotham looks like a cross of New York, Chicago and some lite-gothic elements.

It truly is weird to see Batman in a truly modern surrounding (with skyscrapers, subways and light railway trains which snake across Gotham's skyline) at first, after being SO used to Tim Burton's gothic vision. But after awhile, I got used to it and truly enjoy Nolan anchoring Batman to reality.

From his suit to his Batmobile, to the Bat Cave...everything is realistic and believeable..as if, if some millionaire playboy REALLY wanted to go out and fight crime...these are the kind of weaponary and science that he'd use.

I also loved the fact that Nolan used a different colour scheme compared to Burton's black and blue gothic themes. Nolan's use of Sephia and Dark Orange tones ala' the dark sky colour u get at sunset was refreshing and set a difference.

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne / Batman truly gives a breathtaking performance to enjoy. When he goes into Bruce Wayne mode, you TRULY believe he is putting THIS facade on.

You see the problem with all previous Batman movies is...it's Bruce Wayne, playboy billionaire who has the alter-ego Batman which he puts on when he goes out at night to fight crime.

When in truth...Bruce Wayne IS the alter-ego Batman puts on when he goes out in the daylight....he is at ALL times Batman...and only slips into the Bruce Wayne facade WHEN the situation calls for it (birthday party, dinner with Board, Board meeting, etc.)

The STRONG supporting cast of Liam Neeson (DuCard), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Gary Oldman (Lieutenant Gordon), and Michael Caine (Alfred the Butler) ensures the movie stays watertight and every beat is pure cinematic gold.

Cillian Murphy (Scarecrow) also gives a truly terrifying performance as the upstart Arkham psychologist masquerading on the side as Scarecrow. His smug face which shows superiority and nonchalance to everyone he talks to truly captures the characteristics of one of Batman's rogues gallery.

The Bad
I wanted to HATE Katie Holmes' performance before I even set foot into the cinema.

All this hoo-ha with Tom Cruise (him acting like a loverlorn monkey on the set of Oprah didn't really help either--what a fcukin lovesick wuss!) ISN'T helping this movie.

And she partly gave me a reason to hate her performance with the lame tacked on romance at the end followed by the pre-requisite kiss written in the guidebook on how to write Hollywood action movies.

But she also gave an o.k. performance.

I actually believed she GREW up as the time passed by.

Her dressing and mannerism when she was in college as teenage Bruce Wayne came back from Princeton for the hearing of Joe Chill looked SO different from her poise and dressing as an adult District Attorney (D.A.) when Bruce finally comes back to Gotham.

The way she wore her hair, her poise, and her diction...it felt real. Like u could see her maturing right in front of ur eyes !

Despite her o.k. performance, I still felt her character was wasted.

In the comic books, Boss Falcone was tried in the courts by Harvey Dent, Gotham's STAR D.A. On the last day of the hearing in court, when it was apparent Boss Falcone would lose and be put into jail forever; he did the unthinkable and splashed some acid on Harvey's face. Changing Harvey Dent forever into a schizophernic Arkham Asylum inmate with dual personalities and one of Batman's deadliest rogues also known as Two-Face.

Yet...because they wanted to write in a love interest angle for Bats, they did away with the Harvey Dent/Two Face character and had Katie Holmes' Rachel Dawes character instead.

In my opinion, Bats DOESN'T need a female lead / love interest in EVERY movie.

This IS after all, his origin / first year as Batman. When ur putting ur life on the line each and every night, I doubt there'd be time for u to fall in love innit, Bats.

But then I digress too much.

The Ugly
Despite my gushing earlier of Christopher Nolan's directing skills, I have to say that he CAN'T direct fight scenes even if his life depended on it.

Every fight scene in the movie was a mass of limbs moving chaotic-ly because the camera was focusing too near to the limbs instead of panning out to show who was throwing which punch or getting their ass handed to them.

You can't really fault Nolan for this though because his previous outputs have all been independent crime-thrillers like Memento & Insomnia... NOT really chockful with fight scenes either.

I really hope Nolan picks up a second director of photography like Bill Pope (of the Matrix fame) or even a fight choreographer like Yuen Wo Ping (also of the Matrix fame) so that the fight scenes in the next two Batman movies wouldn't be SO hard to follow or confusing.

Batman in Twilight

Summary
In closing, I was dreading watching this movie because I was afraid Christopher Nolan's indie heritage would result in another boring, pretentious superhero movie ala' Ang Lee's The Hulk.

Well, color me relieved, 'cos Batman Begins is one hell of a ride and a great introduction to new fans of what good Batman comics are like.

Here's to MORE great hits from DC Comics in the future (Bryan Singer's Superman Lives in Summer 2006 should be a movie to look out for) after a decade of silence. Give Marvel Comics a run for their money guys, especially since their recent output (like Elektra, Punisher and Fantastic Four) are crap attempts at trying to cash in on the back of real hits such as Spiderman and X-Men.