Date night!

[kickaha]

ginkgo treated me to a movie tonight as a surprise, and it was none other than Batman Begins. :) I'm a huge Batman nut, so I figured I'd just go see this on a matinee some day, but my sweetie sprang for it. :)

I liked it. A lot. In fact, I liked just about everything except:



1) Katie Holmes. The character wasn't necessary to any of the plot, and damned little of the character development in Bruce. *One scene*, but still... meh. A number of other actresses could have done more with the part.

2) Ducard == al Ghul?? WTF?? That really wasn't necessary. Two separate characters in the comics, should have kept them that way.

3) al Ghul is Persian. Neeson... not so much.

4) It's pronounced *RAISH* you twits, not 'razz'. Grr.

5) Crane was really entirely too pretty. Not a bad job from the actor, but the look was... well, just not what I ever would have expected.

6) A microwave beam that vaporizes water would also cause every living being to explode in a big red steam cloud. *shrug* Oh well.

Really though, other than the apparent* mangling of al Ghul, bad science (duh, it's a comic book movie), and Rachel Dawson's Creek... er, I mean Dawes... I really quite liked it. (* I say 'apparent' because Neeson had one line at the party about mystic or supernatural reasons for him to have survived, which Bruce just totally blew off. Given the Lazarus Pit of the comics, this isn't totally off base, but given everything else they mangled on him... oy.)

Things I really liked:

1) Bruce's psyche. Nailed that. Bale did a great job. This is the core of the mythos, not the toys, not the villains, but a very broken man trying to make something positive out of the pieces.

2) Retcon of Joe Chill being stalked by Bruce. *NICE* touch, much more realistic IMO. The after effects to push him over the edge dovetailed perfectly. (Yeah, yeah, the one place Rachel was needed... but yet not really. Oy.)

3) The tech. Lucius Fox as Wayne's Q? Gotta love it. (Yeah, I said the tech wasn't good as a focal point - doesn't mean I can't like it. :) )

4) The one-liners weren't that bad, surprisingly. Some were downright great. flinx, that quote you gave about 'what road is he on?' made me just wince when I read it on your journal... but in the movie it actually worked. Bottom line: nothing yanked me hard out of the experience. (A couple should have been edited out, but oh well.)

5) The pacing of the first half of the movie, flipping between his current training and the road that took him there was just wonderful. I think I enjoyed this more than anything in the Batman half of the movie with the possible exception of:

6) "Swear by ME!" The hair on my neck stood up, I swear to god. Er, Batman. Something. Beautiful.


All in all, I think they did a great job getting the franchise back on track to being something not laughable. Schumacher? Suck eggs.

Comments

Fox and other things

[gilthalas.livejournal.com]

OK, when I heard that name, it sounded familiar - but who is Lucius Fox in the comics/cartoons?

And I totally missed the mystic reason for al Ghul surviving.

I am sad that you put Katie Holmes as your number 1 problem. She's so cute!

And yeah - the Swear by Me sequence was where he actually took fear to the *face* of the bad guys, instead of hanging in the shadows. Nice to see that in there.

And was it me, or did Bale seemed more hunched over in his suit than past Batmans?

[ladykalana.livejournal.com]

I agree with the Katie Holmes gripes. I'm not familiar with the comics at all so the inconsistencies there didn't register with me. Also, I thought Crane's appearance was just fine, thank you :) Mmm, pretty eyes...

I don't suppose there's any chance of y'all coming out for goth night in Durham tomorrow, is there?

Pronounciation

[sfeldon.livejournal.com]

>> 4) It's pronounced *RAISH* you twits, not 'razz'. Grr.

I was reading about this, and apparently, it's been pronounced both Razz and Raysss by creators who have worked on him. I can't establish a reference for which one Denny O'Neill used now.

I can't find any mention of "Raish", with a final H. Where'd you get that?

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

I liked it too. Was reluctant to go, given how bad the last 2 movies were, but I got dragged to it and was glad I did. I didn't care for Katie Holmes' character; no actress could have made that role work for me.
At the end, when she's all "*sniff* I could have loved you, but because you fight crime, I can't! (*cue angsty hand on forehead*)" I was like, "You bitch. Nothing he does will ever be good enough for you, clearly." I mean, I know Batman is destined to never settle down with a girl, but jeez.

I liked how he's clearly talking funny when in the suit to disguise his voice. The setup really made a lot of stuff he does make sense.

[badger.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it enough I almost went to see it again last night (free now at MV for me). Might still.

[code-slave.livejournal.com]

I thoroughly enjoyed it - but then I am blissfully ignorant of the official story, so there was nothing for me to get upset about. It was just good! :-)

Yeah, it rocked.

[flinx.livejournal.com]

I wholly agree with your gripe points, esp. #6 (ooh, look at the pretty red clouds!). As to #4, I heard an alternative take on it, not 'raish' as a name, but 'rahz' as in 'the demon of Ra'. Of course, that's totally mucking the mythos (an egyptian god who's got a persian follower, wot?).

And I don't think I was the one who made the ascribed comment. Not that I dont' agree, but don't think it war me.