Batman Begins

[Blake Si Kwan]

Hello Everyone,
Just saw Batman Begins and I thought it was pretty good. A better story about the origin of Bruce Wayne's transformation than the previous movies. Tell me what you think? By the way has any seen this movie called Batman vs Alien and Predator.? A friend showed me a trailer of it on the computer. And it was legit foottage too. The Batman character wore the original costume and cape.
May Budda Bless You,
Blakesikwan

[Markgway]

By the way has any seen this movie called Batman vs Alien and Predator.? A friend showed me a trailer of it on the computer.

Such a movie couldn't be made without the cooperation of major studios (Warner & Fox). I think you've been had.

[sammofan]

By the way has any seen this movie called Batman vs Alien and Predator.? A friend showed me a trailer of it on the computer.

I've seen it. Its called "Batman - Dead End", a 7 minute short film made by fans to promote their talents. Quite impressive.

[Markgway]

Ah, OK. But it's not a legal film. That's what I meant.

[KidwiththeGoldenArm]

I loved this flick!

[Soda drink]

Batman begins was a fantastic movie!

They focused on Batman and really explored his psyche and answered a lot of questions as to why a man would wear a bat suit. Christian Bale nailed Batman and the essence of his character out of the ballpark. What a great and very underrated actor. I enjoyed his performance very much.

Scarecrow although under utilized and kicked to the curb in some respects was an effectively scary villain and I was very happy with the costume. Liam Neeson was the second best character for me, just behind Batman. He was tough, smart and was Batman's true equal (maybe superior) as he should have been. Gary Oldman, one of my favorite actors of all-time did a wonderful job as usual, considering his lack of screen time. Katie Holmes although clearly out of her league with the rest of the cast did better than I am willing to admit but she still was woefully miscast in my opinion.

Alfred and Lucius Fox were the comedy characters and both actors brought their distinct charm and innate sense of class to the characters. It's just too bad that Ken Watanabe ended up with the worst part in the whole movie. And it's not his fault but the fault of the director (blasphemy!) and the writers.

The only true problem that took the movie down a couple of notches of perfection was the action.

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN IS NOT AN ACTION DIRECTOR. I am not going to buy into the excuse that he filmed the fight scenes with such frenetic pacing and blurriness to show how Batman is seen as some kind of shadow. NO! This is an example of lazy choreography!! Filming it in such a lousy close-up to mask the clumsiness of the actors, stunt people, and petty choreography. Christopher Nolan is a very talented director (Memento anybody??) but the man does not have an eye for action. He should watch Unleashed, Ong Bak, to see how one can achieve brutal, grounded, vicious fighting without resorting to MTV style editing to bring results that the actors are responsible for. Terrible action!

[Markgway]

Pretty much agree with everything Soda said.

Very good film, losuy physical action. Great stunts and large scale action though.

[GwaiLoMoFo]

Ah, OK. But it's not a legal film. That's what I meant.
I have actually seen 3 of these short films or "trailers". The first one is the Batman v. Alien v. Predator one listed above. Second one with Batman and Supereman teaming up together. The third was the best one IMO. It was called Grayson, as in Dick Grayson (Robin). It shows Robin trying to get revenge for the death of Batman. In the process he fights against the Joker, Penguin, Wonder Woman, The Riddler and even Superman!! They are all very well done and the costumes and produciton values are impressive. At the end of the shorts (or trailers) there is a disclaimer that basically states the films are not for sale and are merely tributes to the charachters that have brought fans joy over the years.

[KyFi]

Yep, Soda Drink is right on the money. Very solid, satisfying movie with a great cast and tone. And yes, the only big weakness was definitely the hand to hand combat scenes----you couldn't make heads or tails out of what was happening. Still, it's encouraging that we might see some of the DC characters brought to the screen with some of the same quality as the recent Marvel pics.

[kenichiku]

I own old all the widescreen laserdiscs of all those 80-90s Hollywood Burton, Schumacher, etc. Batmans and for the life of me, I never get the urge revisit them again but for 'Batman Begins', I think I will. The other ones played like an adult's arrested development Neverland nightmare and they gave the villians too much spotlight, so much that they couldn't keep the same lead to play Batman. The Marvel producers avoided that pitfall and struck a better balance with their Spidey pictures.

Yes, the fighting is not the most inspired but there's much more ingenuity and nuanced character development here that I bow to all the great British-Euro storytelling talent responsibile for out-Americanizing an American icon. Yes, get used to it, Hollywood has globalized. Oldman, Neeson, Wilkinson, Hauer & Caine are all great. I guessed Freeman opted to stay in England after doing 'Danny the Dog'.

Christian Bale is fresh and has the right balance of light-dark in mental complexity to make for a very good Wayne-Batman for many episodes to come.

[GwaiLoMoFo]

Saw it this last weekend with the fam and thought it was great. I thought is was a solid all around film. My wife and oldest son loved it as well. My youngest son did care too much for it, not enough "cartoon" type action for him. I have absolutely no complaints about the action either. Good filck!

[zhunaid]

excellent movie but action sucked.they dont show real combat between batman and liam neeson's henchmen.looks like the camera was thrown into the crowd while batman was fighting them.
that was over too quick,but overall its an excellent movie.this is the way a batman movie should be.
nto like the previous batmans.they were more concerned about what they would look like in a costumethe bloody misdirected bastards.

[TheManInWhite]

I saw BB over the weekend, and I really enjoyed it. It was a better told story than the previous 3. To me, the action was OK. I think the problem was that the cameras shot the fighting too close. If they put it back a bit so that you can see punches and kicks connect, that would have made it much better. Nonetheless, a movie that could revive the Batman franchise!

[killer meteor]

There's a constant problem in American films with capturing martial arts action. Even in the likes of Enter The Dragon and Universal Soldier, which star top quality martial artists, have numerous moves, particulary kicks from the mid section, out of or below frame. It's just bad filmmaking and Batman's fights were awful - I can buy it during the scenes when Batman attacks people by surprise but there's no excuse for it during the end fight.

[Markgway]

The thing that bugs me is that the Tim Burton Batman films had better physical action - and they weren't really martial arts movies as we would term them. So what happened in the lat 13 years? Michael Bay??? :rolleyes

[TheManInWhite]

It seems like we're on the same page here, killer. I mean it's bad enough some of the fights occur in the dark, but the ones that aren't should be more visible. I just watch the Bourne Supremacy last night and experienced the same thing. The fights are done way too fast and you can barely see the punches land. Would it be asking too much for someone to slow the action down a tad bit to make it a little more palatable?? I can live with the gunplay being a bit fast and loose but not the actual fighting. Maybe it's just me... :rolleyes

[Markgway]

It's also useful for disguising an actor's lack of ability and stunt doubles. The fact that Keanu, etc did MOST of their own fights in The Matrix meant that the choreography could be shot clearly.

[Chen Zhen]

It's also useful for disguising an actor's lack of ability and stunt doubles. The fact that Keanu, etc did MOST of their own fights in The Matrix meant that the choreography could be shot clearly.

but then again, christian bale did some action in equilibrium, but u could actually see the action.