In honour of our (hopefully) bat-free future, the superintendent having boarded up the gaps in our windows, tonight Randal and I decided to go see the new Batman movie. It just opened today. Batman Begins stars Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader himself. It is a prequel to the other Batman movies and shows how Bruce Wayne came to be the Batman the citizens of Gotham City know, love, and sometimes fear.
I'm not a huge Batman fan. I haven't seen all the previous Batman films. Batman, yes, but it was a long time ago. Batman Returns, I have seen either the whole thing or at least good portions of it. Ditto for Batman Forever. And I'm pretty sure I've never actually seen the last one, Batman & Robin.* I did grow up watching a lot of the old Batman TV series in reruns, starring Adam West** - WHAM! POW! BIF!
Batman Begins was pretty good. It feels a bit long, but is actually only just over two hours. Bruce Wayne's formative years, including his time in the Far East (where else did you think he learned his killer moves?) take up a good chunk of time at the beginning, but it's just about right. Then he gets down to the business of setting up crime-fighting shop in Gotham City. The movie is dark but, from what I remember, Batman with Michael Keaton is much darker. Christian Bale is quite good.*** The only thing I have seen him in previously is Reign of Fire - not the finest film, though it was entertaining. I have heard he was quite good in American Psycho but I haven't seen it myself. Katie Holmes was slightly better than your average starlet in this sort of role, though somewhat out-of-place. Anyway, for the most part, all the actors were quite good (even including Liam Neeson, though I was a little worried when I first saw him in the film).
The story isn't airtight - as Randal pointed out, a microwave emitter that vaporizes water would probably fry us all too in the process - but there are some nice touches. How the Bat Cave is developed. How Bruce Wayne is pushed to pick up the gauntlet. Why the symbol or idea of "Batman" is chosen. It even flows well into the next (or first, if you will) Batman movie, as it becomes known that the Joker is on the loose.
That's it. Go see it. It was good. Tell me what you think.
* And from what I understand, I don't think I want to either, even (yes, Robert, I do have my limits) despite the presence of "Chris O'Donnell's cute butt in rubber".
**PUT YOUR SOUND ON AND CLICK ON THAT LINK!!!!!! You will smile, I guarantee it!
***His butt also kicks Chris O'Donnell's any day, so there.
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