Batman Begins Does Not Suck

[Rhydderch Hael]

5.  Raz Al Gul.   Is that a Diablo II Rune Word?  I obviuosly missed a graphic novel or comic series, but since Ninja's are officially in, fine.   :D [right][snapback]80779[/snapback][/right]

You had the advantage over us all in not knowing beforehand the character of Ras Al Gul. The moment Neeson's 'Ducard' character mentioned that name early on in the film, I knew that Wayne's and Ducard's relationship was ultimately going to end badly.

Late into Wayne's training with the League of Shadows I thought to myself "Watanabe's character isn't doing much. Neeson's character would have made a much better personage as Ras Al Gul..."

D'oh.

When I read those online reviews I cited as wantonly spoiling the plot twist, I knew then (and by the early revelation in the movie) that Wayne's mentor would turn on him and become a villian. But little did I realize that he actually was Ras Al Gul, an antagonist in Batman's world whose villianny makes The Joker look like Ronald McDonald.

There's something to be said about the League of Shadows. It's one thing to have bad guys acting because they like being bad, it's another thing to have some secret society purport to be the enemies of crime, corruption and decadance— then fail to count death and tyranny so as to use mass murder by the broad stroke of tyranny in order to combat crime.



All the other Batman movies prior to this were nothing more than live-action cartoons. The Schumacher films most notably, but even the Burton films fall to this epithet. Sure, they used cameras and human actors and physical sets. But the stories, characters, themes and performances were that of cartoons— two dimensional plays of paint and ink.

The Nolan film here— is a movie. A Batman movie. The first time that the story of the comic book character was presented, in theme and execution, deservingly regarded as a 'movie' first, a 'comic hero feature' second. A human hero. Hell, it had human villians (no millioniares hopped up on performance-enhancing wacky gas or computer-controlled robot arms welded to his spinal column).


This film wasn't made simply for flashy fun like the other Batman films (or most comic-book based films of late)— it was made to tell a story... An act that is, of course, fun when done right.

It's right.




PS: Correct me if I'm wrong, but did the cop on the radio describe the Batmobile as a black dick?