06-25-2005, 11:31 PM
I enjoyed Batman Begins quite a bit. I wasn't a fan of any of the earlier Batman movies, but this one really blew my expectations out of the water. Batman Begins really validated Christian Bale in my eyes - he did a superb job and proved to me that his performance in American Psycho wasn't just a fluke. I'm looking forward to seeing him in future movies. I expect Christopher Nolan to become a real force in Hollywood as well with Batman Begins, Insomnia, and Memento under his belt now.
I wasn't that impressed with how they did Scarecrow, but to be honest I'm not quite sure how else they could have done his character without making him completely ridiculous. He just didn't seem like much of a "super villain" to me. Perhaps that was their intention though, since much of the Batman mythos seems to be more about actual semi-normal humans, rather than science gone wrong (Spider-Man) or mutants (X-Men).
Also, the fight scenes were extremely disorientating. I think that Nolan was trying to keep working with the "always at the corner of your eye" way Batman works and therefore tried to make the fights blurry and dizzingly fast, but sometimes I just ended up really confused after 5 seconds of blur and a couple random punching and kicking noises all the bad guys were unconscious. Matrix-style slow-downs would definitely have been horrible, but at the very least it would have been nice to have seen a complete karate move every now and then :)
But on the whole, it was a great movie and I really enjoyed it.
I wasn't that impressed with how they did Scarecrow, but to be honest I'm not quite sure how else they could have done his character without making him completely ridiculous. He just didn't seem like much of a "super villain" to me. Perhaps that was their intention though, since much of the Batman mythos seems to be more about actual semi-normal humans, rather than science gone wrong (Spider-Man) or mutants (X-Men).
Also, the fight scenes were extremely disorientating. I think that Nolan was trying to keep working with the "always at the corner of your eye" way Batman works and therefore tried to make the fights blurry and dizzingly fast, but sometimes I just ended up really confused after 5 seconds of blur and a couple random punching and kicking noises all the bad guys were unconscious. Matrix-style slow-downs would definitely have been horrible, but at the very least it would have been nice to have seen a complete karate move every now and then :)
But on the whole, it was a great movie and I really enjoyed it.
--Mith
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London