Batman Begins (Blog: 2)

Batman Begins

I'm starting the Batman blog reviews with the Christopher Nolan series.
                   

Batman Begins - 2005

Year: 2005
Director: Christopher Nolan
IMDb Ratings: 8.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 85/100

Batman Begins is a film inspired by the Batman comics which explores the origins of the “caped crusader”.
Christopher Nolan adapted the comic book hero to be more realistic to the world we live in; as opposed to the fantasy fiction world of comics.


The film is cleverly written based around the comics of “The Dark Knight’s” origins. Some people complained that it took too long before we saw a glimpse of Batman. If Nolan used the comics as a storyboard instead of a guideline the fans would be disappointed. 


The origins of Batman started when he was a very young teenager after his parents were murdered. He grew up travelling the world to get taught by the masters in escape, mixed fighting arts, criminology and so on. He trained to peak perfection: both physically & mentally. If Nolan had of added all that content in to the film there wouldn't be a Batman until the very end. Or until the next film: which would’ve made the film unexciting. 


The film has adapted well with the comic book antagonists making them very realistic to present settings. The villain adaptions were Ra’s Al Ghul (& The League of Shadows) Carmine Falcone & Jonathan Crane (The Scarecrow); there were also a few small cameo appearances of Victor Zsasz (Mr. Zsasz). The antagonists are portrayed well in the film, especially by Liam Neeson, who in my opinion you couldn’t find a better actor to play such a mysterious counterpart to Batman: Ra’s Al Ghul. 


The ending of the film is a great tie-in to the next film (The Dark Knight) by Sergeant Gordon (Commissioner by this point in the film) handing Batman a joker playing card. This is a great way to end the first film by using a cliff hanger for the second with Batman’s biggest enemy hinted at the end.


Batman Begins is a great film & Christopher Nolan has arguably in my opinion made the best Batman film series to date. My only negative view on the film series is on Batman’s accent. Unlike other Batman media like the animations where Bruce Wayne puts on a different voice: Christian Bale’s attempt at a Batman voice could’ve had more work put in. It is even a pop-culture joke on YouTube for being hard to understand (videos below: both reference this).


Title: The Dark Knight- Joker Interrogation Scene Spoof
Uploader: MonkeyandApple
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2yv8aT0UFc


Quoted in this youtube short: “are you like gargling marbles or something? I can barely understand you”
Title: How It Should Have Ended: How The Dark Knight Should Have Ended
Uploader: HISHEdotcom
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seBpXt8_6xs

Batman: Gotham Knight

There is an animated film adaption of Batman Begins: “Batman: Gotham Knight”. This adaption explores the origins and mythology of The Batman. The animation will also be the next film I review.










- TJC