Batman Begins: The Thread

- establishing a credible origin for Batman in terms of moral center, skill set and equipment
- establishing Batman's allies within the system
- establishing the origins of Batman's Rogue's Gallery and escalating the criminal core of Gotham to its costumed insanity point

It delivers very well on all three, all the while telling you a complete story but leaving you wishing the second installment was just around the corner AND putting these plot points forward with well-realized characterization.

Also, playing the concept for fun kind of undercuts the inherent trauma of an 8-year-old watching a thug gun down his parents in a dark alley.

I agree that the approach is difficult to pull off, but maybe I'm just feeling something of a residual fondness for the old TV series, which used to be on when i were a kid, so like. The very first Batman movie, from 1966 lest we forget, ought not to be considered a completely invalid approach to the franchise.

Yes, there were a few chuckle-worthy lines and bits (Wayne. "A guy who dresses up as a bat... has to have issues"), but there could have been more without detracting from the overall mood. Yet, it certainly stands as way better than "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin", must be said.

And I was certainly never suggesting they play the actual trauma for laughs, though I actually found that the Opera scene rather successfully tread that line between silly and dark.

(i was responding to this. i agree & i really reject the idea that nolan's batman invalidates anything!)

And, yeah, s1ocki OTM re: the strength of comic characters (and "pulp" characters in general) being their malleability and adaptability. It's not dissimilar from how Shakespeare's plays can "survive" being performed in different costumes / settings (thinking more of stagings of plays circa WWII or in a corporate setting more than the Baz Lur. Romeo), or adapted to fit a certain story (cf. Ten Things...). (Hey, look at me going for the canonical comparison point to validate funny books! I'm such a goof.)

I WUV YOU TOO.

I R pleased that you lurv the film, but I am also not surprised either. ;-)

Somebody told me/I read somewhere that somebody was rumoured to be playing the Joker in the next one, but I can't remember who it was - anybody heard anything?

Mark Hammill, astonishingly.

The goggles, they do nothing (because they weren't on Batman's ass)

That was it! Imagine!

Hammill does the voice on the animated series and has kind of become the definitive Joker voice because of that. I kind of can't imagine him prancing around in a real-life Joker outfit, though.

(also, both myself and the folks I went with wanted to see the Batman Begins movie again almost immediately - Spiderman I *did* see several times in rapid succession and each time I thought it got worse).

Read upthread. ;-)

jocelyn, he looks like Jim Gordon!

ahhh - that's right, that was nagging at my brain. Cuz movie's Flass = comics' Harvey Bullock.

in other words, Rex Reed is gay and he's angry that this movie didn't provide any wanking material.

x-x-x-post godDAMMIT!

(xpost: Judging by what my straight female and gay male frineds have been saying, Christian Bale sans shirt = primo wanking material.)

That Rex Reed review reads like he was almost watching a completely different movie from the one I saw.

(I remember the Flash TV series - it sucked, but Mark Hammill had a wacky two-toned costume... shit, I forget who he was, off to IMDB).

Bale as Batman was the first to put pen to paper, followed by Caine as
butler Alfred and Freeman as Bruce Wayne's business associate Lucius Fox.

But Holmes won't reprise her role as district attorney Rachel Dawes --
reportedly because Warner Bros. is angry her engagement to Tom Cruise has
stolen media attention away from the movie.

A source tells Page Six, "Everyone is in agreement that the movie's
strength is with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman."

Adding of Holmes, "She won't be in the sequel ... the next romantic
interest will be a much stronger actress.

"Warner is happy that people are now focusing on who'll be playing the
Joker rather than Katie and Tom."