Batman Begins: The Thread

Dude, see it sober, and know when to stay down.

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are

;) ;) ;) ;) :P :P :P :P %) %) %) %)

http://photos.imageevent.com/batmanonfilm/bofimagesbofimages/batman_infrontofbatmobile.jpg

TurdTank, AWAY!

http://www.spidermedia.ru/comics2movie/b/batman/5-begins/pics/batmobile/batman2.jpg

Yeah, wtf, I said this at the time as well! I was 7.

Tom, have you seen the second part of that trilogy, Lust For A Vampire? The girl who plays Carmilla in it is so, so hot!

The opinion of a half-awake drunk >>> the opinion of someone who doesn't like the Hunger.

And will there be a "delete Katie Holmes" option on the DVD? Seriously, whenever she was on screen it felt liked someone hooked up a 16-ton weight to the movie and threw it off a bridge.

Liam Neeson should play more bad guys.

ET OTM about Liam Neeson.

Dan OTM about backstory et al.

Well, yeah. Batman was a total riff on The Shadow & like-minded pulp characters. To wit:

"[Bob] Kane and [Bill] Finger got together and brainstormed the new character DC wanted. Kane suggested a pair of bat-style wings, which he'd doodled in sketchbooks for years. Finger proposed the wings be turned into a more practical, yet uniquely scalloped cape, then added a triangular motif to the costume, including triangular "fins" protruding from Batman's gloves, and pointy bat ears. In formulating the basic story line, the two drew upon favorite films (such as The Bat Whispers, in which a detective prowls the night as a killer wearing an ungainly bat-mask); novels (such as Johnston McCulley's All-Story Weekly, in which the rich playboy Zorro becomes an avenger by night, and the various books featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, who utilized deductive reasoning to solve crimes); and radio programs (such as The Shadow, in which wealthy playboy Lamont Cranston used his mastery of disguise to strike fear in the hearts of criminals)."

Still waiting on this list, as it applies to me.

the thing I'm reacting to here is the idea that if you only watch part of something in an altered state, your opinion on it is just as valid as someone who watched the entire thing sober.

Incidentally, I consider watching it in IMAX to be tantamount to an unplesant altered state. That's why I'm still willing to hold out "final" judgement on, if nothing else, the "coherence" of the action sequences, until I see it in a realistic format. (Though I'm guessing the overall emo dourness of the film is probably just as overbearing in 35mm.)

(xx-post d'oh, beaten to the emo-labelling punch!)

The guy sitting behind me kept snickering at the dialogue. Being an action film I didn't really expect much in that category but he was right to laugh.

YAY

It was okay, but certainly no great shakes. Like Spider-Man, it was too concerned with setting up the backstory for sequels so that the Arkham plot was rushed and unsatisfying. If the entire movie had been the setup, I think I would have been happier (obv. this would never sell as a blockbuster action movie).

Way too thick on the Will to Power speechifying from Neeson at the beginning, and Holmes last "man I loved" speech was ridiculous and unbelievable given the amount of screen-time they shared. Basically read as a Spider-Man 2 'time to win over the girl's heart this time' play, or else an excuse to insert a new starlet/love interest for Batman Begins Again.

Bale's 'deep/gruff' superhero voice was mega-lame.

GTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What was the point of Caine's speech right at the end of Holmes' hallucination sequence, "it can't be one man's revenge" etc. only to forget about all of that and everyone gets along happily everafter even though Batman shows no sign of changing?

If you'll remember, people only got freakout vibes from people whom they identified as menacing. Katie was protecting the kid, ergo he didn't freak out at her. Also, the kid was using Batman as a calming mantra; his unwavering hope and faith in his hero helped him counteract/deal with the worst effects of the hallucinogen.

Why did she suddenly start sobering up in the car (at least becoming semi-mobile), only to fall back to near-death when they arrived in the cave?

She initially fell completely out at the shock to her system. Her body started to acclimate to the drug, leading her to become more coherent and mobile, but her hallucinations were getting worse and worse thanks to the harrowing car chase, leading her brain to finally overpanic and shut down. (Also, have you never seen knocked on their ass by an initial rush, followed by wandering around semi-coherent in some altered state? Because that's basically what happened to her.)

-- s1ocki (slytus...), June 20th, 2005.

sorry to backtrack, BUT:

I even like the Adam West Batman. All those Adam West hataz fail to wreck-o-nyze, that if it hadn't been for that show/movie, there might not even BE Batman anymore, things were so dire in the 50s/60s. That's the thing with MYTHS, if they don't relate to the times, they're worthless. THAT's the real key to Batman, and why he's outpaced Superman since the 70s. Batman is transmutable, Superman is rigidly fixed.
Burton's original Batman movie was 1989. Steve Englehart's Batman remains 1974 (which is very unfortunate for Englehart's current miniseries Dark Detective, as it's set NOW).
Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns is Reagan-Era the same way that Watchmen is, FM's Year One is a little more nebulous, riffing on Taxi Driver and Dirty Harry and 70s urban decay memes.
In 15 years, Nolan's Batman will seem aswim in 00ism.

Burton's Batman okay but less absorbing than either since it can't quite decide whether it wants to be silly or serious and sorta makes a slapdash combination of the two which works sometimes and doesn't work others... the Schumaker movies are abominations. No ideas.

By kind of glossing the serious themes underlying the Batman myth but not fully embracing the silliness of it, I think Burton's films did both a disservice. Second one being better than first, etc.