Snuck out and saw "Batman Begins" today. By my rough count, this is now the FOURTH live-action Hollywood version of Batman. It's bizarre that in less than 16 years, the latest Batman movie had run its course and needed a revamp.
1989's "Batman" seemd to be toying with the idea of "can we REALLY get people to buy into this whole concept?". It seemed risky to begin filming Batman and getting it across to the masses. Batman had existed as a joke, and to most people it was a stretch to accept the concept with any degree of seriousness. Mostly thanks to Adam West and countless Superfriends re-runs. The 1989 version also spent alot of time developing the Joker, and Batman ended up as a secondary character in his own film. Ask anyone who saw it in 1989 and they'll say that the most memorable thing was Jack Nicholson as the Joker.
With this new version, the main focus is on Batman. Alot of time is spent developing his "origin" and more importantly, his motivations. There are a few tweaks from the usual Batman origin story that may irk purists. First, the Waynes are gunned down after exitting an opera, not from a screening of "The Mask of Zorro". With the Catherine Zeta-Jones "Zorro" sequel hitting theatres this summer, that may have caused the change. Ra's al Ghul also plays a large part in Batman's training. But the most important change is Thomas Wayne. In what may be a first, he appears WITHOUT a moustache!!
A few touches from the last 20 years of comics are thrown in. Longtime Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox makes his Batman movie debut. A scene with the cops surrounding a building while Batman suddenly calls in his "bat back-ups" is directly borrowed from Frank Miller's "Year One". A 1995 story from "Shadow the Bat" about how Bruce Wayne's Great Grandfather used the caves beneath the house for the Underground Railroad is referenced. (This idea MAY have been used before 1995...but the 1995 story was the first time I can recall reading about it). The seldom-used flashback about Bruce falling into the Bat-cave at an early age and his subsequent phobia of bats is included. Uber-Bat nerds may also be thrilled at the small role of an Arkham patient.....an insane killer with a habit of tallying his victims on his skin (you'll have to look close to catch that one). They spell his name wrong in the credits, but trust me, he's there. The story also adds some functionality to those formerly decorative "wings" on Batman's gloves.
The story can drag on at times, but overall keeps you entertained. One case leads into another, leads into another, leads into another and you may ask "shit, when's this thing gonna' END"?" A weak sci-fi "super device" is added to the plot halfway through the film and threatens to tug at the film's believability.
Christian Bale does a tremendous job in the Bat-suit. He makes a convincing Wayne and Batman. When he's in the suit, he goes into the "authoratative whisper" Bat-voice that Kevin Conroy used so well in the Batman Animated Series. Katie Holmes appears as the love interest, and isn't much to listen to or even look at. At one point, she recites her lines as if she's reading a tour brochure (look for the scene where she drives Bruce through the seedy sections of town). Gary Oldman turns in a good job as Sgt. Jim Gordon and makes me realize how much I miss the character in the Batman comics (in a shitty plot move, The Comic Writers retired Gordon in 2000).
Some of Batman's tactics are questionable. He wont kill anybody, but makes no bones about smashing the Batmobile through Gotham's buildings or allowing an entire monastery to go up in flames. That might send the wrong idea about Batman to the un-nerdy moviegoers. They might think: "why doesn't he just whip out a machine gun or blow everyone up"
And finally....the movie woulda' been ALOT better if Batman's dog had made an appearance.
But when the credits roll, we get a Batman film short on embrassments. No "holy" jokes or gimmicked villains and their matching thugs. I wasn't expecting much, but this is a marked improvement over the last 4 Batman films.