Right so time for another post so this one is on another Batman film, Batman Begins, which was the first Christopher Nolan directed film and also marked the first appearance of Christian Bale in the role of the dark knight. So let's cape up, brave the night and take down some badasses... or rather let's just have a look at this one...
So the film begins with Bruce Wayne as a child (played by Gus Lewis) who accidentally falls into a well where he is attacked by a swarm of bats and is later rescued by his father, Thomas (Linus Roache). As a result Bruce is left terrified by bats and has nightmares and later on when he attends an opera with his parents, Thomas and Margaret (Sara Stewart) which involves performers pretending to be bats, he becomes frightened and they leave. On leaving the opera house they are mugged by Joe Chill (Richard Brake) who kills Bruce's parents. Bruce is afterward then taken to the police station where his comforted by an officer, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and later is taken care of by the Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) who reassures Bruce that his parents deaths were not his fault.
The story then moves on to 14 years later when Bruce as a young man (Christian Bale) seeks revenge on Joe Chills, who is granted parole when testifying against crime boss, Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). As Joe is escorted from the courthouse, Bruce close by conceals a gun, intent on killing Chills, but before he can one of Falcone's assassins shoots Chills. Bruce is then picked up by his childhood friend, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) who is now an assistant district attorney who berates him for trying to take the law into his own hands and she drops him off at Falcone's nightclub. Bruce meets with Falcone who tells him that fear is a power that cannot be bought and that he should be grateful that Chills was killed before his men throw Bruce out. Bruce then decides to travel the world and becomes a criminal himself as he is caught for stealing and placed in a prison in Bhutan. In the prison Bruce is approached by a man named Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) who offers to train in the arts of stealth and fear as a member of League of shadows, lead by Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe). On completing his training, where Bruce confronts his fear of bats, he learns that Ducat's real intentions are to destroy Gotham to rid it of the corruption that has infested it. Bruce who is then given the task of executing a villager, who commited a crime, refuses to kill the man and instead burns down the League of shadows temple, in which Ra's al Ghul is killed by falling debris and Bruce rescues Ducat and takes him to the local villagers.
Afterward Bruce then returns to Gotham where he takes an interest in his family's company, Wayne enterprises, which is run by the corrupt William Earle (Rutger Hauer). Bruce then sets about trying to find a way to bring Gotham to justice himself without killing and sets in motion how to prepare himself for combating the city's criminals. And in doing so Bruce pays a visit to Wayne enterprises top scientist, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who shows Bruce some of the company's technological prototypes such as a bodysuit and also the tumbler (essentially a large reinforced vehicle) which Bruce takes. Bruce then uncovers the entrance to a cave under his well, where he faces his fear of bats, as they swarm around him and he later creates his workshop down in the cave and soon dawns the bodysuit and becomes "Batman". As Batman, Bruce intercepts a shipment of drugs and he captures Falcone and provides evidence to Rachel to indict Falcone. Batman then receives help from Jim Gordon, who remains one of the few honest cops left in Gotham who later arrests Falcone. Falcone and his men are deemed as mentally unfit to stand trial and Falcone is moved to Arkham asylum where his met by the corrupt Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) who has been using Falcone to import the drugs which can cause terrifying hallucinations. Crane then puts on a mask and exposes Falcone to the toxins, which drives Falcone insane with fear which will keep him in Arkham. While investigating Crane, Batman is also exposed to the drug and he barely escapes and survives as he is later given an antidote by Lucius. Rachel later on meets with Crane at Arkham where she finds the city's water supply has been laced with the hallucinigen compound and Crane exposes her to the drug as well. Batman however soon manages to rescue Rachel and takes her back to the batcave where he administers the antidote to her. Bruce then attends a party at his manor, where all of a sudden he comes to face with a familiar face, Ducard who reveals him to be the real Ra's al Ghul, who is intent on destroying Gotham and from here Bruce must find a way to stop him....
Batman begins remains an excellent reboot to the franchise of Batman and it saw the character get a much needed shot in the arm after the dreadful Batman & Robin, which ended the series previous reboot on a low. The film also get's back to the proper origins of the character and Christopher Nolan made the right decision to make Batman a more humane character, while retaining the brooding intensity of the dark knight, but Nolan concentrates on making him more a moral avenger and avoids going down the route of making Batman a killer. And for me that is when the film really kicks into action during the scene where Bruce makes his choice to reject the League of shadows vision to destroy Gotham city as he realises he must save the city despite the corruption that plagues it as prior to that it is a bit of a slow burner. And when Bruce arrives back in Gotham you know you are in for a bumpy ride as is the city itself as he prepares to take down the city's criminals before later on facing his biggest challenge in facing Ra's al Ghul once more.
Getting onto the performance section of the review they are all excellent, starting with Christian Bale who is great in his dual role as Bruce Wayne and Batman, although he fares best as Bruce more than as Batman, where he puts on a rather husky voice, but at this stage he doesn't overdo it like he does in the next two films! Bale himself apparently auditioned for the part wearing the Batman suit from Batman Forever, which starred Val Kilmer, he also had previously made the film, The Machinist, where he lost a significant amount of weight, and he put on a fair bit of muscle and beef to play the part of the dark knight. Bale has some good highlights in the film such as the scene near the beginning when Bruce is in the Buhatnese prison and he is getting beat up by a big inamte who says to him "I'm the devil!" and Bruce says "You're not the devil, you're practice!" and he proceeds to beat the big fella up! Another good scene is where Bruce pays a visit to Lucius Fox at Wayne enterprises and Lucius rides with Bruce in the tumbler and Bruce asks Lucius "does it come in black?". Then there is the scene where Batman makes his first entrance and as he beats up Falcone's men, he shortly after grabs Falcone and pulls out of the car as Falcone asks beforehand "what the hell are you?" Batman replies "I'm Batman!" and head butts Falcone, knocking him out, then he looks over at the tramp he saw earlier in the film, who Bruce gave his coat and Batman simply says "Nice coat!" before leaving. And prior to that as Bruce carves out the bat sign in his workshop, Alfred asks him "why bats?" and Bruce says "Bats frighten me. Its time my enemies shared my dread" and throws the bat symbol into a wall. Another good moment is where Batman meets Rachel at the subway station and she fires her taser gun at his body armour, which has no effect and he casually removes it from his suit. And Batman throws some evidence at Rachel's feet, who asks what it is and Batman says "Leverage, to get things moving" and Rachel asks who he is and Batman replies "Someone like you, someone who isn't afraid to rattle the cages!". And then there is the scene where Batman literally picks up the corrupt cop, Flass (Mark Boone Junior) by leg using his bat grapple and dangles him upside down. And Batman yells at Flass "Where were the other drugs going?!" and Flass tells him he doesn't know "I swear!" and Batman yells "SWEAR TO ME!!" and let's him drop and dangle but lifting him up again on the grapple. And Flass tells Batman of a location of a drop off point for the drugs "Cops can't go down to the narrows" and Batman says "Do I look like a cop????" before letting him go (or rather drop!).
Liam Neeson also provides a good performance as Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul who takes Bruce in to train him but ultimately can't convert him to the league of shadows of way thinking, and its not long before Ra's comes back to Gotham to finish off his business. Neeson plays the part in rather melodramatic fashion but he still has some good moments such as the scene where he tells Bruce where to go if he wants to be trained and Bruce climbs up a mountain and arrives at the temple of the league of shadows. On entering Bruce is exhausted and Ra's starts to whip his ass, lecturing him he says "death does not wait for you to be ready!" and as Bruce tries to defend himself Ra's effortlessly knocks him away saying "You are skilled but this isn't a dance!" and later "You are afraid, but not me of. Tell me, Mr Wayne. What do you fear?". And later as the two men practice combat on the ice, Neeson has a good moment where Ra's taunts Bruce by saying "You're parents death was not your fault. It was your father's!" and Bruce attacks him angrily and says "But I had training!" and Ra's says "The training is nothing, the will is everything!". And as Bruce knocks down Ra's on the ground, Bruce tells him to yield and Ra's says "You haven't beaten me. You've sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke!" and he proceeds to tap his sword on the ice which causes Bruce to fall under. And later on when Ra's arrives in Gotham and runs the monorail to spread the halluconagen, Batman glides onto the monorail using his cape and Ra's looks up and says "It appears you have taken my advice about theatrically a bit literally!".
Katie Holmes also does well in her role as Rachel Dawes, although she was only 26 or 27 at the time of filming, I don't quite buy that she is old enough to potray the part of an assistant DA. Holmes does have some good scenes though such as the one where Rachel picks up Bruce, not long after Chills has been murdered by Falcone's assassin and Bruce shows her his gun and she angrily slaps him in the face saying "You're father would have been ashamed!". Another good moment is where Rachel is accosted by two of Falcone's men on the subway, but one is subdued by Batman and the other looks on in panic and runs off, just when Rachel prodcues her taser, and she says "That's right you better run!" and she turns to see Batman and jumps, firing the taser, which has no effect on Batman's suit. Another good scene is where Rachel confronts Crane over Falcone's sudden breakdown in Arkham and she asks "Isn't it convient for a 52 year old man who has no history of mental illness to suddenly have a complete psychotic breakdown, just when's about to be indicted?!". And also there is the moment where Rachel bumps into Bruce at a party, where he is starting pose as a billionaire playboy, and she says to him "Bruce, you may still be that great kid you use to be, but its not who you are underneath, its what you do that defines you" which is a line Batman later quotes back to her giving a hint to the fact that its Bruce who is the dark knight.
As for the other performances Michael Caine is very good as Alfred, Bruce's trusty butler, who helps out Bruce in starting his crusade as Batman. Caine also has some highlights in the film, such as in the scene where he meets Bruce and they fly back to Gotham on a private jet and he says to Bruce "And you can borrow the Rolls, just bring it back with a full tank". Another good scene is when Alfred confronts Bruce about forgetting his family's legacy and Bruce say he doesn't care about his name and Alfred strongly says to him "Its not just your name, sir! Its your father's name! And its all that's left of him! Don't destroy it". And then there is the scene where Ra's Al Ghul arrives at Bruce's manor and his men set it on fire and leave Bruce for dead, and Alfred helps lift a large piece of wood that Bruce is trapped underneath and he exclaims "What is the point of all those push-ups if you can't even lift a bloody log?!".
Morgan Freeman is also excellent as Lucius Fox, who helps Bruce by using some of Wayne enterprise's prototype technology, such as the bodysuit for Batman and the tumbler, which Bruce uses for Batman's car. Freeman also provides his character with a dry sense of humour as he exhibits throughout and is noted in the scenes where Bruce first approaches Lucius and uses excuses that he wants to use the equipment for base-jumping and spelunking. And as Lucius shows Bruce the memory cloth used to create his cape, Lucius says "I don't think they tried to market it to the billionaire, spelunking, BASE-jumping crowd!". And then Lucius who is wary of Bruce's excuses says "Mister Wayne, if you don't want to tell me exactly what you're doing, when I'm asked, I don't have to lie. But don't think of me as an idiot". Rutger Hauer is also good in his brief role as Earle, who has been running Wayne enterprises in Bruce's absence and he has a good moment where he visits Lucius and says to him "I'm merging your department with archives, and I am firing you. Didn't you get the memo?". And later on rather amusingly, Bruce buys back control of his shares in the company and puts Fox in charge of operations and Lucius says smugly to Earle "Didn't you get the memo?".
Cillian Murphy proves to be quite effective and creepy in his role as Dr Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow and he has some good moments as well, which include the film's most frightening moment where Crane says to Falcone in Arkham "Would you like to see my mask?" and he takes out his fabric mask and his briefcase "I'm probably not so scary to a guy like you, but these crazies, they can't stand it!". And Crane proceeds to open his case and detonate a charge of the weaponised hallucanogen which freaks out Falcone and Crane's visage distort as the gas spreads and voice changes and he says "They scream and they cry. Much as you are doing now!". And just after Crane leaves the room and he says to one of the staff "No he's not faking, not that one!". And then there is the scene where Batman arrives at the narrows and hides as Crane and his men arrive, and as Batman attacks his men, Crane fires the toxin in Batman's face and he says as he throws alcohol in face "Here take a drink, you look like a man who takes himself too seriously! You want my opnion? You need to lighten up!" and he lights a match and sets fire to Batman's suit, who dives out the window. Tom Wilkington is also very good as the mob boss, Falcone and he has some good scenes also that include where Falcone meets with Bruce in his nightclub and he tells him "Look around you, kid, you'll see two councilmen, a union official, a couple off-duty cops and a judge. Now I wouldn't have a second's hesitation of blowing your head off right here and now in front of them. Now, that's power you can't buy! That's the power of fear". And later when Crane meets Falcone in Arkham and he puts on his mask, Falcone asks "When did the nuts take over the nuthouse???!".
And lastly Gary Oldman is excellent as Sgt Jim Gordon, one of the few honest cops left in Gotham, who ends up helping Batman. Oldman's highlights include his first scene where Gordon sits in his car along with the corrupt cop, Flass, and he says to Flass "I'm no rat. In a town that's bent, who is there is to rat to anyway??". Then there is the scene where Batman talks quietly with Gordon on his rooftop and Gordon tells him that the commissioner think that he is a menace and Batman asks "What do you think?" and Gordon says "I think you're trying to help" and turns back to see Batman has gone and he says "But I've been wrong before". And then at the end there is a funny moment where Gordon has setup a bat signal, which Batman taps and says "Nice!" and Gordon "You like it? I couldn't find any mob bosses!" (as Batman had strapped Falcone to a lampost, which created the reflection of the bat sign in the sky earlier in the film).
Now finally onto the director, Christopher Nolan who has done a great job here with the film and he keeps the atmosphere intense and broody throughout, but also allows for a few moments of levity as well in the film and provides the film with just enough hope and humanity from keeping it permanently in the dark and never forgets it is supposed to be a superhero film. Nolan also confidently handles the film's impressive action scenes and uses its different locations very well also as it was filmed mostly in Shepperton studios in England, but also there were some location filming in Iceland, during Bruce's trianing, as well as Chicago during the scenes where Batman is chased by the police. The film's music score is also excellent by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard, which is very intense and atmospheric is well suited to the tone of the film.
As for the flaws.........well Batman Begins get's most things right except the odd niggle, such as the pacing of the film is a bit inconsistent and it has to be said that Bruce's journey in Bhutan and his training drags on a bit and it takes until Bruce sets the fire to the League of shadows temple for the film's tempo to kick into gear. I also felt that Bruce's father, Thomas, was unjustly branded a coward in the film, when during the scene where he is killed, he calmly tries to reason with Chills before being shot, which hardly shows the actions of a coward. And Ra's blames Bruce's parent's death on his father, when his father actually tried to do what he could and keep a cool head, but the film certainly doesn't seem to take that into consideration and even in Chills's mind, he felt that Bruce's dad begged for mercy, which going by the scene is bullshit, but then again its not like a criminal would lie is it??? Then there is Bale's potrayal of Batman, which is far from bad, but he does start to use that husky voice thing here, which can be grating, but it is nowhere near as bad here as it is the following two films. But I just think why is it necessary for Bruce to husk his voice to that extent, when all its liable to do is make him cough and splutter! And Michael Keaton managed to hush his voice well enough as Batman without making it sound ridiculous so its a bit crap that Bale wasn't able to do the same thing with his performance. You could also argue in a way that Nolan's attempts at humour in the film are at times also a tad lame, although there are some good lines and Caine and Freeman both provide the film with some dry moments of wit, but there are some naff ones as well such as the scene where Gordon first sees Batman's tumbler and he gasps "I've got to get me one of those!". I think its right though that Nolan does have some moments of levity in the film because it would be even more dreary without them, and I guess it is less guilty of cheesy humour than some of the superhero films out there. Although if you want to be really picky, Batman isn't really a superhero as such as he is morely a vigilante detective, as we all know he doesn't have any actual super powers that would make him one in the first place.
And lastly another flaw well worth mentioning is the scene where Ra's Al Ghul turns up at Bruce Wayne's mansion near the end and he has his men set fire to the place and Ra's struggles with Bruce and leaves him trapped under a falling roof beam. And in the scene Ra's says to Bruce "You burned down my house and left me for dead. Consider us even!" which when you think about it, it is not even remotely close in their case whereas Bruce did burn down Ra's house, he didn't leave him for dead and instead dragged him out the burning house and saved him from falling off a snowy cliff and then him took to a villager so he could recover! So obviously Ra's has a pretty warped sense of justice and let's face it the guy does anyway as how exactly is destroying one corrupt city which albeit has plenty of criminals in it but also plenty of innocent people, justice??? In short, Ra's Al Ghul is an ungrateful knob to put it mildly!
But all that aside Batman Begins is an excellent action flick that saw the Batman series get a proper reboot after the dismal Batman & Robin some eight years earlier.
And with that I shall bid yee goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment