Batman Begins to Bore

[Deleted]

There's a distinct lack of Batman thread around here. Probably because it's UTTERLY UTTERLY DULL. The second half is much better than the first half, I think, but villains are underused, the symbolism is overly weighty (LOOK! WE ARE WEARING BLACK AND IT IS SNOWING! SEE HOW THE DARK AND LIGHT OF LIFE COLLIDES!) and given the sheer emount of exposition for how Bruce Wayne became every inch the Batman, there's no explanation for why he suddenly decided to put on a smoker's voice. Maybe the weight of his granite, bullet-proof costume caused it?

[klee]

Batman Begins is a silly film. For the following reasons: -

1. The underlying themes to this film are wholly objectionable, reactionary and deeply right-wing. Gotham is under threat from TERRORISTS who belong to a SECRET organisation dedicated to destroying an AMERICAN CITY because of its WESTERN DECADENCE. The ham-fisted parallels to Al Qaeda are, given that the terrorist threat to the US is largely a crock of neo-con-invented shit, worrying.

2. The 'star' cameos are predictable and boring even though they were patently added in because audiences supposedly can't resist big names acting in elder statesmen bit parts. Liam Neeson reprised his Phantom Menace performance and underwhelmed; Morgan Freeman coasted through the role that couldn't have smacked more of tokenism if it tried; Gary Oldman acting against type in a nothing role; and Michael Caine has evidently spent too much time in California and had to watch Mary Poppins to remember how to speak Cock-er-nee. Only Tom Wilkinson gave anything like a decent performance and that was marginalised.

3. Thank God then for Cillian Murphy who, more or less single-handedly, made his bits of the film watchable. A genuinely creepy performance, though being despatched by Joey from Dawson's Creek with a stun gun while she was "thinking of the children" was feeble beyond belief.

4. Katie Holmes. Enormous pumpkin head on a toothpick body and (in the last scene) a truly vile oyster satin blouse. No screen presence and a whingey, victimy role to boot.

5. Christian Bale: too much brooding, not enough acting. Still, the bit where he got his disco tits out and did some press-ups for the gays and girls was bearable.

6. Fight scenes: ie ones that were so quickly cut (so that the film would get a 12A rating) that you couldn't work out what was going on. It was like that scene in The Birds where the seagulls go for Tippi Hedren in the attic - except for minute after minute. A one-stop solution for confusion and eye strain.

7. Utter pomposity. There was no sense of the innate ridiculousness of superhero-dom that made Spiderman or X-Men great. Even the Tim Burton films had a vein of black humour in them which cut through the over-cooked gothic.

[Sean]

I refuse to see it because of Katie Fucking Holmes. I used to like her, you know, before she started dating an asexual control freak who believes psychiatry is the new Satanism.

[Jonny]

klee said:

1. The underlying themes to this film are wholly objectionable, reactionary and deeply right-wing. Gotham is under threat from TERRORISTS who belong to a SECRET organisation dedicated to destroying an AMERICAN CITY because of its WESTERN DECADENCE. The ham-fisted parallels to Al Qaeda are, given that the terrorist threat to the US is largely a crock of neo-con-invented shit, worrying.

Dude, they plan on tearing a society apart by spreading fear through the air.
Surely that relates more to FOX News and CNN than it does to terrorism, right?

At least that's how I saw it.

And I thought it was a really good movie. Not really summer blockbuster fare due to the aforementioned lack of humour but it was a really interesting look at what motivates someone to buy lots of gadgets, wear a black leather suit and jump about on rooftops with more in common with The Crow and American Psycho than it does with X-Men, Spiderman and even the earlier Batman movies

But that's just my opinion

[Nick]

The psychiatrist! Doctor Crane! Oh, the hilariousness.

Tom Wilkinson's voice! Oh, the hilariousness, part II.

[Deleted]

jonny said:

Dude, they plan on tearing a society apart by spreading fear through the air.
Surely that relates more to FOX News and CNN than it does to terrorism, right?

I thought they were putting something in the water (badoom-tssch)? Which in turn reminded me of the rather fantastic episode in the old TV series where the Joker turns all of Gotham's water into jelly by putting jelly crystals into the reservoir. Now that was comedy gold. Jelly! Coming out of showers! And hoses! Onto flowers!

[WhiteNoiseMaker]

Exactamente, all this shite about 'batman gets darker' has me hankering after Adam West. The reason Batman went pants was not because the last films were light, it was cos they were shite.

Dark is not automatically equal to good. If I have to hear anyone go 'Ooh, but it's a lot darker again' one more time I will probably end up going to see the wretched film, so annoyed will I be.

[Lucinda]

Y'know, I didn't hate it. I thought Cillian Murphy would just be there to bring the pretty (and an alarming amount of eyeliner), but he was actually genuinely creepy. The way his character bitched at Katie Holmes' character also made me love him more. Katie Holmes wasn't great, her performance didn't do anything for me, and she didn't bring any life to her scenes (also totally agree that her shirt in that last scene was just horrible). The fight scenes at the start (that prison place?) pissed me off because of how they were cut, and I didn't know what the hell was going on. I was sort of disappointed with the fight scenes overall. I was expecting them to be a bit more spectacular.

and given the sheer emount of exposition for how Bruce Wayne became every inch the Batman, there's no explanation for why he suddenly decided to put on a smoker's voice.

Heeee. Ok, I agree with this. But I just laughed my ass off at it. The overall plot was a bit flat, and I felt it was slow to get going in parts. But I wasn't expecting the scene with his parents being killed (yeah, I never really research my superheroes before I see their films), and it really shocked me. I also thought the bat special effects were cool.

So, overall... I don't know. It was ok to pass a couple of hours I suppose. But it was nothing special.

Also, yeah, I just found this site the other day, and I could not stop laughing. There's some funny stuff on there.

[Jen]

5{r=yizzomk2 board=movies thread=1119949957 post=1119963821]I refuse to see it because of Katie Fucking Holmes. I used to like her, you know, before she started dating an asexual
[/quote]
Whoah! Hold up there Yizzo. Say whatcha like about Mr Cruise, but he is incredibly sexy.
I really, really enjoyed this film, was thoroughly impressed by it on a whole and am quite surprised by a lot of the negative reactions to it on this thread. Each to their own though.

[Sparkle]

I enjoyed Batman too. In fact, I've seen it twice now, and enjoyed it much more the second time. I do agree that the fight scenes were badly cut and difficult to follow. But in its defence,
Christian Bale is beautiful and I thought his special growly Batman voice was marvellous. Katie Holmes was irritating as ever, though.

[Rad]

I'm just watching this for the first time (which I may regret, judging the above comments) and I can't believe Stella from Sugar Rush is BATMAN'S MUM. No wonder she was so fucked up.

[Mike]

I'm getting crazy excited about The Dark Knight now, not least because the only thing really wrong with the original - Katie Holmes - isn't in it.

[cathybradford]

Jul 20, 2008 22:57:30 GMT Mike said:

I'm getting crazy excited about The Dark Knight now, not least because the only thing really wrong with the original - Katie Holmes - isn't in it.

Though being replaced by the even more average Maggie Gyllenhaal, an actress I just don't 'get' at all was hardly the most exciting of news.

To be honest I didn't find much wrong with Katie, nothing special but totally fine.

Though from what I've heard most seem to suggest Maggie is fine too, even the people (like myself) who don't usually rate her at all.

[Deleted]

I watched this last night, and clearly, the best thing about it was Christian Bale's arms.

The rest of it was good too. Much better than Batman of old. Although I've now seen how much Iron Man ripped off from it. Which is not so good.