I'm not a movie reviewer, but I need to comment on Batman Begins, which I finally got to see last night. I know, I'm a little bit behind the curve. I hate movie theaters (I guess they wouldn't be so bad if they were priced better and nobody else was there) and with some of the things I've been doing the last several years, I got way behind on movies. I finally got to see Transformers on Thursday night, for instance.
I have to say that this is by far my favorite rendition of Batman. Batman was originally a comic book character, of course, but has appeared in several cartoons and movies since. To this date, my pick for worst Batman franchise were the movies in the 90's. The first two Batman movies featured Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne/Batman, the third had Val Kilmer, who fit the part pretty well. I didn't really like those movies though. Gotham City, while I realize is supposed to be somewhat Gothic hence the name, was a little too dark for my tastes, and the characters and situations were a little too caricatured for my tastes. I know the movies were based on comic book characters, but they seemed to "comic booky" for my tastes. They seemed to make a lot of money, so we can see just where my opinion fits into the grand scheme of things.
I know a forth Batman movie was made as part of that franchise featuring George Cloony as Batman. I didn't bother to see it. The previews made the movie and the characters look a little too much like "Pee Wee's Playhouse." I've been wrong about many movies based on the previews before, but sometimes the previews kill my desire to see a movie.
When I heard that a new Batman movie was coming out, I ignored it, figuring that it was part of the last franchise. Then, a few weeks ago, I was watching Batman Tech on the History Channel. I saw some scenes from the movie, and heard about some aspects of the story. I heard that it was an entirely different franchise; a new attempt to render the Batman story for the big screen. When my wife signed us up for a trial of Blockbuster Total Access, I picked Batman Begins as my first movie.
All I can say is, Wow! This movie did a really good job of telling the Batman story, from scratch. I liked it a lot. The acting was decent, the characters were true without going overboard, the tech was believable yet slightly out of existence, and of course Gotham City wasn't too Gothic. The Chinese martial arts (league of Shadows) was an interesting twist.
I can't wait for The Dark Night to be available to rent.
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