BATMAN WEEK – Under the Knife – Batman Begins

by Awesome The Hedgehog
(The Night Is Darkest Just Before The Dawn…)

Before The Dark Knight there had to be a movie to drag Batman out from the cesspit that was Batman & Robin. The series was in ruins after a barrage of Bat-Nipples, Ice Puns and Monkey Dances had jizzed all over the glorious Bat Symbol. Someone needed to bring the series back to the former glory that parted ways with the series after Batman Returns: Christopher Nolan.

I won’t divulge much into the back-story of Batman Triumphant, because many people already know, but what I will say is the irony of the two films ‘Batman Begins’ and ‘The Dark Knight’. See, I don’t remember Batman Begins getting any hype at all, but surely it’s a way more important film than The Dark Knight! Brand new cast, new director, setting, tone and plot…It even revived Batman as the DARK Knight, not some overpaid actor from ER prancing around and calling people ‘Dick’.

Anyway, this is a review of Batman Begins, personally my favourite movie of all time and as of this review I have yet to see The Dark Knight, because it isn’t released over here. Now just because this is my favourite film ever, doesn’t mean I’ll be biased about it, it merely means I’ve seen it enough times to know how to review it.

But since most of you all have seen it anyway, this will be a different kind of review. I won’t be telling you whether to see it or not, but my thoughts and opinions on it, what worked and what didn’t.

To start things off, I love the cast in this film; I thought each one was perfect to play a modernised version of the Batman cast for the new generation. The new Batman arc’s cast (specifically Heath Ledger’s role) always seem to be quite ‘miss’ when you first hear about them, but when you see them on screen, you really begin to believe that they aren’t Christian Bale or Cillian Murphy, they’re the goddamn Batman and the fucking Scarecrow!

However, I wasn’t entirely convinced by Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Katie Holmes as Rachael Dawes. I saw Batman Begins at the movies when I was 13, prior to that, I never read the comics, I just loved watching the cartoon and the first two films (Batman and Batman Returns), though I had seen Forever and B&R. The point is, when they were introduced, I had never heard of them before. In fact one never featured in the comics. The problem that I had, is that you could very well see through both character portrayals and know it was just Morgan Freeman doing the same old act. I have never seen Katie Holmes in anything else, but her role in this film was so plain and boring, despite having a lot of important stuff to say, you automatically push her aside and label her as “Love Interest” and really don’t care about what she’s up to in the film.

I also thought the Scarecrow (My favourite Batman villain) did not have enough screen time compared to everyone else, I mean because of his comic book style, you think of him as the main villain, but he’s pushed aside to make way for the “Almighty Liam Nesson! All hail Liam Nesson!” I think altogether he has about 5 scenes to himself in the film and they barley last 5 minutes. I’m aware that Begins is centred around developing Batman and not “The villain of the month” likes in the previous ones, but I don’t think I speak just for myself when I say The Scarecrow is the fucking shit! His final scene could have been epic, riding around on a horse breathing fire, but he gets shot in the face with a tazer gun by Rachael and gallops away screaming into the mist, I must say that was the down point of the film for me. I’ve also heard that The Scarecrow’s screen time is around 3 minutes in The Dark Knight, which is a shame, but in a weird turn of events, it’s more than I hoped from the character, he’s actually the first Batman villain to survive 2 movies!

Moving on, I thought the film was very well written, despite a lot of cryptic metaphors here and there and complete gibberish often uttered by Liam Nesson, I thought they kept it going for most of the film. The dialogue was like in Pulp Fiction, where even though what they say is mostly irrelevant to the plot, there’s something about the direction that compels you to listen to John Travolta’s rant about McDonald’s. Plus, it’s always nice to hear Michael Caine’s comic one liners in a cockney accent, “What was the point of all those push-ups if you can’t even lift a bloody log?” Classic.

By far, the evil scheme in Begins is one of the best. A compound used from the same type of flower Bruce had to pick for Ducard (aka Ra’s Al Ghul) was used to create a Fear gas that The Scarecrow tested on mob bosses and criminals, which he instituted into Arkham Asylum and then poured it all into Gotham’s water supply for weeks, before stealing a machine capable of evaporating water and unleashing it in the city causing the gas to spread everywhere through manholes across the city, as it tears itself apart.

Now that is a well thought out plan, it’s not just a giant Ice Beam or make up that kills you with a smile on your face, no this is serious. When Nolan decided to make Batman serious and realistic, you can take the plan for what it is, it’s very real and very evil. (Well only if that washing machine type thing exists, which I’m not sure of).

The action scenes pay off well, especially for a prequel/origin movie. I don’t understand why Iron Man didn’t learn from this with its puny 3 action scenes, whilst Batman explains much more about his origins in less time than Tony Stark does AND has time to fight gangsters, ninjas and the scarecrow. Still, at least Iron Man wasn’t fighting the Hulk-Poodle…*groans*

Overall, Batman Begins is a great adaptation of the series and comics (which yes, I have read now). I will say its overrated and a lot of people seem to hate the small things about it, like the Tumbler, which I thought was pretty damn badass (that’s right, I said “Pretty Damn BADASS!”). When I get the time I will post a review/my thoughts on The Dark Knight, until then fingers crossed for the Scarebeast in Batman 3 (The Dark Knight Returns?)!

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