Batman Begins: Why Everybody’s Right
Prequels being the wave of the future, it was due time for the Batman cinema franchise to hang ten. From the extremely advance posters and previews, though, it was hard to tell if this prequel would be successful or just another pathetic grasping at a worn-thin franchise (read between the lines, Star Wars fans). But, as almost every reviewer and friend of yours who has seen Batman Begins says, this movie is different — from other superhero or comic book movies, from other prequels, and definitely from all the other Batman movies.
To be fair, not the entire formula has been rewritten. The cast is still studded with names like Katie Holmes, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine, though Bruce Wayne is played by relative unknown Christian Bale (American Psycho, Velvet Goldmine). The majority of the action still takes place in good old Gotham, though Gotham at times looks less than ten percent as dark, and a significant portion of the plot occurs on another continent.
Huh. Forget fairness, this movie really does break the Batman mold, including the ridiculous nipplèd suit of Kilmer and Clooney, thank GOD. The villains live in a present subtly connected to their twisted past, yet without going into psychotherapy-esque detail and without relying on an unlikely chemical accident. The baddies thankfully go light on the ridiculous tirades that slow down the plot and end up sparing the temporarily captured Bat. Best of all Bruce Wayne is actually charismatic, not just rich and smarmy, and this leads into why Batman Begins really holds together: Bruce and Batman are distinct sides to a coin, aware of one another yet barely the same person.
Director Christopher Nolan takes his flair for ambience (Memento) and projects it liberally around Bale’s character(s). As a child and young man, Bruce Wayne has occasional flashbacks to his scarring bat encounter, introduced in the earlier movies but detailed more richly in this film. Bruce’s episodes do not simply make him hyperventilate and hide from the shadows, they draw him into the shadows, fascinating and repelling him simultaneously. Bruce’s fear of bats leads indirectly to his parents’ death, and directly links with guilt and a desire for justice. Fear works both as Batman’s kryptonite and his fuel, his Achilles’ heel and his utility belt. It creates a vengeful anger tempered by an understanding of mortality.
The focus on mentality extends to a focus on philosophies. Unlike the Matrix movies or those ever-the-bad-example Star Wars prequels, the theories don’t drown out the entertainment. Without offering more spoilers, two competing philosophies of fighting crime — both involving some excellent fighting, by the way — provide compelling arguments, yet the less fascist crime fighting easily wins the audience’s sympathy. Even the Bush loving neo cons in the theater will have a hard time siding with the bad guys.
How come I never got this out of the other Batman movies, not even from Michael Keaton and Tim Burton? It’s no doubt that this movie could not have existed with only the comic as its inspiration, as this movie admits when it makes an effort to logically lead into the original Batman movie. But Nolan’s inward vision takes us where Burton’s villain and Gotham-focused picture could not, and Nolan leaves us teetering on the barbed wire fence between Batman’s dark surroundings and Bruce Wayne’s darker psyche.
Even so, a few details are lackluster, specifically, Katie Holmes, the sometimes too-frenzied action scenes, and . . . Katie Holmes. If the Tom Cruise debacle can be blamed for one thing, it’s for casting too much light onto Holmes’s simpering shoulders. One other thing: where does this franchise go next? I for one would love another Nolan/Bale venture, even if it involves recycling some of the villains. Why not revisit some of the flopped movies’ villains, like the Riddler and Dr. Fries, who were wonderful on the original ’60s television series? Even Robin deserves another chance beyond mealy Chris O’Donnell. . . . Really, the franchise still has a lot left — kudos to Nolan for showing us as much.
Laura Fletcher is not an actress, but even she could have done better in this movie than Katie Holmes. Plus then she’d get to smooch on Christian Bale.