Wannabe Film Buffs: Batman Begins

Hello, readers! This is my first blog post based on the podcast that I cohost called Wannabe Film Buffs; where myself and my friend, JV Hampton-Vansant, watch all of the movies we should have seen by now, but haven't. We do this by going down IMDB's top 250 list, but with a catch: every time we reach a movie on the list that is part of a series (in this case, The Dark Knight), we watch the entire series from beginning to end in a thing we like to call Series Binge Hell. At the time of this post, we have reviewed The Shawshank Redemption and the Godfather trilogy.

Batman Begins is a superhero origin story that makes an effort to tell Batman's already very well-known origin story in a fresh and gritty new way. Until this film, the live action Batman films we have seen were the 1966 Leslie H. Martinson film Batman, the 1989 Tim Burton film of the same name, Burton's 1992 sequel Batman Returns, and Joel Schumacher's 1995 Batman Forever and 1997 Batman & Robin. Considering the campy and rather cringe-inducing note that Hollywood left our favorite pointy-eared prowler on, Christopher Nolan had quite the task to bring Batman back into the pop culture spotlight eight years after the release of Batman and Robin.

Going into this film, I honestly thought that Batman Begins would not stand the test of time. However, I found myself thoroughly enjoying it much more than I expected.

The ensemble that Christopher Nolan put together is this easily the movie's greatest strength. Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne/Batman is layered and interesting to follow and watch become Batman. Michael Caine's performance as Alfred has any future butler of Wayne Manor quivering in his boots in how they will hold a candle to Caine. Scenes with Morgan Freeman's Lucius Fox giving Bruce some new Batman tech is always fun to watch. Katie Holmes plays Rachel Dawes, a can-do assistant district attorney and Bruce's lifelong friend and love interest. She never feels too much like the stereotypical damsel in distress that only exists for the hero to save, and has some great dialogue specifically in the first act of the film. Cillian Murphy plays Dr. Crane aka The Scarecrow, a villain that uses a toxin that shows the victim's greatest fears. He does a great job being Batman's first big baddie he comes across. Liam Neeson as Ra's al Ghul plays Bruce's wise mentor and primary antagonist at the film's climax, and he plays that role expertly.

This leads to Batman Begins' biggest problem. Ra's al Ghul's presence in the third act of the film completely ruins the role of, in my opinion, the much more interesting villain of Batman Begins, The Scarecrow, who Batman spent the whole movie trying to defeat until Ra's shows up. With the League of Shadows pulling the strings the entire time, resulting in a lackluster plot twist, it undermines the Scarecrow and immediately made me think that Murphy deserved more. The film suffers from Spider-Man 3 syndrome by diverting its focus between more than one villain, therefore less time is spent with them. Or maybe I just don't find ninjas that fascinating.

With this film's dedication to realism, there is a feeling of limitation when it comes to the villains (this is still a superhero movie, after all). With slightly more suspension of disbelief, the hallucinations brought on by Scarecrow's fear gas would have gone from underwhelming (seriously though, most of the time it's just some Blair Witch shaky cam with a minor Photoshop effect) to downright horrifying. You know, like the Scarecrow is supposed to be. Also, let's acknowledge the Lazarus Pit in the room and talk about the one throw away line about rumors of Ra's al Ghul being immortal...

This along with the aggravatingly close-up action scenes makes what would have been a near perfect movie into, well, a still very enjoyable one. My problems with the movie don't actually bring the story down in any big way. The heroes are still likable, the villains are still evil, the movie still works.

Pros:

- great acting, dialogue, and direction

- hummable angsty soundtrack that fits the mood of the film

- a familiar superhero origin story made unique

Cons:

- action scenes being shot too close up, can't see much of the scenes clearly

- two villains mean less screen time for either of them

- it's ok for a comic book movie to be a little imaginative

Final Rating: 9/10