I know, I know, we've all talked about this film SO much that it seems innately ridiculous to have an actual discussion thread. But I think a few people are probably going to be dipping back into Nolan's first effort in the lead up to The Dark Knight.
Anyways before I write anymore I went and found the official Chud.com reviews of the film, it's interesting to note that Devin 'Hates Batman Begins' Faraci's review is actually a lot more positive and grounded that I remember. I have the same issues with the third act that he has but he finds a lot more to like elsewhere than I remembered.
Devin's Take
Tag Team Review
I've seen Batman Begins all of three times and each viewing fragments the section of the film I like and the section of the film I loathe more and more. I honestly think that Batman Begins is a fantastic superhero film in its opening hour and a bit, in fact the origin elements and beginnings of the plot are done so well that the first half is probably some of the best stuff I've seen in superhero films.
Yet I can tell you the precise moment the film completely loses me. The moment when after summoning a swarm of Bats to cover his escape we see Batman lumbering down Arkham Asylum like a fat man after a buffet table. It's like the 'intelligence' of what has come before is just completely washed away as Batman does more and more outlandishly stupid things and characters lose their sense of character and become quip machines. The only constant performance in the film seems to be Michael Caine who's Alfred at least seems the same as the Alfred in the opening acts.
It's difficult to figure out who to blame for the scripting problems. Goyer's enthusiasm for the material is evident and it kind of energises what could be an overly trite origin story, however his dialogue is often brutally clunky. Early on its easier to ignore, but it seems to come on in full force once Batman begins his Tumbler chase.
It's easy to ignore the few missteps in dialogue right at the start ("protection for them" "my name is merely Ducard") because there is a wealth of great stuff to distract from it. Tom Wilkinson's initial speech, Thomas Wayne, even the training sessions on Ice are all really well done and help the film maintain a nice tone. I don't even think the problem is that Nolan doesn't know how to work with Batman as a character because the attack at the docks is a really great vision of how the character would operate and even his interactions with Crane are handled well enough, it just seems like he ran out of interest once he had laid the foundations for the character and everything else just seems to be done on automatic.
Batman blowing a hole in the secure wing of an Asylum is a moderately stupid thing to do, Batman taking Rachel back to the batcave after she has been poisoned and when it would be easier to leave her with Jim Gorden and divert attention whilst Alfred brought the antidote to them is a pretty stupid thing to do, causing massive amounts of mayhem whilst taking a person who is freaking out from weaponised hallucigenics on a tour of Gotham's skyline is just ridiculously lunk headed. There is no rational reason for Batman to go on the most ridiculously terrifying route home possible and it turns a scene that is hollow but could have been viscerally thrilling into a joke.
There's other stuff to, like Ra's convoluted way of saying he killed Bruce Wayne's family by proxy, and the massive gaps in logic over the central threat. To truly believe in the threat of the toxin you have to assume that no one has showered or boiled a kettle for the past fortnight and it all leads up to a conclusion which is so hazily explained that it's hard to tell if Batman set up a deathtrap or killed Ra's through sheer serendipity. And that's not even acknowledging the existence of a stupidly perfunctory character who seems to be only in the film to reiterate how dangerous it would be for the electronmagnetic device of doom to get to the central tower.
And yet I still like the film. Bale can do the kind of duality needed for Bruce Wayne in his sleep (American Psycho, The Machinist are great examples of this) and as such he does a great job in bringing life to the central character. Oldman is surprisingly great as Jim Gordon maintaining a level of respectability whilst having to endure the worst of Goyer's script whilst Tom Wilkinson and Cillian Murphy prove to be an interesting diversion from the usual roster of Batman villains.
Anyways before I write anymore I went and found the official Chud.com reviews of the film, it's interesting to note that Devin 'Hates Batman Begins' Faraci's review is actually a lot more positive and grounded that I remember. I have the same issues with the third act that he has but he finds a lot more to like elsewhere than I remembered.
Devin's Take
Tag Team Review
I've seen Batman Begins all of three times and each viewing fragments the section of the film I like and the section of the film I loathe more and more. I honestly think that Batman Begins is a fantastic superhero film in its opening hour and a bit, in fact the origin elements and beginnings of the plot are done so well that the first half is probably some of the best stuff I've seen in superhero films.
Yet I can tell you the precise moment the film completely loses me. The moment when after summoning a swarm of Bats to cover his escape we see Batman lumbering down Arkham Asylum like a fat man after a buffet table. It's like the 'intelligence' of what has come before is just completely washed away as Batman does more and more outlandishly stupid things and characters lose their sense of character and become quip machines. The only constant performance in the film seems to be Michael Caine who's Alfred at least seems the same as the Alfred in the opening acts.
It's difficult to figure out who to blame for the scripting problems. Goyer's enthusiasm for the material is evident and it kind of energises what could be an overly trite origin story, however his dialogue is often brutally clunky. Early on its easier to ignore, but it seems to come on in full force once Batman begins his Tumbler chase.
It's easy to ignore the few missteps in dialogue right at the start ("protection for them" "my name is merely Ducard") because there is a wealth of great stuff to distract from it. Tom Wilkinson's initial speech, Thomas Wayne, even the training sessions on Ice are all really well done and help the film maintain a nice tone. I don't even think the problem is that Nolan doesn't know how to work with Batman as a character because the attack at the docks is a really great vision of how the character would operate and even his interactions with Crane are handled well enough, it just seems like he ran out of interest once he had laid the foundations for the character and everything else just seems to be done on automatic.
Batman blowing a hole in the secure wing of an Asylum is a moderately stupid thing to do, Batman taking Rachel back to the batcave after she has been poisoned and when it would be easier to leave her with Jim Gorden and divert attention whilst Alfred brought the antidote to them is a pretty stupid thing to do, causing massive amounts of mayhem whilst taking a person who is freaking out from weaponised hallucigenics on a tour of Gotham's skyline is just ridiculously lunk headed. There is no rational reason for Batman to go on the most ridiculously terrifying route home possible and it turns a scene that is hollow but could have been viscerally thrilling into a joke.
There's other stuff to, like Ra's convoluted way of saying he killed Bruce Wayne's family by proxy, and the massive gaps in logic over the central threat. To truly believe in the threat of the toxin you have to assume that no one has showered or boiled a kettle for the past fortnight and it all leads up to a conclusion which is so hazily explained that it's hard to tell if Batman set up a deathtrap or killed Ra's through sheer serendipity. And that's not even acknowledging the existence of a stupidly perfunctory character who seems to be only in the film to reiterate how dangerous it would be for the electronmagnetic device of doom to get to the central tower.
And yet I still like the film. Bale can do the kind of duality needed for Bruce Wayne in his sleep (American Psycho, The Machinist are great examples of this) and as such he does a great job in bringing life to the central character. Oldman is surprisingly great as Jim Gordon maintaining a level of respectability whilst having to endure the worst of Goyer's script whilst Tom Wilkinson and Cillian Murphy prove to be an interesting diversion from the usual roster of Batman villains.
