X-sections
Dutch
The Editor
e-mail Reggy!
|
|
Movie: Batman Begins
Director: Chris Nolan
Actors: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Morgan Freeman
|
|
Tim Burton delivered the first two Batman films with great success, Joel Schumacher took over the franchise after that but most of the fans didn't appreciate his over-the-top comic approach. The Bathype was dead and gone… until the Marvel superheroes conquered the worldwide movie theatres. Athletic men in spandex, wearing a kinky mask kick-started a new trend and also a new opportunity to re-introduce the Batman, literally, cause writer David S. Goyer, responsible for the 'Blade' series, found a refreshing way to tell the origins of our Caped Crusader. He worked closely with 'Memento' director Chris Nolan to write an original script and approach the material in a dark and realistic way, just like Bob Kane's first comics.
The story in a nutshell:
Young Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) witnesses the murder of his parents. Years are passing by and Bruce still feels responsible for his parents' death. He disappears, starts a journey to discover the real Bruce. The young man meets the mysterious Ducard (Liam Neeson). This martial arts master teaches Bruce how to control his inner demons. He learns how to channel is vengeful thoughts and use it to fight crime. Bruce Wayne returns to the corrupt city of Gotham and decides to fight justice his own way as The Batman. Sergeant Gordon (Gary Oldman), Wayne's friend Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) and his loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine) join Batman to clean up the city.
The first part of Batman Begins focuses on the birth of The Batman. David S. Goyer came up with an inventive way to tell this story. Bruce Wayne's journey to discover himself with the help of Liam Neeson's Ducard and Caine's Alfred is wonderfully written. This chapter feels like a long well edited introduction. After that, the action takes off once Bruce Wayne puts on the mask with the pointy ears. Don't worry, I won't spoil this part.
Chris Nolan brings Batman back to his roots, no theatrical Joel Schumacher moments but realistic characters in a realistic environment. Christian Bale is impressive and pretty scary as Batman. Bale even changes his voice when he wears the mask. Michael Caine offers fun but also moving moments as Alfred. Fellow Dutchman Rutger Hauer is great as the director of the Wayne company. Morgan Freeman is fantastic as always in a small role as the provider of Batman's cool gadgets. Gary Oldman is perfect as the only good cop in town, Sergeant Gordon.
The dark and gritty look of Batman Begins is being captured by wonderful cinematography combined with a powerful score. Not one but two great composers created the movie's music. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard scoring one film, that's quite unique.
The action unfortunately suffers from over-editing and close ups and makes the fight sequences a bit hard to watch. But Chris Nolan surprisingly uses a lot of traditional special effects with just a bit of CGI so the movie keeps its realistic tone.
Batman Begins is impressive and an intense helluva ride. Chris Nolan and David S. Goyer simply did it, they grabbed the defibrillator paddles and brought the Batman franchise back to life.
Written by Reggy 17/06/05
|
|
