Batman Begins

[RangerWickett]

Lucius Fox: "Okay Bruce, we've got a magnetic grappling gun, explosive flash and smoke pellets, radiosensitive eavesdropping tools, and a GPS tracking dart."

Batman: "Alright, I like it. What else?"

Lucius Fox: "Electroreactive hang-gliding cloak, cowl-inset satellite phone, and tactile monofibrile tread on the soles of your boots, allowing you to hang from ceilings."

Batman (pointing): "What's that?"

Lucius Fox: "Oh that? Well that's shark repellant, but I mean, when will you ever need that?"

 

[Felon]

Is that an attack against me? A Felon wants to attack me?

That's right! What you gonna do about it? Gonna let me push you around? Poke! Poke! Poke!

/sigh

Not taking the bait, huh? Well, that's OK hehe...

Neither are impossible positions to defend. Keaton doesn't have pouty lips (Adriana Lima has pouty lips), Keaton doesn't have a weak voice (certainly no weaker than Bale's), he's 5'10'' (cetainly not short, just not tall), and he was well before 40 at the time Batman was released. See, that wasn't so hard was it?

He was less than two years from forty. You call that "well before"? His take Batman's voice was basically the same cop-out most folks would resort to--a nearly inaudible hiss of a whisper. And you simply chose not to address his lack of physical fitness.

So yeah, your position is impossible to defend. Your problem is that you apparently never saw that Python skit about a guy who's looking for an arguement and all he gets is disagreement.

You seem to be basing your opinion on a bunch of comics and cartoons most of the people who will see any Batman movie, including me, have never paid much attention to. We don't care about fidelity to earlier incarnations of Batman, we just want a good
movie.

Well, your blissful ignorance is all well and good, but there is probably some book out there that you've read and are fond of. I suspect if they made a movie out of it you'd be disappointed if the director was unfaithful to major elements of the source material. Batman is a 6-foot-plus fighting machine. Keaton is a pantywaist. That's not a trivial element to disregard.

People liked Burton's Batman because it was cute and silly and offered them lots of bright colors to look at.

 

[reveal]

Lucius Fox: "Okay Bruce, we've got a magnetic grappling gun, explosive flash and smoke pellets, radiosensitive eavesdropping tools, and a GPS tracking dart."

Batman: "Alright, I like it. What else?"

Lucius Fox: "Electroreactive hang-gliding cloak, cowl-inset satellite phone, and tactile monofibrile tread on the soles of your boots, allowing you to hang from ceilings."

Batman (pointing): "What's that?"

Lucius Fox: "Oh that? Well that's shark repellant, but I mean, when will you ever need that?"

 

[Desdichado]

It's more like the kinetic close-up camera work of Bourne Identity than something like The Matrix, if that makes sense.

My only complaint with the otherwise brilliant film. I loathe that style of hand-held, up close, intercut fight scene photography. I don't need to see Batman doing Jet Li like wuxia maneuvers, but I don't want to have a brief epileptic seizure and then come out of it to see that Batman won.

 

[reveal]

My only complaint with the otherwise brilliant film. I loathe that style of hand-held, up close, intercut fight scene photography. I don't need to see Batman doing Jet Li like wuxia maneuvers, but I don't want to have a brief epileptic seizure and then come out of it to see that Batman won.

From http://www.mrcranky.com/movies/batmanbegins.html:

Was the cameraman being chased by a bear? That's how chaotic the action scenes are.

 

[Desdichado]

Nope. Let's leave it at that.

Well, if you didn't even want to talk about why you thought Keaton was spot on, why did you even bring it up? Surely there's an interesting conversation to be had there? Why assume that it's going to go down in flames? That's the whole reason to talk about movies in the first place, isn't it?

 

[Jarrod]

A bit of a hijack..

"I'm.... Batthumb!"

And man do I need to see this movie...

 

[Captain Tagon]

My only complaint with the otherwise brilliant film. I loathe that style of hand-held, up close, intercut fight scene photography. I don't need to see Batman doing Jet Li like wuxia maneuvers, but I don't want to have a brief epileptic seizure and then come out of it to see that Batman won.

Blah. I like this recent trend in action scenes. Like it a lot. If I want to watch orchestrated fights clearly I'll watch pro wrestling.

 

[RangerWickett]

I don't mind Batman cutting down mooks with the help of shaky-camera (tm), but I do want to see major fight scenes in detail. I mean, it's possible to make complex cool fights without them appearing overly choreographed.

I liked the movie. Sure, I've got some small complaints in that they could have made a few of the characters more meaningful, and how just because Batman jumps from rooftop to rooftop doesn't mean his car has to too, but all in all it was very well acted and fun to watch. I think I realized I loved the movie when I got my first look at Dr. Crane. Man I love recurring villains.

 

[Desdichado]

Blah. I like this recent trend in action scenes. Like it a lot. If I want to watch orchestrated fights clearly I'll watch pro wrestling.

Huh? So there's no where in between the camp fakeness of pro wrestling and a camerman who was fumbling to not drop his camera during every action scene while some people who may or may not have actually been the main actors kinda sorta moved in a vague way?

Fight scenes can be nasty, brutish, quick and realistic and still actually give the audience the respect of showing them what's happening.