Rate Batman Begins

[Angel Tarragon]

I saw it last night. There are way too many scenes where the chacraters are whispering. I could barely make out the dialogue.

 

[fanboy2000]

let's be honest, here: the canon has been rewritten a half-dozen times for most of these characters. Batman's prehistory has been clarified, redefined and slightly rewritten for decades.

I have a collection of Batman newspaper strips from 10/25/1943 - 10/28/1944 that completely backs you up. The tone of the first six strips, a kind of introduction of who Batman and Robin are, is much more in line with the 60's Batman than The Dark Knight Returns. Before anyone says "yeah, but those are newspaper strips..." I'd like to point out that a large body of Bob Kane's Batman work was done on the strips. Kane himself said that that the Newspaper Strips were the big leagues, a notion that was commonly held by the comics industry.

With Superman, his origin first appeared in the newspapers, not in Action Comics or Superman #1. Also, most of the things we think of as being quintessentially Superman first appeared in either the radio show or the newspaper strip. In fact, Clark Kent works for the Daily Planet because the original Daily Star was too common a name. They didn't want to loose a client because Superman worked for a competing paper!

 

[Eosin the Red]

Fantastic movie. Best of the superhero cadre yet but not by so much as to totally out distance the Spiderflicks. Dang but they didn't nail my version of Batman.

 

[ssampier]

I gave it an 8, and definitely think it's my favorite of the Batman movies.

But best comic book movie ever?

I dunno, maybe it comes down to personal preference for the heroes themselves, but for my money Spiderman (I or II, take your pick) is still the reigning champ for comic book movies. They're fantastic in every way.

Certainly not. This was a good movie and all, but I enjoyed the original Batman movie the most.

BTW, I'm not a Batman expert, so maybe I'm confused. Who was the character that originated the phrase, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

I first I thought it was the Waynes' murderer, then I changed my mind and thought, the Joker.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

So very true. We found it at a used CD/DVD store. They had like six copied for like $5 apiece.

I really, really, really did not like Equilibrium. Not at all, at all. I cannot understand why some peole like it.

Batman Begins I gave an 8. Depp as a young Gordon was great! (I have to admit that I like Gordon as a character better than Batman... and Batman better than Superman.) A very solid movie, and better than any Batman movie that I have seen, even the old serials.

The Auld Grump, who did dot expect to like BB at all.

 

[jeff37923]

I thought that it sucked mightily. So far, IMHO, the best Batman stuff has been the animated series. Until Warner Brothers and DC Comics come to an argreement with Frank Miller to do Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns - we won't be getting a good Batman movie.

 

[shilsen]

BTW, I'm not a Batman expert, so maybe I'm confused. Who was the character that originated the phrase, "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

I first I thought it was the Waynes' murderer, then I changed my mind and thought, the Joker.

In the Burton Batman movie they're one and the same. The way Batman realizes that the Joker is his parents' killer (back when the latter was just a young hoodlum) is when he uses that line in front of Bruce Wayne.

 

[mojo1701]

Depp as a young Gordon was great!

You mean Gary Oldman?

 

[WizarDru]

I first I thought it was the Waynes' murderer, then I changed my mind and thought, the Joker.

As shilsen points out, they were one and the same in the Burton movie. This is, however, purely an invention of that movie. BB returns to the classic lore of Joe Chill, random street thug, killing Wayne's parents. The Joker was a two-bit mystery-man villian wearing a red cape who fell in a vat of magic acid that turned him into his 'happier' self. Alan Moore once did a story of it from Jack Napier (i.e. the Joker's) perspective. It was very good.

As for the Dark Knight Returns....it's still good, but hasn't aged as well as it might. Some of the 80s references feel very dated now, for example. However, WB has animated part of the DKR in the Animated Series. It was the episode where three kids tell stories about Bats, and the first is a Bill Finger story, the second is a the battle with the gang boss in DKR and I can't honestly recall the third (though I seem to recall Neal Adams linkage). Besides which, DKR is a pretty lousy place to restart a movie franchise...especially as it features a Superman who's a puppet of the government, which kills two franchises with one stroke...and requires the audience to know who Green Arrow is, for that matter.

 

[WizarDru]

You mean Gary Oldman?

Heh. Maybe it was Johnny Depp playing Gary Oldman playing Jim Gordon. Man gets deep in a role, you know?