Batman Begins
Venue: Vue, North Finchley
A retelling of the Batman story, this time focusing on his earlier years (hence the title). Bruce Wayne is found by Qui-Gon Jinn who trains him as a Jedi. After mastering all the Jedi skills, he declines an offer to join the dark side of the Force. Bale was stuck with the Batman character (playboy or broody), which is actually quite a one-dimensional character. He did quite well, except for his overdone scary Batman voice. Caine's Alfred was fun, but I didn't quite buy it. Katie Holmes shows that she is quite a capable actress, if she starts getting more grown up roles.
Morgan Freeman must have requested the role he played - basically Q to Bale's Bond. Gary Oldman played Jim Gordon to a tee. Cillian Murphy played the creepy Dr Crane with just the right amount of creep. Oldman and Murphy gave the best performances in the film.
This version comes much closer to the Batman portrayed in Frank Miller's
Add a comment
I'm supposed to go see it this weekend. It's gotten great reviews. (And I'm not usually up for anything that comes to the local multiplex. Usually only game for the independents.)
Haven't seen the movie yet, just the game for The Box. Not bad, but "Splinter Cell Lite" really does describe it accurately. The Boy reports he had no idea Batman was so cool -- "He's just a guy, you know." Maybe this weekend . . . : )
I finally saw it this weekend. Lots of silly fun. The scary batman voice annoyed me at first, but then I decided that he was probably just trying to disguise his voice like people who leave anonymous tips over the phone. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
The guy I saw the movie with liked the weird Batman voice because he said it always bothered him otherwise that people didn't just recognize the masked character's voice. He thought it was clever of the filmmakers to have the voice disguised, just as all the gear was explained in this movie.