Why You Should Watch Yet Another Batman Movie

The Batman, or has he's more commonly known, just "Batman." The Dark Knight Detective. The Caped Crusader. Beloved since the Spring of 1939. Yeah, that's right. He's been around for almost seventy years. In countless incarnations through the decades, we've all come to know something about this enduring character. Billionaire Bruce Wayne, who watches, powerless, as a two-bit thug guns down his parents in cold blood, uses the dark fury, rage, and brokenness within himself to fuel a personal crusade that leads him across the world to discover a means of fighting the very evil that took his parents. At that journey's end is the discovery of a means to fight injustice and the birth of The Batman.

Thus, it's the journey from orphaned and devastated boy to Dark Knight that makes the newest Batman film worth seeing. By now, you've seen or heard something of this new film, entitled Batman Begins. And indeed, he does begin. This film, which many are labeling the "fifth" Batman movie, has absolutely NOTHING to do with the previous films, except, of course, The Batman and those familiar parts of his world that make their way into any incarnation of the character.

Thus, this is not a prequel, as the latest Star Wars films. It is a bona fide "reboot," as we say in the genre. It's a restart of the Batman film mythos. And as such, I believe it will succeed as no other Batman film--or superhero film, for that matter--has before. Batman Begins, unlike its predecessors, is grounded in reality as much as possible. I'm sure you all remember the previous Batman films. The old series, which is now quite dated and hard to re-watch, began with 1989's Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. The movie really should have been called "Joker," because Nicholson's ego demanded that The Joker outshine the guy they happened to name the film after. Though Batman '89 was, at the time of its release and for a time after, considered by most fans to be a good Batman movie, it was still never seen as a great Batman movie. The three sequels that followed sucked what goodness the first film had (and it wasn't that much) and destroyed the franchise. Batman Returns was dark for the sake of being dark and yet again made Batman a supporting cast member in his own world. Batman Forever was a little better, but yet again, even new Batman Val Kilmer couldn't make the character interesting enough to take center stage. Jack Nicholson II, a.k.a., Jim Carrey, stole the show in Forever with his over-the-top and now cringe-worthy performance as The Riddler.

Of course, the greatest insult to the legacy of The Batman was 1997's Batman and Robin. Folks, I've been a comic book reader all my life, and for almost all of that time, The Batman has been one of if not my favorite character. I never thought I'd walk out of a Batman movie. But in the middle of Batman and Robin, I had to. It was tough love. Had I realized the horror awaiting me, I'd have never even contributed to this travesty's box office with my cash. From George Clooney's bobble-head Batman, replete with Bat-credit card and Bat-ice skates, to Arnold Schwarzenneger's horrible one-liners and Alicia Silverstone's extremely annoying Batgirl, this film is worse than the contents of a pumped stomach after a visit to a Chinese buffet. If anyone tells you this film isn't that bad, they're quite right. It's unbelievably, almost impossibly, worse. We comic book and comic book movie fans continue to this day to refer to really bad comic-to-screen adaptations as "yet another Batman and Robin." Highly overrated Halle Berry's Catwoman is a more recent version of Batman and Robin, a comic book movie that says, "ah, screw the comic book. We just want to use the name".

Seriously, folks, it's because of Batman and Robin that we've gone almost a decade without a new Batman film. And that's just not right, because we're talking about The Batman here. He's extremely cool. Anyone of us could be a Batman or Batwoman. That's the allure of the character. Any of us could fall prey to great tragedy and decide to mold ourselves into something and someone new in the aftermath of loss. So, there's absolutely no reason why the Batman film franchise had to the way of Batman and Robin. Thankfully, tomorrow marks the release of Batman Begins. But why should you really care? Even if you aren't a Bat-purist like myself, you have to be alive and somewhat intelligent to be reading this. Thus, you had to be aware of the horror unfolding before you in "Batman and Robin." After watching that, you probably decided "Hey, I'm not a comic geek, so I don't really care about Batman beyond watching a movie anyway. And this movie stunk. So I don't care about Batman anymore."

I honestly don't blame you. But let me assure you, as a man who spends hours a day reading reports of the production and development of genre and comic book films, Batman Begins is worth your precious time and hard-earned coin. Let me just toss out some of the cast to you. Liam Neeson. Morgan Freeman. Gary Oldman. Three of the greatest dramatic actors of the last twenty years. And they're in a Batman movie. And they play it as straight as "Rob Roy," Se7en," and "Immortal Beloved," respectively. Add to that Ken Watanabe, (pronounced "wah-TAH-nah-be"), who many of you remember from his breakout role as Katsumoto from "The Last Samurai," who plays Ra's Al Ghul, one of the truly great if not popularly-known Batman comic villains, and Michael Caine as loyal butler and surrogate father Alfred Pennyworth, and you have an amazingly rich cast for a "comic book movie."

The real star of Batman Begins, however, is Christian Bale. He's been in a few small movies, like "American Psycho," Equilibrium," and "Reign of Fire." He's best known to horror and thriller fans because of "American Psycho." What's best about Bale is that he finally gives us The Batman we've never had. He's young, buff, and is an amazingly talented actor. His performance is critical to this film, which has sought since day one to make The Batman THE main character of the film. Who'd have thunk it, huh? Batman being the star of a movie with "Batman" in the title. But Christopher Nolan, who directed the excellent and ground-breaking "Memento" and the brilliant "Insomnia," starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, didn't want to make a Batman film unless he could make one that made the audience care more about Batman than any other character. Screenwriter David Goyer, who wrote the popular "Blade" films, wrote the screenplay for Batman Begins and had the same goal in mind. Thus, we get a Batman movie that will give more screen and story time to the development of the Bruce Wayne character, and to the birth of The Batman. And as you'll see when I discuss this more in depth in tomorrow's review, this Batman is rooted in reality. The Bat-suit, gear, and the Batmobile itself don't just appear out of nowhere as mere plot devices. We'll see their origin and purpose, and learn where and how Bruce Wayne found these improbable machines and gadgets and re-tooled them for his crime-fighting purposes.

As mentioned previously, I will be viewing the first showing of Batman Begins here in Lafayette. I'll be writing a spoiler-free review for anyone interested in reading it. Thanks for reading. Meauxses


The new Batmobile, which in Batman Begins is a military vehicle "customized" by Bruce Wayne in his struggle against injustice as The Batman.



My favorite of the slew of Batman Begins posters. Batman Begins re-starts the Batman film franchise and opens tomorrow, June 15th, 2005.