"Batman Begins"

Just got back from a matinee screening of "Batman Begins" and I'm pleased as punch to say - it isn't a piece of ***! Is it the Batman movie I and every other fan of the Dark Knight have spent years sacrificing goats and small children for? Not quite. It's very far from perfect and drops the ball on more than a few occasions. Is it still a hundred-thousand times better than any of the Burton or Schumacher films? You bet your sweet ass it is.
Nolan and Goyer "get it" in a way the writers and directors of the previous efforts never did. They're both actual comic book fans for one thing (Burton has been vocal in his contempt for the medium itself) and have a genuine understanding of what makes the character tick. They treat him with the dignity he so richly deserves and Bale (easily the best actor to don
the cape and cowl) nails the part, especially that of billionaire playboy Bruce
Wayne.
On the down side:
- The attempts at summer blockbuster action movie humor fail spectacularly. The stunned looks and comments from Cops as the Batmobile rolls by - for instance - are just terrible, cookie-cutter bits out of an old James Bond movie.
- The fight scenes might be well choreographed, but they're too closely shot and quickly edited it's hard to have any idea of what's actually going on. The result is more disorienting than exciting. A real disappointment. Where's Wo Ping when you need him?
- I don't have the bias against flashbacks that many do, but I really wish they'd followed the "Superman: The Movie" model and told the story in sequence. Here the flashbacks just pull you out of the story when it should be chugging straight ahead.
The good far outweighs the bad, though. Gone are the celebrities hamming it up as members of Batman's rouge's gallery (arguably the finest in all of comicdom), the kooky Danny Elfman music and the legacy of the 60's TV series that hung like a pall over the Burton and Schumacher films. Nolan and Goyer favor a more reality-based approach (clearly inspired by Frank Miller's "Batman: Year One"), not only to the characters but to the world they inhabit. Gotham, for one thing, looks like a real city for a change, and the gadgets employed by both hero and villains alike are completely plausible.
Anyways, I thought it was a lot of fun. Not as good as "Robocop" or "Spiderman 2", but at least as good as the "X-Men" movies and hell of a lot better than the majority of recent superhero movie fare. I look forward to seeing where Nolan and Goyer take the character next.

Cheers,
B