BATMAN BEGINS review

Can't wait to see it. First?

...not like Episode III!

Dammit.

I am so looking forward to this. Where is Moviemack when ya need him, he's gonna be sooooo wrong!!! That'll be a FIRST!!!! Ahh nuts!!!

Paul Greengrass is now available as The Watchmen movie has grinded to a hault, you are a tit Avi Arad all your shit about finding the right people for the job - Brett Cock Sucking Ratner...

What about the baddies? In both reviews on this site no comments are really made about the bad guys especially Ra's Al Gul but oh well I can wait till next wendsday and find out myself

Batman done right - something I didn't think possible outside of animation. The bar has been raised high for Singer's Superman...

I can't wait to see it. Nice review, and an important message at the end there. Let's hope Superman can be as good as this. Don't fuck this up Warner Bros!

He calls this one of the best films of the year. He sounds like a real Batfan.

3 seems to be the magic number

All gave it pans. Helps level the expectations, even though it bothers me that this isn't a slam dunk. Like it matters, though; I am seeing the hell out of this thing.

I'll be working the midnight showing.

If all this fantastic effort isn

thanx harry for writing a direct review this time. you're the best

Had to keep whining didn't ya mack? Now you look like a fucking prat with egg on his face

I am not really hyped for Batman but Harry's review of said movie was won of his finest. Bravo Harry!

and everyone who made the movie. Chris Nolan you are the man!1

...BATTY BATTY BATTY!!! That was a special dedication for HardcoreNigger.

None of those reviews were pans. In fact most didn't have anything bad to say at all; just that the film was not comic booky enough for their expectations.

Alright let's see this

Hell, yeah!! Batman's costume is all about bringing that element of FEAR to the criminal mind. The costume is a crucial element of that, the purpose behind it but certainly not the ONLY element of fear that Bruce Wayne has in his bag (or belt) of tricks. And I'm THRILLED that this element has emphasis, despite my little nit-picks of the Batsuit design. (I prefer the armor but with a more artistic yet faithful design, in looking both scary and cool.) And despite how my early postings on the Batman costume may have had no effect on the production, at least those postings do not feel in vain. I knew the filmmakers should use shadow and silhouette, a cool visual element of Batman's form, no matter the quality of Batman's costume. And it seems the camera work also contributes to the effect of the costume and the purpose behind it. Perhaps Batman's greatest tool, the ability to infuse criminals with FEAR, has finally gained the attention it deserves in a Batman film. God, I love this feeling. I can't wait to see this. And all I can say now is... MOVE OVER Darth Vader. Batman just tapped you on your shoulder... and is about to make you shit your pants!!!!

Now I know what he's gonna say..'a couple of reviews don't mean shit man.....it's still gonna suck...waaa waaaa!!!!' I wonder if he'll be man enough to admit he's wrong. I will. When I see the movie, and if I think it sucks (however unlikely) I promise to return here and say I was wrong and that Movemack was right!! So there.....please god, don't let it suck....I really don't want to agree with Moviemack.

That was EXACTLY what I wanted to hear about this film.

did you hear katie holmes is dating tom cruise?

You'd think it would be wall to wall coverage, what with both of them having movies out and all! [sarcastic mode off]

Isn't that Keyser Soze? Ripoff.

http://www.houston-imports.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189780 Enjoy lads, Enjoy, be quick though.

Caine is the proverbial celluloid prostitute. There is *nothing* that Caine ever refused to do. He would probably happily film gay porn if he got enough money for it. (Well, they would not want him anymore - but 30 years ago...) Funnily enough, Benny "Suh" Kingsley seems to follow Caine's example of of never saying "no" to anything now... you can probably expect him in the sequel.

Errm, if that's so amazing to you, go to ASP or any of its sister channels, bud, and search the database of 70000 cracked passes updated daily. Or request any site you want there. Sheesh.

Who wants to read 1000 issues of a comic to get one good story? Comics are for kids. That's why the movies that are made out of them are usually very bad.

If this movie doesn't completely kick arse, I will be simultaneously shocked and pissed off to the max. With the talent making up this cast, there is no excuse for a lackluster film.

lol I read that and the only superhero I could think of was along the lines of Mysterio. Except her name would just be Fellatio.

Gentlemen.....start you flaming!!! Seriously dude, ya now gonna get verbally bitchslapped by lots of over obssessed fanboys for that comment.

It's not working, though.

because of poor sentence structure, such as the following... "Moved in with my father and to earn a living and my way through college we began selling our Silver Age and Golden Age comics at conventions all over Texas and all anybody anywhere could talk about was BATMAN." I'm guessing you didn't take an English course, Harry. Or a journalism course, for that matter. I realize there are deadlines to be met, and stories to be scooped, but that opening paragraph is THE WORST I've read here. Luckily, it's on the net and not in print. If it was, then as The Newspaper Chief in "The Hudsucker Prodigy" said, "I'd wrap a fish in it. I'd use it as kindling. Hell, I'd even train my poodle with it if he wasn't a French poodle and more partial to the pages of Paree Soir. But I wouldn't shell out a hard-earned nickle to read the dadblamed thing!" And Harry, finish an idea... don't write a sentence that only contains a subject, but completely leaves out the predicate. What exactly is the meaning of the following...? "Anyone that read that legendary draft, a script that Tarantino has been heard to say it was one of the best scripts he

thanks... in advance

It wasn't that good in the first place and it certainly doesn't hold up years after the fact. Even Sam admits that nowadays, heck he even admitted it back then, it's why he changed his name to Sam Hamm...S. Hamm...sham...get it? It was an awful treatment that had so many winks and nods in it that it failed to even tell a coherent story...never mind the dialogue was awful. Just let it die, Harry, you may have loved it but it wasn't that good.

Good God... Harry's turning into Barry Norman... Harry Norman? Barry Knowles?

be a dove and take the hate meter down a notch will ya? What a tard. How's that for sentence structure, asspirate?

The one with Alfred as a black man who told Bruce that he looked "SLAMMIN'!"

http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/ batmanscript.txt (remove spaces)

He's behind the Arclight Cinema's blowing people to earn enough doe to purchase his uppers! hahahahahahaha... Fuck that fag! He would have negative things to say about anything.

Just a thought.

It is interesting how Harry never really joined the bandwagon on this until he saw it. Take note moviemack. Maybe its because BB bought ad space on AICN though.

Great Harry, twist the fucking M-Cron knife a little deeper

I always enjoyed the original Tom Mankiewicz script over that convolted Sam Hamm stuff... http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/batmanscript1.txt

...about moviemack and why we're not hearing much from him... yet. Like I said in Moriarty's review talkback, 'mack is waiting for the reviews to pile up so he can pick out the various things people thought were less-than-perfect (which serve to add credibility to their reviews in the context of the otherwise glowing statements most of the reviewers are making), and he's going to list them all as bullets or some such in a monster post conclusively showing that he was right all along and can prove it without having to see the movie because the evidence he's gathered clearly demonstrates that Begins is not the Batman movie he wanted. It will happen, and it will be both sad and funny. Me? I'm there opening day. Hope it's as good as most folks are saying.

How so, Sam Hamm's story was essentially the story of Burton's movie, he just cut out all the cheeky stuff, Dick Grayson, Batman being a flirt, Knox figuring out Bruce was Batman, it certainly wasn't more epic than Burton's movie, and it definitely wasn't better.

Hmmm...

Seeing Harry's track record for flipping for films. Especially for Goyer's Blade 2. Nolan I haven't really been keen on since Insomnia. The film had the opposite effect on me. I almost fell asleep in that one. Goyer has really impressed me a couple of times, but those times being few and far between. Hollywood needs another go to man for comic films. Batman Begins will probably be the best we have seen, but it still looks like another rubberfest. Only this time without nipples. I would like to see a Batman film more like Batman: The Animated Series.

Give us a decent Daredevil film without some fat retard who can't act comedy let alone action playing the hero. Oh and how about a decent villain too eh? And a half decent storyline. Thanks.

Five reasons why: 1) He didn't get bogged down in what he ate for breakfast that morning. 2) He gave his personal history with the characters and the franchise, which made the review, in turn, PERSONAL. 3) He gave wonderful descriptions of major scenes in the film without spoiling the big moments. 4) He thoroughly geeked out, yet maintained composure (see his Blade 2 review for the opposite). 5) Because he gets it right: "BATMAN BEGINS is the very best beginning to a Superhero franchise I

Schinkel and the New Yorker reviewer for all practical purposes admit that they only would accept camp in a Batman film, and Todd McCarthy admits in his first sentence that he wanted a children's film. This means that effectively these reviews have to be discarded. No one who wanted a camp fest or a children's film has an opinion worth considering.

I know we'll never see Dick Grayson in this series as Robin, but I would dearly love to have him included in the third film if they are tackling this series right ... which they seem to be doing. This time, cast a 11-13 year old. Also, let it LOOK like Robin this time!!! Chris O'Donnell's costume never once looked like Robin.

Wow. So Mori gave us a sparkling "Batman Begins" review yesterday, and Harry gave us a hearty "Batman Begins" review today? This is good news. Not that I've doubted Nolan, since I think he brought elements of creative grittiness to all his films, but I'm happy to read that "Batman Begins" actually scared people with its intensity. I'll be seeing this one.

BATMAN BEGINS: a movie i will see, more than once. It's a DVD I will buy for myself, and my nephews. I will buy tickets for them and myself. I will but popcorn. X-men 3. I WILL NOT PAY FOR. I didn't pay for BLADE 3, I didnt pay for Elektra. I didnt pay for Daredevil, or The Punisher. IF I even bother to see it, I will borrow the DVD, or wait for it to be on Cable during some boring weekend afternoon during bad weather. If I even bother. I didnt with BLADE 3 or ELEKTRA. GET THE MESSAGE??? MAKE A FUCKING GOOD MOVIE, I WILL GIVE YOU MONEY. MAKE A SHIT PIECE OF PRODUCT, I WILL NOT GIVE YOU ANY MONEY. YOU LIKE MONEY? MAKE A FUCKING GOOD MOVIE! By the way, Fantastic Four looks like ass, and I wont give you my fucking money unless Moriarty AND Ebert AND Peter Travers AND a bunch of fanboy friends of mine absolutely love it. You already lost my opening weekend money on Craptastic Four. TAKE A FUCKING HINT!

So far everyone that has mentioned how confusing the fights are and how tight the shots are still love the movie. That is the one thing that's bothering me (I hate not knowing what's happening in a fight) that and how Ducard and Ra's are resolved in the movie. But like I said the reviewers comment on the quick cuts, but say they don't distract. If Ebert say's it's one of the years best (he hates quick cuts in fights) it must not have bothered him either. I love hearing how creepy this movie is too. I'll be there for Batman Continues and Batman Ends (hopefully not going to be the real titles).

But it seems that Nolan has nailed this one. Can't wait and all the buzz is fucking awesome. And now that Paramount has dropped Watchmen it could be an option for Warners to guide Watchmen to be a fantastic movie.

I got sick of people saying Spider-man 2 was a "great comic book movie." It was a great movie regardless of genre.

Vanilla Ice.

Wrong forum. Or is it?

Nooooooooooootch!

I hate that overrated first movie. Thanks Harry for pointing out what a disappointment it was. Possibly one of the biggest disappointments of my life. It shouldn't be but it is. Nice production design and thats about it. I have been pumped they gave this to Nolan ever since its announcement. I hope he hits it out of the park. HAHA. Brett ratner. Good luck with that one.

WAS A GREAT COMIC BOOK FILM!!! Easily the best of the bat so far.

which were the climax of the worst i thought. well as long as HardcoreNigger doesn't stop to post in every TB the same SHIT and as long as Rabbisodomy doesn't react to him...

Wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't a good one either. The whole thing felt like it was shot inside a set (is was right?) and it felt too confined. Easily forgetable, unlike Batman & Robin which I had to see Lacuna Incorporated about. : (

Plant!

... every now and then you write a plausible review that generates sincere excitement. Bravo to you Mr Knowles... indeed, I say Hail!

OK, I finally got around to looking up and reading the Hamm Batman script. What's the big deal? Its okay...probably 90% of the script made it into Burton's movie, with the only notable exceptions being Dick Grayson and Allie Knox gets killed. The "leaked" Begins script was much, much better than that.

That Schickel and Denby can't accept the Batman character as anything other than camp. They're disappointed that the production design and villains in this one are too understated to distract them from what they perceive as the essential silliness of the main character.

I mean, compared to Batman and Robin (Ice to see you! Eurgh...) any film would be amazing. Can't wait to see this though! Is Ken Watanabe good in it?

As having the pace and gravity of "Unbreakable" with much more tension and thrills. There are several "painted into a corner" moments when you don't know how Batman/Bruce Wayne will get out of trouble. Gotham is turned into a character here and you care about the city's survival, not only because of Jim Gordon, Lucious Fox and others but becuase of what the city means to Bruce Wayne. You fear that if Gotham falls then so will he, into a world of despair, maybe creating an even worse Batman. If this movie is about facing fear the next will probably be about facing/understanding madness and evil. Can't wait.

I still think any sequels will send us down the same road as before, in search of even more money. It'll get dumbed down with ever more incredible bad guys and glib one-liners until Arnie finally returns as Mr. Freeze in the fourth one - "Ice to see you" etc.

But twas Paramount that did the evil deed - Placing Watchmen in Turnaround - My mistake.

You fucking shrivs. moviemack is scared to post because Harry and Mori and a few anonymous reviewers liked Batman Begins? You are all fucking retards. Outside the AICN universe it's not so hot. Rottentomatoes.com, for instance, has it at 6.1/10. That a D. That wouldn't even transfer. All of you dipshits that feel that because AICN likes Batman Begins means the film is some sort of fucking triumph before you've even seen it are way, way worse than moviemack. At least moviemack, and myself, formed our own opinions based on what we observed and read. It's called critical thinking. You are just believing the fucking hype. That's like saying "oh, George Bush won the election, you fucking Democrats are wrong assholes, NOW CONVERT TO THE REPUPLICAN PARTY!" AICN gave good reviews to Daredevil. You're getting your opinions from a third party. That makes you an idiot. Think for yourself. The leaked script sucked. Mori basically confirmed that the leaked script was in fact genuine in his review. The Batsuit looks crappy. The Batmobile looks crappy. The trailers look crappy. The premise of Ra's al Ghul hiding his identity is crappy and out of character. The Rachel Dawes subplot is crappy. Scarecrow looks crappy. Morgan Freeman plays, gasp, Morgan Freeman. Again. Am I going to see the film? You bet. This is where I'll form my final opinion. How is this so fucking hard to get? But so far, to me, this looks like another shitty Batman movie.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580002-2005260254,00.html More tabloid sleaze. "Charles Roven, producer of new movie Batman Begins, is convinced the two men in tights will meet up soon. He

In my review, I mentioned the fights were filmed rather close, occasionalyl rendering parts of the frame a blur, but don't get me wrong, YOU ALWAYS KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!! Quite frankly, we view Batman in many of the fight scenes the way his prey does. He pops up in quick flashes with a fist, a boot, a clunk and they're out. And it's not as confusing at the fights in The Bourne Supremacy. Ask me, this if how Batman should fight, not with choreographed routines where everyone's a karate master, but with quick, decisive takedowns. And Mr. Miracle, you can call this more hype, but I've seen the movie and I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I think many others who read this site will as well.

direkt zwischen Castrop-Rauxel und Oer-Erkenschwick, wo Leonardo DiCaprios Oma lebt!!! I really hope Batman Begins is so fucking great as everyone says. I felt a little bit disappointed from Episode III.

People who are excited for the film have based their opinions on, guess what, things they have observed and read, just like you and you're critically thought out opinion. Just because your opinion is different doesn't make it smarter, and the fact that its contrary certainly doesn't make it more informed, somehow people who are looking forward to the film are stupid for having that opinion before they've seen it, while you're opinion that it looks shitty before you've seen it is oh so holy. And for future reference, this looks crappy, and this looks crappy, and this looks crappy, so the movie looks shitty, is NOT critical thinking, its just reacting to your own opinion, which is fine, its what you most people do before they've seen a movie, and there's nothing wrong with it, but don't get so eager to jump on your high horse when people do the same thing, just with a different opinion.

Well, this has been a shit week for movie news. First Brett Ratner signs on to direct an X-MEN film, and now WATCHMEN, which sounded so promising, doesn't have a studio or budget. Apparently they're shopping the film around, along with Paul Greengrass, to other studios. This SUCKS!

You're just a jumped up little fuck. That's just my opinion having read your opinion. Cunt!

That's a Harry review of old. Feels like old times.

They're so boring. They desperately need more action for a superhero film. And shutup about Returns. It may be dark and starange and not for mainstream audiences but that doesn't make it a masterpiece. It's shit.

did you hear katie holmes is dating tom cruise?

So where are everyone else getting their opinions from then? You got your opinions from what you have seen and read outside this site. You want a pat on the back for being able to look at different websites?

That explains things rather perfectly. Hey Mr_Miracle, last time I checked rottentomatoes.com was a third party too, but to quote you, "You're getting your opinions from a third party. That makes you an idiot. Think for yourself." Dude, you just called yourself an idiot.

Bin Braunschweiger. So much for that idea... Lass uns nach "opening night" nochmal texten. Hab`auch gewaltige Erwartungen an die Fledermaus! Memento and Insomnia were THE SHIT!!!

Why no love for Tim Burton's take on the character? Because he chose to embrace the more goofy and surreal aspects of the comics? Part of the problem is that "X-Men" made it respectible for movies based on comic book characters to be "realistic," eschewing some of the more outrageous concepts you used to find in the funny books. The Joker's wacky parade? The Prince soundtrack with requite "Batdance" single? I seem to recall a whole lot of people enjoying Burton's first Batman a whole heck of a lot back in the day! I've always been more partial to Batman Returns, but that has much to do with a certain unhinged cat broad. Burton's films were true comic book movies: gothic, somewhat silly, removed from mundane reality without totally eschewing it. They were Greek tragedies in their own manner. Schumacher's sequels sadly went soley for the visual style with nothing underneath to back it up. The raves I'm hearing about Batman Begins don't instill me with confidence. It sounds like it will be gritty and dark and oh-so-realistic. Fine and dandy, but an aspect of the absurd is needed. "New" does not always mean "better."

is a summary of my opinion of Batman Begins. I've been on these Batman Begins talkbacks for a long, long time. I've BEEN going into detail for a long, long time. I'm not going to rehash and make my post even longer. Lots of posts in this talkback alone demand some sort of recant from the haters, most from people who haven't seen the film. I'm not, and never have, criticizing other peeps who have an opinion that differs from mine. Sure, I fiercely disagree, based on the evidence so far. And yes, I think my opinion is superior to opinions that do not agree with mine. Do you even know what an opinion is? All opinions are not created equal. I'm criticizing the douche bags who are jumping on the bandwagon and are calling out the haters based on a few online reviews. "...while you're opinion that it looks shitty before you've seen it is oh so holy." Exactly, dork. It's my opinion that this films LOOKS shitty. And it's before I've seen the film. Hence my fucking summary.

So you're still the idiot, The Heathen.

let this be as good as most are saying. I'm not coming down on either side here...no way do i want to get flamed for a film that i haven't seen. I think ALOT

And the point was, it has zip to do with critical thinking. Or do you even know what critical thinking is? And no where did I say you couldn't sit there and admire your own little opinions, however superior you imagine them to be, my point was that your opinion is just that, an opinion, and its not the result of any kind of higher ground.

I think ALOT of people are going off half cocked about how this film will rule or suck when they haven't seen it. I dont care if you have read the script and declared it fantastic or shit. A script is not a film its the merest outline. Hey they not my words they are Nic Roeg's so i think we could all agree on that. I have to wit till the 19th for this so ill be reading every non spoiler review for this until then. I want make up my mind until the fil is over. Anyone who has already is an idiot. Wether they love it or hate it. Oh and is anyone really expecting Moviemack or anyone else for that matter to change opinion after seeing this movie???? Anyone who thinks that is a fucking idiot also. (in my opinion, lol)

It's true! The Scarecrow scenes steal the movie, along with the Batmobile in action. I was very surprised how much fun it is. Very dark. (Please for the love of God leave and children under 5 at home...all the time, in fact) Batman is one pissed of S.O.B. Just my opinion, have actually SEEN the movie at an advance screening. The audiance gave it a standing ovation when it was over!

He's over at another Batman talkback whining about how Episode 3 stunk and everyone of us who pushed it up to over 300 million are idiots. I've finally figured out Moviemack. He's the nerd that decided he was tired of having his head stuck in the toilet so he started wearing fake leather, replaced his coke bottle glasses with prescription shades, and started hating anything that anyone else liked so it would appear like he actually had an orginal thought in his head, and oh let's not forget the "cool rebel" image all self-hating nerds aspire to portray. Quite simply his opinion is the opposite of whatever seems to be successful, popular, or even good just because he has to look like he's got a different, more valid opinion than everyone else. If everyone hates Batman when it come out he'll call us haters who can not realize when a comic book movie has been done right if we love it he'll say Nolan is worse than Lucas, George Clooney should be Batman again, and nipples on the Batsuit were a result of genius inspiration from the costuming department. Please moviemack please just go away.

If everything is relative and all the different opinions that different people have are all True, then none of them are true, because my opinion is that all other opinions are wrong!! Did I lose anybody??

LMAO Shigeru. I love that post. If all opinions are false by defaulty then your opinion that all opinions are wrong, is, indeed wrong. Therefore all opinions are correct!?!?! I dont know if i lost anybody but i think im getting close to crawling up my OWN opinion here. Hey Shigeru maybe you could write the Riddlers dialogue for BatmanBegins 4?

Here's hoping that NEVER...EVER...IN THE HISTORY OF MAN...happen again.

Batman..batman you say..coming..for you...im counting on it.

I think you may be onto something there!

You remember in that song how he had the children's choir kick up on the chorus? Makes me cringe that they actually PAID for him to be around little children. And, in the slightest defense of Batman Forever, I have to say that I really did enjoy Jim Carrey as the Riddler. In that movie. If the Riddler were to be brought back in the Begins universe, Carrey's energy would be a bit to manic. Anyway, that bit andyrew posted is my favorite from Forever.

I might even lose sleep over it myself actually...UNTILL JUNE 15TH BITCHES!!! ALRIIIIIGHT!!!!!

Boy, I`m gonna get A LOT OF hate for this... It was just tempting LOL

...I'd like to thank moviemack for setting himself up so laboriously so that we all might enjoy the exquisite pleasure of witnessing his most spectacular swan dive and subsequent flattening impact upon the hard, unforgiving surface of reality. The accompanying farting sound - as opposed to the expected explosion - was an added bonus. Bravo, sir, bravo.

Ever since someone brought up the Bat credit card for whatever reason the song kicked into my head and I can't get it out. That is, by far and away, the worst thing to ever happen to the Batman character alone, nevermind the movie franchise itself. Jesus! The choir!!! Get it out of my head!!!!

I cant believe you know the words. Then again if you went and hunted down the lyrics....i stil despise you...that was just mean and uncalled for.

moviemack's been hanging out in and old post (for my review, nonetheless--like the plug?) over here (http://www.aintitcool.com/tb_display.cgi?id=20384#912155), perhaps to escape the onslaught going on here.

Why mention Rotten Tomatoes if it has nothing to do with your opinion? Apparently you're scoping it out, checking the average scores, even giving it a fucking letter grade, and your ranting away over here about your "oh so holy" fuck opinion, but say that it has nothing to do with it? I thought that you were trying to rationalize that other people had your opinion (except they have actually SEEN the movie) so you wouldn't sound like the unsufferable ass that you are. Just because you "think" doesn't make you superior to anything. Hitler was able to "think" but he was a tyrant that wanted genocide, and guess what? he was fucking wrong. Get out of here if you don't want to see the movie and only have your "opinion" based on a trailer or a script because you haven't seen the movie!

By the way: Concerning the lyrics, I do have some sort of photographic memory when it comes to bad songs. Kinda annoying. If you ask reeeeal nicely, I will gladly post some David Hasselhoff lyrics.

There can't be a black Batman, the whole fighting crime thingie would get in the way.

That's like saying "oh, George Bush won the election, you fucking Democrats are wrong assholes, NOW CONVERT TO THE REPUPLICAN PARTY!" What? What has that got to do with anything? Dear Lord I just wish for once a talkback could be free of political whining. YOU LOST, get over it. I could actually agree with what you were saying about Batman Begins, as far as not relying on a third party to form opinion, now myself, I like the trailers. I like the car. I have not read the script so I know nothing about that, however from what I have observed with my own eyes I like what I have seen. Mircacle despite your whining over politcal events that happened last fall, but not all of us who like what we have seen so far ,and have high hopes for Batman Begins, are not mindless zombies who feed on the hype that Harry spews.

Danahnahnahnahnahnahnah... BATMAAAAN! With detractable beerbelly!

It took me HOURS upon hours of endless research to find those lyrics online! My God, man. (Of course, I'm kidding. I mean...you do REALIZE that, right?)

Germans DO love David Hasselhoff.

add you seem intelligent after fall.

....and hated it. Yeah, the grounded it in reality alright. Too much reality. Yawn-o-rama. where were the awesome puns and play on words?? How come the scarecrow didnt say something like "hahaha..come on now dark knight...don't be a scaredy BAT" it was really missing things like that.....

Oh please please post them Yeh no hard feelings re R.Kelly i mean after all the nausea and headaches i was actualy able to chuckle. On another note though I was really looking forward to a Moviemack post. I disagree with most of what he says but hell he was entertaining.

I didn't realize there was a guy on this post actually named MAN OF STOOL. Hard to believe, but apparently its true. Somebody sure looks ignorant.

Grab your pitchforks, folks!! Light your torches! We got us a monster to smite! Grr! Argh! He's been posting over here for the past few hours: http://www.aintitcool.com/tb_display.cgi?id=20384#912155 If we get enough townsfolk together, we might be able to smoke him out!!

Whatta coincidence Mack.

I`VE BEEN LOOKING FOR FREEDOM, I`VE BEEN LOOKING SO LONG, I`VE BEEN LOOKING FOR FREEDOM, STILL THE SEARCH GOES ON!

Oh come on now.......you can come in here and give your opinion....we won't laugh.....much!

...hey there's nothing wrong with a good '80s power ballad....is there???..........................................................................i'll get me coat.

Oh i hope Harry doesnt have his head up his ass for this sucky review. HAHA~! Only Michael Keaton is the one true Batman. He's got the CHIN of GREATNESS!!!! So what if he's 4'5"! Keaton was badass. Not like that gay-licious Schumacher's Batman. Maybe they'll have Tracey Walters make a cameo and bring back Keaton. UUURRGH, burton's Batman was the best! None of this gay "Ducard" crap existed then! Only penguins, Bob the Goon, and fat Jack Nicholson!

to be a scary badass in velvet?

did you hear katie holmes is dating tom cruise?

Sheesh!!! Go get a copy of Hello magazine already!!!!

he has to be pretty BADASS. tho i can see a dude in velvet whuppin my arse while carrying a man purse in boots with high heels. i'll still be 1st in line at the IMAX tho

As of today June 7th, rotten tomatos has a total of 11 reviews. so three people don't like the movie. Big Deal. Wait until we get about a hundred more reviews in, and then it might mean something.

for real, say it aint so. is velvet the new leather. And does that make leather the new garbardine?

This is my impression oif Harry was a big fat black KNEEGAR!!!.... Hello DER! Dis is da BLACK HARRY KNOWLES reporting about da new Black man i mean BATMAN BEgins movie. Niggas, lemme say dat dis shit was CUM GUZZLING TERRIFFIC!!! While in the theaters watching dis here Chris Nolan joint, I was unbuttoning my short shorts and whipped out my long-ass fuck African Anaconda Mambo Snake! I spit inta' mah hand and started rubbing and gettin dat shit MAD slobbery! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck, ma h dick was in Batcave paradise! I started to suck on mah own arfrican cavecock and began to suck that malt liquor I call cum down to Christian Bales hot Bruce Wayne 6-pack... oh nigga...NIGGAA...NIGGGAAAAAA!!!!111 Moomba has spoken!!!

Can you be surreal AND racist?? Moomba is trying. lol

yo what up playa, where brooklyn at?

Granted, it's better than what we ended up with, but not by much. At about the halfway point it becomes a totally different movie that, in the end, simply fails to achieve what it sets out to do. Hamm's script was filled with a lot of truly appalling 'meaningful' dialogue between Bruce and Vicki of the "Only you can save yourself, Bruce," "I don't know if there's any of me left to save" variety. The introduction of Dick Grayson so late into the script was ridiculously out-of-the-blue (they were right to hold that off for a later film) and went nowhere. The last act and finale was a complete cluster-fuck that didn't have any rhythm or appropriate emotional resolution. It's like Hamm was told he had to finish the script in the next five pages. Worst of all, the half-assed love triangle between Bruce, Vicki and Knox was pointless and terribly written. Considering that Knox was simply comic relief from the beginning, trying to emotionally involve him deeper into the story was superfluous. To his credit, Hamm clearly wanted to make a more emotional, character-driven Dark Knight (which is more than can be said for the chimps that wrote BATMAN WITH NIPPLES) but he just doesn't have the talent to pull it off convincingly, as is strongly evidenced in his brave but useless WATCHMEN script.

I'm new here, why do u get so much flack. Well i got 2. Do you really go against the grain to hate everything?

It's not a bad thing. you got mentioned quite a few times in this TB. I was trying to get a feel for the situation thats all.

I think it'd be safe to say we disagree on the movie, although I'm glad to hear you found some virtue in it. If Harry won't post your review, post it in here. I, for one, would be very interested to hear what you have to say, and I'm betting it'd start some nice debate, mostly of the "moviemack is a fucktard" variety. You fucktard.

You will be remembered

Is it at all possible that you could take the cinematic career of Clive Owen with you? Please?

And my dad can kick your dad's ass too. That aside, I'd still like to hear what you have to say so we can have a nice, respectful disagreement. And yes, Anne Bancroft was still married to Mel Brooks.

However, Whedon for his faults (of which there are a few) is not a hack. At all. He always tries to come at things from original angles. He loves his characters and writes them very very well. Well I'm sure ill be shot down for that little rant but i couldn't give a fuck.

I mean, hey, cool by me. I was just wondering... And the Whedon ain't no hack. He's not because I say so and, as we've learned, whoever says something last in TalkBack always wins.

...won the Best Actress Oscar in 1962 for "The Miracle Worker." She won the Tony for the same role on Broadway. She was in "Agnes of God" and "Elephant Man." She was married to Mel for 49 fucking years and she was an absolutely brilliant actress.

I hear that they both appear w/o their costumes. If so, this is crazy.

I highly doubt it but that better not be true. That sounds like Fantastic Four feces right there. Having Nick Cage's Ghost Rider casually strolling the streets of New York during the climatic FF/Dr. Doom scene. Whistling, minding his own business, then Nick Cage is all like 'Oh snap! Check out the Fantastic Four in action! That's wiiiild. Now let me snatch this little kid from falling debris like a lame-ass Stan Lee cameo! Just doing my part as a HERO'. Now THAT wouldn't surprise me. At least Stan Lee had a respectable excuse compared that kind of mushy garbage.

LMAO ORFFLES. I'll be there opening night.

and except for a couple of dialogue choices (some Joker points, some Bruce and Vicki stuff), it's a pretty damn good story. The action scenes are much more bold than Burton's (which I still love), but I realize that this was 1988, and a movie of this scope couldn't ever be realized realistically back then without costing assloads of cash. Robin was a little too Jason Todd, though, and Sam should have delved more into Bruce explaining to Dick why he needed to back off. And did they really have laptops back then? I can't even remember.

wow harry... You had me at "Michael Bay's Dick"..... Now why would someone write that?... when you think of the sound of a movie, is Michael Bay's dick the first thing that pops into your head?..

Great review Harry, one of your best. www.mondoirlando.com

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2644822 You SERIOUSLY want this fuckhead as your Joker??? Get the fuck out of here. LMAO

The more I am hearing about this Bat-Man Begins, the more I am becoming interested and optimistic at the same time. I was never interested in this flick, but time is changing that. I have not seen a good Batman movie yet....The 1st one was decent but probably because how cheesy it was...with a very humorous and inspired Joker performance. Well, it is for certain that I will Buy a Batman Begins ticket, and it is a very good chance that I may enjoy this Flick..Hope it happens.

I won't get into any arguements with you about how the movie is, because I haven't seen it yet and you have. But like I said in the moriarty talkback, I wish that we would get some great movies in theaters again. From the previews and the general feedback (not reliable sources I know), the movie looks great. And believe me, I'm sick of being let down. I'll be there tuesday at midnight and I'll talk to you later. By the way, wasn't Lucius Fox always the supplier for the Batmobile and some of the gadgets in the comics? Doesn't seem like a Q rippoff to me, but just wondering.

i'm so sick of this habit of greenlighting trilogies or sequels before the first one is even out - as soon as i heard Batman Begins was part one of three i lost all fucking interest in it. I can't be fucked with 3 movies, truly I can't. I like Batman and have always wanted a good Batman movie - but only that - A GOOD BATMAN MOVIE - not a good Batman franchise. it all feels like prefab shite, plastic cheese, aerosol scrambled eggs. unoriginal bollocks. uninteresting macdonalds movies

...then Moviemack should post it in this talkback. That we might review his review, and others might review our review of the review.

heard on the radio tonight that one of my favorite actresses, Anne Bancroft, died of cancer at 73. What a classy lady, and a great performer. So long, Mrs. Robinson - I think we know where you have gone.

should have scrolled up a little further before passing on my "scoop."

"I saw it, Roland. Saw it before you. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it was going tobe [sic]" I guess, if you can call 'I hate it less than before' pleasant surprise.

er, I mean...damn you, dial-up!

i just got back from a preview showing here in Cleveland and i have to see that every good thing that has been said about this movie is true. Finally we have the kind of Batman movie that should have been made years ago.Very dark, gritty and very much story driven. Not only is it easily the best of the lot (tho the original Batman is really the only one that counts) but its also one of the best comic-book movie adaptations so far. Warner Brother is gonna have to hire some extra people to count all the money theyre gonna be making off this movie.

dumb ass. You like pulling childish pranks on these Talkbacks because you think you're pushing people's buttons. Only post if you want to talk movies dumb ass whore! You better squeeze your twat, cunt! You know you like this. Stop making racial slurs about Halle Berry. The only buttons you're pushing are the people who are more crazier than you. Watch your back BITCH! By the way, Don't bother posting to respond to this. I WONT BE READING TALKBACK FOR A LONG TIME. So quit acting like calling yourself Sodomy makes you not vulnerable and doesn't bother you because deep down inside YOU KNOW IT DOES! and it BOTHERS YOU. I won't be on talkback for a long time so get revenge on YOURSELF by shuttin you're dumb pussy up, and just start crying...BITCH! Apologies to AICN and fans, but no one was regulating this BITCH for racial slurs and extreme obscenities. I am Vigilante. See you all next year! RabbiSodomy, thanks for being you, keep it up! You know you wanted this, so just cry with joy AND watch yo back, BITCH!

Box office gold? Let's hope so, razin. I still have one concern; why does yet another lady end up in the batcave? does it at least make sense as opposed to, "I'm so into you! Let me C4 my secret identity and get you into bed!"

Was the afore-mentioned Mack 'review' the first we've heard that he'd seen it? It wasn't like he was screaming it out now, was it? For someone who has clearly invested a lot of time and effort into this film I would have expected something more. Over on the other batman thread he didn't seem to even mention he'd seen it. Mack - I've always given you the time of day because you stay on point in a debate and are generally very entertaining in how you do so. But now you've seen it - where's the review? Stop clowning and put up. There are people interested, not all maliciously want you to admit you were wrong either. I'd just like another opinion on the film away from Harry's tumescent pleasure.

Who can take a man who thinks he's a Bat seriously? I mean really? Am I wrong? Now the Flash, there's a CHARACTER!!!

I don't know, lynxpro. I like him, but he's a little too subdued for my taste. I'd also prefer to see unknowns in roles like Talia's. But who knows? It's up to the bastard studio execs, I guess.

I haven't seen it. I'll check it out, without a doubt. Thanks. I'll tell you, I'm not huge on Brody for the role. The Village cemented that for me. In a role that requires a reach...Brody might try to hard. Maybe eccleston is the right mold...I'll check out Dr Who.

AFTER BATMAN AND WAR OF THE WORLDS WHAT IS REALLY LEFT? EARLY END TO SUMMER. Hollywood wonders why they continue to lose money. At least, it will end with something good.

Well, guess I'll see WOTW after all!

Probably should have just been called 'Catwoman,' but I thought it was decent. The subplot of framing Batman was weak sauce, but then again, no Batman movie has ever been all that good.

was alright.....but this batman begins could be special.

I went to a screening today at the Warner Bros screeing room in NYC. Simply put.....INCREDIBLE! Fans of this series will not be let down. The story is very good and draws you in from the first scene, and does not let go even when the picture has ended. Do yourselves all a favor and wait until next week, and stay away from spoilers. (I know that is hard for most of us). Multiple viewings are a must! Another great thing about the movie is that the CGI is so seamless and really blends into the movie without taking much away from the story at all. And that's all I am going to say.....Taste out

my dial up connection left me too latr too join the conversation. I've been "fair and honest" for a long time (not referring to political view which 6/7 talkbackers do) but it would be nice to have a discussion. I just wish spain's internet wasn't so slow.

Think that quote will end up on the DVD cover?

I think it's the least you can do for a guy who has inadvertently increased the traffic on these Bat threads for the past year. So whatta you say, you got the stones or what?

I for one would like to read Moviemack's review as well. I know Moviemack said he would post it later, but I would like to see Harry post it instead. Plus, the talkback should prove to be quite interesting.

Anyone know where I can get a copy of Sam Hamm

... word.

... oh, nevermind.

"it

that

After all, Moviemack will enjoy the prime real estate on AICN to flame us all. -- And another thing... I read other reviews besides the reviews here, before I posted my high hopes for a Batman movie I have yet to see. That's exactly the thing that gets me about Moviemack. He'll flame us for something that is completely false, perhaps his way of getting under the skin of fellow talkbackers. With his conduct here at AICN, I figure was raised as poor "white trash" (forgive the term) or just a spoiled rich kid. Either way, I feel somewhat sorry for the guy.

that moviemack is about as loved as brett ratner around here.

It's about damn time. The problem with the other Batman films is that they are all about the villans. That is why the animated series was always more enjoyable and sophisticated than the live action.

As a DEVOTED Marvel fan, I must say that regardless of how great this movie is it'll never measure up to the greatness of character of the XMens or Spidey!! That being said, I am not a DC hater and have in fact enjoyed Batman ( Batman and Robin not withstanding ) movies and TRULY look forward to this based on its concept and all the stellar reviews but... this Batmobile is a JOKE!! I appreciate artistic license and all but what was Nolan smoking with this hunk of junk??? Has he read a single comic in the last 70 years of the franchise where the Dark Night drove a dunebuggy? Hell, even Adam West had a cool CAR. Harry can rave all he wants, but CN screwed up the car- bigtime!!

I have to say that as soon as I heard he was directing this, I just knew it would be good. Nolan is probably going to be a more accomplished filmmaker than Tim Burton. Everybody acknowledges that Memento was a masterpiece, but I think Insomnia has been overlooked. That film showed me that he could really make his mark with even a mainstream, star-driven thriller. Pacino, Williams, and Swank, he handles them all so well. I know he only has about a three and a half film career, but I think this guy is the real deal. I just hope he does stuff other than Batman over the next several years.

Am I the only one who really isn't that excited about Superman? Seems to me that Byran Singer is pretty much doing a "reinvention" of the first Superman movie? What's the real point of that? Look, I'm sure watching Spacey will be fun and that the flying effects will be very convincing, but I have a feeling that we'll all have a Episode One/Terminator 3 feeling, after we have all seen it - "Well, that was fun, now what?" I think Singer will miss out on directing further X-adventures as much as those films will be missing his skill.

And then he shows his head and throws Batman in with American Idol and Bush which made me realize just exactly who he is, he's an asshole. Welcome home. -Az

You're definitely NOT the only one. Just seeing the picture of the boy in the bikini briefs was very disappointing. That and the casting of other implausibly young people in what should be mature roles. And I say this as someone who only admires what Singer did with the X-Men.

Suckers!

but i think it's too early and i still have great hope that Singer can pull out sth. great. I mean HE HAS TO! The other thing i noticed is this. It seems as they doesn't really care who plays the main female character in a comic book film 'cause i believe that they're all miscast. Spider-Man: Kirsten Dunst was ok. BB: Looks like she is also ok. SupermanReturns: Kate Bosworth??? now you see they're just doing solid work(i don't count Bosworth of course) and nothing really special. I mean many fans really don't care but i think you can hurt the whole film when you just don't have the right actress who really fits for the role. Dunst is not MaryJane for me...and we have to wait for Bosworth.

At worst, he's a bit of a contrarian. But, from what I've seen, he never resorts to name calling and he has a strong point-of-view that he actually articulates quite well. Just because he doesn't go along with the mob mentality around here doesn't make him an idiot. I suffered the same wrath for daring to question the genius of OldBoy. And the majority of the people spewing hate at me hadn't even seen the movie at the time. Are you all going to go back and apologize if Batman Begins DOESN'T turn out to be the greatest creation since the lower back tattoo?

By resorting to name-calling and offering no justification for your opinion, you just proved my point. Oh, and next time, "He is, too" would have been shorter and punchier.

Bullshit. Nearly all the reviews for ROTS before it came out were postive. The current negative opinion of the film came about purely as a reaction to all the postive buzz it was getting. The backlash is almost entirely from people who hate Lucas and the prequels so much they can't bear the thought that the majority of people might actually enjoy a new Star Wars film, so they take satisfaction from tearing it down every chance they get. ROTS is far from perfect, but it contains more classic scenes than any blockbuster in a long time and is the best Star Wars film since Empire (as every poll I've seen, even on AICN, agrees). As for Batman Begins, it sounds like a good film. I have no problem if people enjoy it more than Episode III. However, Batman Returns will always be my favourite Batman film. I don't care how "unfaithful" to the comics it was. It was a genuine work of art.

is about a guy who was telling us the movie was going to suck based soley on what he read in the leaked script. Granted, most of his complaints had merit (except for Lucius Fox being a Q rippoff...that made no sense), but hearing that the Batman movie is going to suck from a guy who hasn't even seen the movie yet tends to be a little annoying. If the movie does suck, then I'll be right here to say that moviemack was right (or at least have a pros and cons list or something). BTW garbage man, OLD BOY was the biggest dissapointment for me. Apparently I'm not the only one who thought so.

Did you see how that was done, Hainesrs? The above poster ARTICULATED why people are upset with moviemack. And I can't necessarily say I blame them. Honestly, I didn't know the history. I just wanted to know why Moviemack was in danger of making SirBiatchReturns and RabbiSodomy seem like Mr. & Mrs. Popularity by comparison.

GO NINJA GO NINJA GO!

Just read every posts by moviemack in every TB related to BB and you'll understand why he's annoying. It's not about having different opinion or different expectations. The thing is he articulates like someone who wants to impose his expectation and opinion on us saying that it will suck whatever we actually think etc. He has done that even before he's seen the film! I don't care if he hasn't the same opinion (or had the same expactation) but to consider us as stupid sheeps who follows the hype is just annoying. He has read some stuff and already seen the film...SO WHAT?! He acts like he and only he has the RIGHT opinion on BB and we're all wrong. It looks likes a kind of an arrogance for me...

And once again the call goes up. Where is Moviemack? All the freaking time he spent in the past complaining about this film based on trailers and script leaks. And then he sees it. Start to finish. The whole thing. And where is he? Forget this bullshit about making us wait for his review. A little cut and paste and his money's where his mouth is. Right now he's just a clown. And a punk. You heard me Mack. Now prove me wrong...

I think Harry should post it so that we have a fresh talkback. I am interested to see if Moviemack has changed his tune if any at all.

Harry doesn't need to post the review and Mack saying that he needs to is disingenuous. When someone called him on cut and pasting it Mack said he'd let us wait for a bit. Good thinking, clown. After all, on a site that is generally about up-to-date movie views and news, any tardiness is just fucking lame. I really hope he proves me wrong. I'll be willing to accept it, too. This lateness of posting his review makes me believe one of the following: A) He hasn't written it. B) He is no longer is as opposed to the injustices he perceived in previous trailers/script leaks and refuses to look like an idiot for saying so. C) He's waiting for a 'symbolic moment' with which to let the world see his review. This moment occurs sometime in 2007. D) All of the above.

I is no longer is as well-equipped to type.

Reading the reviews on this site, I've come to the conclusion that nearly every movie Harry "LOVES" I will HATE. I never learn though. The last movie he raved about that I gave a shot happened to be the AMityville Remake. IT BLEW! It Blew a dog to be precise. Before that was Assault on Precint 13... it had a few OKAY moments, but wasnt nearly as fantastic as Harry depicted. Many other films he's raved about before have had the same result within me as a moviegoer. Such is why I'm depressed that he enjoyed Batman. Now there's an excellent chance that it will suck. Besides the fact that Harry loves it, theres also the matter of the Batman voice. Something simple, yet, from the little I've heard the voice, I can tell you it sounds like a phlegmy mafia boss. The Batman voice alone could ruin this movie. But let's wait and see. Perhaps Harry and I will both enjoy a film for the first time. I DOUBT IT. But hey, you know, just plain old... hey.

For those that have seen Batman Begins, what did you think of his voice? Did it work for you?

...damn. That's one fucking important voice. I had no idea.

No shit. Long a staple of any TB that concerned "Batman Begins" (and some that were loosely related -- I fondly recall mixing it up with him in a TB about Nolan's future projects), The Mack Attack usually posted his bullet point quibbles with the script, layering it with the shoddy humor we've all come to shrug at, and then stick around for other TBers to take the bait so he could lash out at them for having the gall to disagree. However, after actually seeing the bane of his (admittedly meaningless) existence the mighty mouth has all of a sudden been silenced, and with little fanfare. All of the hatred he wasted in the last few months just ends with a "it wasn't as bad as I thought"? Ergo, I declare him a total cop out -- and really, who's surprised?

Work has been extremly boring today. I've had way too much time on my hands. And here's what I've got. Moviemack was a plant. What better way for a studio to control any potential negative hype for a film? You get some articulate mack off the street to start bitching on about the costume etc. And he's everywhere. I mean, every time you check a Batman related article there he is - forcing all those posting to solidfy behind a "fuck you I'm gonna see it anyway" position merely because of his arrogant dismissal of the fil based through script leaks. Then, upon film's release, he tucks tail between legs and we never hear from him again. "We" win. The resultant goodwill towards Batman begins has us all very much proud of "our" film. We make sure everyone knows it. And yes, I've had too much coffee today.

Comedy Gold.

Work has been extremly boring today. I've had way too much time on my hands. And here's what I've got. Moviemack was a plant. What better way for a studio to control any potential negative hype for a film? You get some articulate mack off the street to start bitching on about the costume etc. And he's everywhere. I mean, every time you check a Batman related article there he is - forcing all those posting to solidfy behind a "fuck you I'm gonna see it anyway" position merely because of his arrogant dismissal of the fil based through script leaks. Then, upon film's release, he tucks tail between legs and we never hear from him again. "We" win. The resultant goodwill towards Batman begins has us all very much proud of "our" film. We make sure everyone knows it. And yes, I've had too much coffee today.

This asshole makes fun of the movie and has nothing to back up what he says, just pisses on the wall ala "the first critic" from History of the world PT. 1.

If Harry liked it, then I'm sure to love it too. I'm serious, no snide remarks, no sarcasm. I tend to agree with him for the most part because he's one of the few people out there who hasn't forgotten that it's ok to be a kid when you're in the theater just like I do. I'm not ashamed to say it. Who's more ridiculous a grown man who accepts who he is and embraces that part if his personality that never really left for good, or a bunch of grown men who are going to the same movies, but insist that we have "adult", "darker" versions of these movies so they can hold their image in check and still go on the ride. I'm going to put a cardboard Burgerking crown on, skip to the theater like a bitch and punch the first whiteboy Eminem fan in the throat who gives me a hard look when Batman opens. Or I'll just go see it and enjoy it like a normal person. One of those two. Though I do hope Big Bird and Darth Vader are there. I was summoned by the spheres. No, not Britney Spheres, the aetherial ones. -Az

"Gone is Schumacher

'Cause Ra's is cool, but this film just doesn't capture it.

Moviemack will be back, have no doubt. Despite having just suffered the most humiliating bat-expert to bat-bitch transformation in TB history (a geek defeat mostly wrought by his own hands), he will most certainly return. In fact, as a recent King Kong TB has shown, he has already chosen his new unfounded and unreasonable hate target. I do doubt he will return as moviemack, though. Most likely he will adopt a new nick in order to deflect the massive pelting he would receive upon merely showing his face. So, in the months ahead, if you see incessant and compulsive yet well-written posts by an angry new talkbacker in every single Kong TB, chances are you will know who it is.

and cheat on his wife? I haven't been paying attention to this for a while (a _long_ while), but after this review I'm interested again.. Although the description of the fight and 'car chase' scenes makes it sound like 'The Bourne Supremacy'.. that would be annoying.

From what I've seen, Batman Begins looks damn fine: pretty much the film Batman should have been. At the time, I remember a lot being made about how Batman was more in keeping with Dark Knight Returns and how disappointed I was after seeing it and finding it to be a camped-up, stagey load of rubbish. But at least it was reasonably entertaiing. Batman Returns, on the other hand, is unmitigated shite from start to finish: badly written, badly acted, badly directed, over long and utterly tedious. Tim "I'm so fucking crazy I live in a cupboard" Burton is clearly a man with a head bursting at the seams with wacky ideas; it's great that he can get work and I think there's definitely a place for him. Unfortunately, it's not in a director's chair. He should be restricted to art direction or be locked in a room and told to come up with ten cool-looking things a day or else. Every time he's got a new film out, I think "That look's cool" or "That sounds amazing" and every time I go and see and slowly remember how shit his previous film was. In contrast, Christopher Nolan is a proper director who can actually direct actors and other mundane but rather important stuff. Anyway, looking forward to this.

There were some cool Batman moments... just as with Catwoman (hubba,hubba)... and maybe even the Penguin... but that was a very disappointing film. But then, every Batman film has been disappointing (at least to some degree) despite that there is so much excellent source material available. Here's to looking forward to "BATMAN BEGINS"... and thankfully, because of previous movie efforts, I am not overly hyped and destined to disappointment THIS time. I figure, anyhow.

Did you actually read what Dark Horizon said, Emeraldboy? If you're talking about this report: http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/050609a.php , then you're completely backwards. Holmes, Freeman and Nolan have not "passed on the idea of doing more sequels", they just haven't signed contracts for them. This is what they say: "Chris Nolan - He is not signed to direct any further films. "I don't really know. I did enjoy making this one. It's a fascinating character." Michael Caine & Katie Holmes - Caine said of both of them "No, no. We're not signed." He then turned to Holmes and said "I mean, we'd do it, wouldn't we?" Holmes nodded affirmatively." Sounds to me like we shouldn't be giving up hope of these people being involved with sequels yet; it's just that Warners probably wants to see how the movie actually does before they back up the dumptruck full of cash.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! ...You get the point. The death was cool but the whole Penguin pallbearer part which some retard on-set obviously presented just sent the whole thing plumeting into idiocy.

He's a good critic, man. It's so fashionable to put him down but the man is clearly intelligent and takes his job seriously, even if I don't always agree with him. The practice of "grading a movie on what it set out to accomplish in the first place" is a necessary evil for the most prominent critic in the world, otherwise he'd get truckloads of hate mail daily. As it is, he probably does anyway.

I read the script recently and was thorougly pleased, except I didn't like Scarecrow's part. It seemed like the movie focused on Dr. Jonathan Crane more than his Scarecrow personae. Now I appreciate that perhaps this could be considered the origin tale of Scarecrow... maybe he'll come back in the next movie in complete Scarecrow if the events that occur in the movie's climax indicate anything (those that have read teh script, you know waht I'm talking about). It would go in line with what Gordon talks about when he mentions "escalation".

...as long as he doesn't, you know, ...like ...DIE or something in "BATMAN BEGINS", which I haven't seen yet.

He's a fairly thoughtful reviewer and writer. Of course I don't agree with every one of his reviews, but overall he does a fine job...certainly way above average.

A sort-of 1983 Year One story. It`s at http://geocities.com/scifiscripts/scripts/batmanscript1.txt The first half is pretty much a masterpiece, would make the best Batman ever if not best super-hero origin ever. It`s not as epic as Batman Begins but I feel it would have been better. Because for one thing, Bruce is not Tin Tin: he shouldn`t be travelling the World, finding hidden places in Tibets, he`s not Doctor Strange! But what lacks in scope compared to Begins it makes up in psicosis, when Bruce unleash in the streets to defend a girl, he loses it, the beast is unleashed, like a super-warrior HE BEATS EVERYBODY, CRIPPLING SEVERAL BADDIES ON PURPOSE! It`s trully amazing since it`s Bruce in his college years so we see him at school, how he relates to other people, to girls, etc...There`s a big Frank Miller`s Year One vibe there even though it was done a few years before. BUT ONLY READ FIRST HALF OF THE SCRIPT! The rest is pure comic-book battles orgy. But the origin itself is fantastic. I`ve never read anything quite like it(although the Spider-Man Cameron treatment was superb too) since.

Bruce is a little like Tin Tin, at least in his early years. He did travel the world in his training to become Batman (though, of course, he didn't know he was going to be Batman exactly yet, just that he was going to fight crime). They pretty much have this right in Batman Begins.

...any film with a dude named Batman, who wears all black, talks in a gravel-chewing voice, hangs out in a dark cave, drives a black car and beats the fuck out of crackheads and the worthless is fucking cool. I mean, think about every hero or villain that's ever been cool and then think about how they're a derivative of Batman. Vader, the Crow, Blade, Spawn, yada fucking yada I could go on all day. Even the horrors of Batman Returns, Forever and Robin are still out of the running for the worst films ever because of the simple fact that they have the Batman in them. It's the other circus freak dropouts that ruined those films (namely Shumacher and Burton, not that Burton is all bad, but he's hardly the genius he's played up to be). The Batman has always ruled, even when he used to dance in the 60's. Shit, like the Batman is above dancing, he knows what it takes to get laid, he's the Batman for Christ's sake. Not to mention the fact that he's tough as fuck. Yeah the Batman owns your Mom. - az

give it a fuckin break. tarantino is yesterday's k-tel.

Did somebody say "crack"? -Az

He Pulled a 50 cent on youse guys and you all went along. What do i mean a 5o cent play? 50 cent made his way to the top by goading other rappers into doing battle with him. He called out guys like Ja Rul and Naze and Jayzee. When you call out someone who's at a higher standing than you, and they respond , you have just been elevated to, at least, that persons level. MM did this here but in a slightly different way but with the same results, you guys clamoring to not only hear what he has to say now in way of reconciliation but you want to also read his BB's review. The man is brilliant or you guys are dumb. Either way MM is worming his way into the upper echlon of AICN's reporters. Because that is his goal, to become another Mori or Capone or whomever. Good job guys, your eagerness to force feed everyone your opinions has put this guy exactly where he wanted to be.

I woke up that morning with hope. I sat down to a breakfast consisting of flapjacks and scrambled eggs, and I couldn't help but think of the great pulp...aw, fuck it. And so it goes. Yes, I caught a screening of Batman Begins and let me tell you it was a DISASTER. I refused to join the chorus of uncomfortable giggles and forced accolades, and I will call it as it is. A turd. You can shine it up, you can dump "HUGE" names into a project, and payoff critics, but either way you look at it, this movie is still a steaming, disgusting turd. Moviemack is right and very soon all of you FUCKTARDS will know this. LATE

The first guy mentions 50 cent and the second's eloquent use of the word "FUCKTARDS" is more than enough evidence to back up their assumptions. What are you so pissed off about? First off if it's about a movie, you need to get out more often man. You act like you went to go see Batman and while you were gone in some elaborate ruse constructed by Warner Brother, you came home to find that it was all a setup to get out of your home for once for 2 hours so someone could steal your comic book collection. I mean hell I'd cry too, but is that really what happened because you're way overreacting mate. -Az

he's at home-washing his tights!

Instead, we get Chris Nolans crap. RUBBISH FILM.

I thought the first half was excellent- but the end plot was horrible. Chris Nolan doesn't handle the actions well at all. it reminds me of Spiderman- where the origin was beautifully dealt with and they thought- fuck, we have a film to finish and then shoehorn some cartoony villan and rushed set piece. Like Spiderman though, I enjoyed Batman a lot- still think it's flawed however.

Sorry, but I call b*llshit on these so-called reviews. I'm curious as to where this person saw a screening on Batman Begins on a Saturday? I know for a fact that Warner Bros. screened the movie only twice last week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, for which I had the pleasure of seeing it for myself.

If you actually saw the film, there's no way you can say that some random villan was tagged on at the end. The plot is very well thought out, and it makes sense.

Wow, what can I say, if the film is half as good as Harry say's it is then there will be millions of discruntled Batman fans rejoying. It sounds that Christopher Nolan & David Goyer have finally nailed what makes a great Batman story / film - BATMAN himself. The villians are great no doubt, but it's always been Batman ( and his internal struggle with Hate, Vengence & retribuation )that have always driven the graphic novels. Can't wait for thursday!!!!

He's in the same class of actors as Bale and Oldman, and I believe he could play crazy, funny, tragic, and scary all at once, without making the character a Nicholson-esque cartoon.

Ya, I think Ewan McGregor would be good too, and possibly Edward Norton.

It did say he learned things over there but what`s interesting is when he experiment things and tries things by himself at home. The reactions from Alfred are priceless. The fact that he`s so dedicated that he actually trains himself to be better than everybody is more interesting to me than learning things from Liam Neason in a secret monastery. Just the simplicity of it acttracts me because Batman and his war on crime is such a personal, intimate thing.

While happy as hell the comic fans feel that Hollywood finally got the Bat right, don

I saw the film two weeks ago, and I didn't mean the villan, necessary, was tacked on but the whole cartoony- spoilers***** plot to destroy Gotham i t doesn't matter that it was said at the start that Raj was wanting to destroy Gotham, that idea went into the background as Bale became Batman. For me personally the third act is a complete mess- adn I'm sorry, it felt completey rushed. BTW- I never said I saw the film the other day. I JSUT GOT MY user name yesterday. Like I said, I liked it, but I felt dissapointed in certain parts

not rahug- sorry about that

You're an asshole dude. That was really fucked up. -Az

Nolan's Batman is a Great movie with a ton of flaws. The Movie's Score is just awfull!! I mean really BAD!! The Fighting is a joke it is so jumpy you have no clue what is going on. The car is okay but not great. the City of Gotham itself is just boring . When I first Saw Burtan's Batman I was in Aw I thought it was great. The score the car the batsuit everything. Nolans batman left me with no aw facter. The Best Part of the movie was Just seeing bruce Get the tools and build the suit. And the suit looks so bad on Bale it is just scary. All in all the is the second best batman movie ever made behind burton's.

A script by him would've been good, huh? They showed a trailer for Serenity before Batman and it looks like fucking Space Truckers without Stephen Dorff and Dennis Hopper. Jesus, you people are WAY too devoted to the hack who centered a bad show around a halfmouthed bad actress.

I've read some reviews (both here and elsewhere) while keeping spoilers to a minimum (skipping reviews with "spoiler warnings"). After all that, in short, I got (from the film) mostly what I expected. But if I had went into the theatre knowing only the positive reviews, I'd feel disappointed. Even so, while I expected the movie's visuals to be a bit underwhelming (overall, as to how the film looked), I still felt disappointed by THAT element of the film. And I still feel let down by the action scenes. I'm a fan of the Jason Bourne movies... yet I expected as good or better fight scenes with "BATMAN BEGINS"... but no, I don't feel that. (Same with the "car chase" scene.) And surprisingly, I felt the BRUCE WAYNE fight scenes were much more satisfying and better than the BATMAN fight scenes. With Batman's more realistic technique, using stealth and surprise tactics, perhaps that isn't surprising. Yet to me, it still was. After all, this is BATMAN I'm talkin' about(!). I wish I could say that the visuals are worthy of David Fincher or Tim Burton, yet I can't. At the same time, I do appreciate this glossier, more realistic view of Gotham City... and if I had to compare it to the comic books, I'm reminded a bit of the Steve Englehart/Len Wein and Marshall Rogers great Batman run in the '70s. (In future sequels, I'd appreciate it if they pull a bit more from these issues.) I've posted here at AICN numerous times in the past as to my disappointment with the costume design. It's just that the costume can be better... while being faithful to even THIS (type of) design. Seeing more close-up shots of Bale in the cowl actually gave me a bit more relief... while the ears still bother me. And I appreciate the movement of the cape, though the material itself looks like it might make a decent shirt. I know these complaints about the costume might be overkill for many... but I want the costume to look cool in every way (no matter who is in the Bat-suit), with what should be a beautifully shot cape in every frame, when shown in it's full form. My greatest joy of this film... besides telling the origin of Bruce Wayne (a wee bit different from the comic books) with depth... and the explaination of Batman's gadgets... may have actually been with the character Lucius Fox (a character I've enjoyed in the comics, though little has been made of him). I absolutely love the character as played by Morgan Freeman, who pulled the best parts from the character in what little screen-time he had. (Though such a small part, I feel this is one of Freeman's best characters he's ever portrayed, along with his character work in "SEVEN" and "THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION") Lucius Fox was alienated by Wayne Corp. and has found a new friend in Bruce. You feel that joy and amusement in Freeman's character,... and his sense of enjoyment in Bruce's discovery of all the gadgets which were never put into production or developed for the military (as far as we know, which could be an interesting story element itself, in a future sequel). As to other performances... I feel that the director (Nolan) should have pushed for more emotion from Katie Holmes, specifically in a scene where she slaps Bruce (in her car). When I see an acting performance which falls short (no matter how little or big), I put quite a bit of blame on the director. (I wish Nolan would have yelled his head off at Katie Holmes for the car scene, making her cry in another take. She would later learn to appreciate such methods... and what that would do for her performance.) I don't mean to give the impression that Katie was terrible in her role, which she wasn't. It's just that I feel she could have shown much more emotion in the character. But my compliments to the rest of the cast, none of whom go "over the top" and that's a GREAT thing. (But just remember... that you've got to feed those emotions to the audience, no matter how subtle.) I suppose I would have loved ever more intensity from Bale (due to the incredible character he is portraying)... but he does not disappoint. And while I'm on the subject of intensity, I would have loved for the film to push more in this area... with extreme close-ups of the fear in the eyes of at least one criminal,... and Batman invading the "personal space" of his victims,... forward intensity and... vaaaarrrrrrrroooooooooooomph... the music to push it ever more forward. You get what I'm saying??? And while I'm on the subject of music, which is supposed to add feeling to any scene, let me say that showing the Wayne murders on screen is getting old and tiresome. I understand, yes, this is "Batman BEGINS" and they have absolutely GOT to show the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. It's THE motivation behind the character of Bruce Wayne. But in my head, as the camera was momentarily sitting still on the young Bruce, on his knees next to his dead parents, I was mentally shouting, "CUT!!! CUT!!! CUT!!!" You stop hammering when the nail is in, especially in flashback form. And now, let me say something else that might make some fellow Bat-fans quite angry with me. When I heard Joe Chill referred to as "Mr. Chill"... for that split-second, I was embarrassed to be a comic book fan. It's just that the name itself seemed as though it didn't belong in a more "realistic" interpretation. How interesting it might have been if the we never saw the face of the character and his name was Jack Napier. But yes, in the comics, it was Joe Chill. But in such a life-like movie interpretation, I would have been okay (with it) if they had changed the name. And they could have changed it to Jack Napier or something else, as long as it doesn't mess with the core of WHAT and WHO Bruce Wayne/Batman is (and should be). I'm always looking for that Batman masterpiece. And I still am. But this is a great foundation for more hope. I'm okay with this. And I'll see it again. Grade: B

Just saw it. What a pile of shit. How many liberties do we let them get away with the Batman character. Raas should not have been it. Then all of a sudden scarecrow pops up. Batman himself was neither scary or interesting he just looked stupid and laughable. Such a great cast on offer and they all act their part and there's nothing wrong with the performances. It's just this is not Batman. It does not feel like Batman and it's nowhere near as good as the batman cartoons or the excellent batman movie Mask Of The Phantasm. As for the direction. I love Nolan, I think he's great but he's not up to doing a comic film. Christ the so called action of which there is little is impossible to tell what's going on. Camera is too in your face that it looks like something out of the Michael Bay school of direction. Just awful. I heard such good things about this film yet I was disappointed. I urge all Warner Bros to look at Sin City. This is a proper comic adaptation because guess what they actually USED the proper comic. Wow what an outrageous thing to do use the source and not create some crap.

One of the best superhero movies ever (along with Spidey 2 and X2), and definitely the best kickoff to a superhero franchise. After this, it will be hard to go back to the usual cartoony superhero movie, this will be a HUGE influence on how they're done in the future. Hope it does well, I wouldn't be surprised if it only does okay with typical idiot audiences. THIS is the movie of the summer.

that was a good review. i didn't think the movie was the greatest thing in the world, but you reviewed it properly.

Since i was a child i have been waiting for this movie. After i left the film, (Imax version) I was a child again. This is the only batman movie i've ever seen that goes into the mythology and psycology surrounding him that sets him apart as a superhero. i was blown away by the cinematography (especially the first shots of gotham), the effects (scarcrow sequences were actually scary), and most of all the acting. Bale's batman will never be outdone for me, because he is likely the only actor that has reasearched batman to the level he did. we all saw the interviews, we know who he referrenced (kane's early work, miller, loeb & sale) and it payed off. In every good batman comic, they describe his voice as growling, like gravel. when i heard him speak, especially when he first uttered that classic line, "I'm Batman!" , i felt chills down my spine. My favorite part would have to be gary oldman's speach at the end. hearing him talk about escalation blew my mind. While Burton really developed his villain's hate for batman, he never really quite covered it for me. that speach left me wanting more. This is my all time favorite superhero movie. I cant wait for more.

Although he may be overly harsh (in my opinion) in his opinion of the film, Moviemack's criticisms of Batman Begins are dead-on. Face it: David Goyer does NOT understand the character of Batman. He's not some crazed fascist in black leather who burns down buildings (letting everyone inside die), flips cop cars over (some of those cops could have easily died), or refuses to save people (even villains). Not to mention some of the terrible dialogue sprinkled throughout that turned the movie into camp and killed some scenes. That moment where Batman introduces himself to Falcone was completely RUINED by the atrociois "Nice coat" line. Batman is not Spider-Man, he doesn't chit chat to the citizens of Gotham as he climbs the side of their buildings. The suit, particularly the mask, never looked right. And the fight choreography was a mess - not even choreographed, really. For a movie that is supposed to wipe the slate clean, a lot of this movie felt ghost-directed by Schumacher. "An amibitious failure" is what another Talkbacker used to describe this and I'd have to agree. I'm a huge Batman fan but we're going to have to wait a little while longer to see the definitive take on the character outside of the comic books. For now, Tim Burton's films remain a much more dark and dynamic view of the character. Burton's "Metropolis" (the Fritz Lang silent film, not Superman's city)-inspired Gotham reigns supreme as a visiual interpretation of the city.

http://www.petitiononline.com/qp2d1234/petition.html

Of the last 13 or so posts, 8 of &#39;em are yours. For the love of Christ, we understand that you don&#39;t like the movie. You can&#39;t argue people out of liking something, even if you think that, objectively, it&#39;s bad. I like a lot of movies I know are bad, I dislike a lot of them that I know are good. WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Anyhoo, onto some cricisms I&#39;ve heard from various sources that I don&#39;t agree are necessarily valid -- >>>>>> {1) BATMAN LETS PEOPLE DIE. <<<<<<<< Namely, all the cops that flipped over like crazy and Ducard at the end. Well, this is straight out of the comic -- it&#39;s part of his splintered, hypocritical personality that while he has a "NO KILL" policy, he&#39;ll still be pragmatic enough to break your spine, paralyzing you for life, just to get you to tell him some information. As he&#39;s said when talking about Superman, "Deep down he&#39;s a good guy. And deep down I&#39;m not." It&#39;s part of what makes him interesting that he borders on the edge all the time. He&#39;ll blow up a city-block to save the entire city, as we saw in the movie. How many times in the comic have they beaten it into our heads that he&#39;s no different than the lunatics he chases? I&#39;ve lost count. It makes perfect sense that Batman would rationalize his every action in this movie as being for the "greater good." He didn&#39;t LITERALLY kill Ducard, just like he doesn&#39;t LITERALLY kill the cops, and that&#39;s how he&#39;ll think of it. And furthermore, you can&#39;t lambast a movie for showing a person doing things that go against their moral code, because that&#39;s what people REALLY DO. If the movie had taken a stand and shown what he was doing to be truly good work, then, yeah, you can take the film to task for giving a viewpoint. But Nolan shoots it all very unsympathetically. Batman looks like a nutjob the whole time. >>>>>>>>>>>>> (2) THE ENTIRE ENDING/FOX IN THE MANSION/WATER-VAPORIZING MACHINE/ETC MAKES NO SENSE <<<<<<<<<<<<<< We&#39;re in a time right now where emotional literalness, logic and narrative order have taken precedent in critical thinking. This is a fad, and shouldn&#39;t be confused for gospel. Eventually we&#39;ll turn full circle and start to value artistic synthesis over logic, and thematic composition over narrative order. It&#39;s truly nitpicking when you take a movie to task for Lucious Fox being in the mansion when Wayne wakes up, as well as screaming about how the Microwave Device would vaporize the water in our blood. It just doesn&#39;t matter. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE has a ridiculous conclusion. CONFESSIONS OF AN OPIUM EATER, quite literally, makes no damn sense. GILGAMESH has no logic behind it at all. Throughout the OLD TESTAMENT, Yahweh himself is quite the hypocritical bastard. And to fault different works of art for different criteria is critical laziness. Complain about the opening twenty minutes being structurally too fast, and I&#39;ll agree with you. Complain about Batman&#39;s grappling gun batteries, and I&#39;ll laugh at you.

There is no Joker. Burton&#39;s Batman is my favorite superhero movie of all time. I give much credit to Jack Nicholson&#39;s Joker; he pulls me in and captivates my imagination to the point where I&#39;m totally engrossed in Gotham. Neither Bale nor any of the other cast - oscar winners or no - did this for me. Batman Begins, like both Spiderman films, is missing what it needed most: a great villain. We read and hear a lot about how "scary" this Batman film is....What exactly makes it scary? The whiny weightless Dr. Crane as Scarecrow? Or is it the yawn-inspiring and anal, rather than powerful and merciless, Ducard as Ra&#39;s al Ghul? It&#39;s certainly not Batman. He&#39;s too busy hacking up furballs. Get that man some Ricola! The closest the film comes to a noteworthy villain is Tom Wilkinson&#39;s Falcone. I believed he was evil and up to no good. Everyone else left me unsure. After all, everyone says this Batman is the "realistic one"....But Falcone&#39;s drugs seem a bigger danger to me than say, a fear toxin supposedly spread to induce the citizens of Gotham to "tear their city apart."

"Pre-sold and defended?" This implies that if the movie had just been dropped in on us from the sky you&#39;d have no complaints whatsoever, because, hey, nobody declared any intentions. Marketing or the original artist&#39;s goals have no bearing on the worth of the final product. It&#39;s been my experience that the artist is actually the WORST authority on whether or not what he/she/they did was any good -- they can only judge how close it came to their original idea, which, obviously, means absolutely nothing to us. If Nolan came out and said before the thing ever showed, "It&#39;s going to be more cartoony than ever before," does that suddenly make the movie better or worse? The answer, of course, is neither. ********* I have problems with the movie, mostly regarding the structure and it&#39;s failure to capture a coherent theme and stick with it ("fear" doesn&#39;t count because nothing important is ever said about fear -- it just plays round-robin for two-and-a-half hours until it collapses, exhausted, right where it started). I enjoyed it, for what it&#39;s worth, but find the hyperbole expressed on BOTH sides of the hate it/loved it camp to be absurd.

There is no wrong, there&#39;s only opinion. And there are people who loved the movie, myself included. What&#39;s the point of whining about it endlessly on the internet? You don&#39;t honestly think you&#39;ll change anyone&#39;s mind, that you&#39;ll talk someone out of liking it?

First movie, a training montage with Quie Gon telling Bale that he sucks. Second movie, a Scarecrow story, third movie, a clich

This movie was great. Anyone who prefers Burton&#39;s movies to this is functionally retarded. If you think you can do better than go out and make your own Batman movie, as some already have.

One wonders if Batutta means any one of Burton&#39;s films or just his Batman adaptations. Either way, he may as well say that I&#39;m functionally retarded because I like a &#39;76 Cadillac better than an &#39;06.

Ive been a Batman fan since the early 70s. This film blows Burtons versions away. Sorry but its Burton who doesnt "get" Batman and he didnt have the ability to capture Hamms script on film.

i think your hostility is somewhat misdirected. it sounds to me like you should be directing your aggression towards a movie much more deserving of your blah blah shit talking than the gem i call batman begins. the fantastic four talkback awaits your gleaming presence! don&#39;t disappoint us.

NOW I KNOW IT MIGHT SOUND CRAZY...BUT DOES ANY1 ELSE THINK THAT THE LITTLE BLOND BOY WHO CANT FIND HIS MOTHERTHER N FINDS COMFORT IN RACHEL B4 BATMAN RESCUES THEM AT THE END...MIGHT GROW UP TO BECOME ROBIN!!! NOVA SAID IT HERE 1ST BABY!!!

AND THE NEXT WILL TOO.

I thought the same.

Hi, I thought this was an intelligent Batman Begins review. http://www.providencephoenix.com/movies/top/documents/04758282.asp

Begins wasn&#39;t that dark. In Batman Returns, Batman fries a clown with his Batmobile and kills other people in cold blood. The new Batman: "I&#39;m not an executioner!" He holds someone upside down and makes friends with hobos. Yeah, real dark. But don&#39;t worry Nolan lovers, I still enjoyed the film.

The fucktard hates everything and anything that anyone in any part of the world may even consider liking or may express an interest in. Why you people keep feedin the troll is beyond my comprehension. Personally Id love to ram my 7 inch, big headed cock down his throat and give him a big glob of my DNA sample, just to see if he&#39;d hate that too...we&#39;ll see.

Katie Holmes, Ras Al Ghul&#39;s sucky Water Microwave Plot Device-O-tron, Goyer&#39;s bad bad dialogue, Batman HAS A LISP, Batman DOES NOT HAVE A LISP, too much to let slide.

1. I thought the film was great, the best capturing of the Dark Knight feel by far. And I didn&#39;t think the end plot too silly. 2. Steve Buscemi for Joker! That&#39;s my vote.

"Oh shit. Holy fuck. YEAH, BITCH! SHIT! That was fucking SWEET! YEAH, what were you thinking?! That&#39;s fucking Batman!" - This was my little twelve year old brother last night at the movie. I forgive him his outbursts because he was absolutely right...Christopher Nolan proves that no matter the script, he&#39;s going to direct beyond its shortcomings. This is the first Batman movie that captures the voice of Batman. Bale sounds like a fucking raging lunatic. I&#39;d shit my pants if he yoinked me off the street and badgered me upside down with falafel drying on my shirt. And the Scarecrow was made into at least a formidable and logical villain, not just a "Batman pushed me into the crazy puddle and OOPS! I&#39;m a CUH-RAAAAAAZY!" villain. Although, Batman fucks him up as hard as he can, and in a way only Batman can. I can&#39;t say enough good things about this flick, every good thing about Batman is in here: The opening stuff in the League of Shadows headquarters, we see the beginnings of the craftiness of Bruce Wayne versus ancient ninja teachings. In my opinion, this gets my highest accolades. Not only a multi-view at the theater but a must-have on video.

need more now!

Hey...Yeah, I was wondering what was going through his head in that part. But would Batman help Killer Croc if he was falling off a two story roof? Nah, he&#39;d let him hit the car below and hurt him enough to take him out. He probably figured (and rightly so) that R&#39;as al Ghul could escape his fate. I mean, for fuck&#39;s sake, he&#39;s a ninja.

Batman would let a capable villain take a tumble if they deserve it: "Dark Knight Returns" I want to let him fall, but I just have to know. (When Harvey Dent attacks the news tower.)....Setting fire to a building? Well, the League of Shadows ARE fucking ninjas. I mean, they all get Batman training, and I&#39;m supposed to think that they become civilians when the building catches fire? Fuck that; they shouldn&#39;t leave gunpowder laying around. The Microwave plot device? Reflective of the seventies comics, the ones that really got me into Batman; where a villain will have an actual REASON other than "Ain&#39;t I a CUH-RAAAAAZY?!" to try to cripple the city. Not to mention a plan that&#39;s like a comic villain&#39;s: Use a hallucinogenic(sp?)to have the citizens tear the city down. It was a classic villain scheme, and a good re-imaging of Al Ghul, who&#39;s waaaay better in this movie than I thought possible. The people who are on these talkbacks have a right to their opinion, and I like that most of the time their opinions, even when negative have salient points. I think a few are superficial, but that could be because of the format and space provided. I also support the idea of Moviemack getting a review up here. Only, I&#39;d have rather had it before I went to see it. If only to leave little doubt that Harry didn&#39;t want to torpedo the flick before it came out. Which is not really a problem. This movie is fucking sweet. If you have doubts, see it at a matinee, but see it in a theater. I&#39;m DEFINITELY going to see this in IMAX later this month.

Way better than Burton&#39;s Batman movies. I think when it all comes down to it, it&#39;s about what you like more. Watching movies or bitching about them? Argue that it&#39;s "unrealistic even though it claims to be" all you want. It&#39;s a movie about a guy who dresses up as a bat. And now people want to question his motives about death? Clearly he has issues, he&#39;s Batman. I think if you don&#39;t like the movie, then you will never like a Batman movie. I personally love the first Burton Batman, but not as much as this version. Through over 60 years Batman has been campy (huge death traps!!!) to dark (Miller&#39;s Year One & Dark Knight Returns). X-Men took way more liberties with its history than Batman Begins did. If you want to nitpick about a fictional Batmobile being supported by a roof with suppport beams and shingles, then I suggest you need to "lighten up." You know, I don&#39;t think it&#39;s possible for laser swords to only come out 4 feet without continuing forever, but I just went with it. Moviemack, tell me what you think about the X3 script? Now there&#39;s something to bitch about! But I think complaining about a movie that uses orange lighting, etc. is pushing it. Remember, this is Batman. Not Shindler&#39;s List, not The Godfather. It&#39;s Batman and I thought it was the first movie that has been reimagined from my childhood that was actually better than my fanboyish youth feelings. It was great.

where was the rewatchability factor?think about it...i can&#39;t imagine anyone wanting to see it again really...I&#39;M not buying the dvd.

I just got back from an Imax screening, and haven&#39;t been this pissed since Batman & Robin. I won&#39;t even compare this to Burton&#39;s films(which I disliked), becuase it&#39;s a different take on the character. I will say this though, Katie Holmes, is the human equivilant of JarJar Binks. She makes Jessica Alba&#39;s turn in Sin City look Oscar-worthy, a feat i considered impossible. From the dialogue to the action pieces, to the suit, to the plot, and Bruce&#39;s ambiguous morals, I cringed through it all. This was the last Batman movie I&#39;ll ever pay to see again, and that makes me sad.

Truly Great film. Certainly the Batman I&#39;VE been waiting for. The only thing I didn&#39;t like was Rachel finding out the truth. Seems like that&#39;s dramatic fodder for the second film, a peak for her right before she dies. (she has to die before Harvey Dent shows up, right? And it&#39;s not liek she and Bruce are going to get married and move to the suburbs. That was teh biggest of several things that bugged me about the Burton original. 40-45 minutes into the film, Bruce is taking a chick down to the Batcave --- Ex-squeeze-me? also: GREAT fucking call above by godric on a Buscemi Joker. Can you imagine? I&#39;m putting $8.00 in a safe place right now (Hmm... a couple years wait. Better make it 10)

To me, the idea of Batman is already so psychologically loaded. I can&#39;t help but picture Adam West punching (POW!) out criminals while dancing the Bat-Tussi, or seeing Clooney ham it up with Uma and Arnold. I liked the first hour of Batman Begins (although was it just me, or were the action scenes very confusing, with most of the shots being way too tight?), but once he actually became batman, I became bored with it. It wandered too far into the territory carved out by the earlier batman incarnations, and I couldn&#39;t help but think back to their utter ridiculousness. Fear toxin? Water vaporization scheme-o-matic? And could we have done without the pointless love story that was completely shoehorned in there? "SWEAR TO ME!?!?" Good grief! Color me very disappointed with the second half, with nearly every single action scene leaving me bored to tears. Incidentally, I do hope they make a sequel, but only if they can make it as interesting and thoughtful as the first half of the film.

i actually liked the robin suit in batman and robin...sans nipples...i mean you got batman dark brooding and such...and demonic then you got this little prancing kid that looks like he should be in a gay-pride parade...it was obvious that robin was an attempt to either save ink or make batman less depressing in the comics...i mean look at him...can you see an honest-to-comic robin in a batman film?...i hope robin is never in another batman film.

Christopher Lloyd, bitches.

is ROTHMAN!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry man man, but my vote for the joker goes to JUDE LAW...especially b/c hes boning sienna miller...shes a piece of ass.

How many here think that there doesn&#39;t have to be follow on Batman movie about the Joker? I want to see the stories flow a little differently. I want to see the question answered, is all evil rooted in fear? If so ... then any surviving enemies of Batman would have to end up at Arkum. Ohh, what if the next Batman movie involved Batman Turkey as a location, script wise?

that scarecrow is hinted at being more used next one...in fact i don&#39;t think we&#39;ve seen the last of ra&#39;s either.

Bale, Caine, Nolan were all I ever could have hoped for and then some. All that was missing was the clown prince, but you have to save something for the sequel. I love the Burton films as well but Begins achieved a higher level than any comic book movie has ever achieved. Batman owns all your asses.

Truly, this is the film fans have been waiting for. Well done Chris. Well done.

I&#39;m as cynical as anyone, and this film is as faithful to the genre as you&#39;re gonna get. So if you don&#39;t like it pick up a camera or a pen. I thought so.

Yeah the action could have been a bit better, but damn, this was a pretty good movie. The only thing that stuns me is that people still act ike the garbage Burton crapped out was

Your silly rant was more boring than Batman Begins.

Nice comeback Chickychow.. .really that

and team up with the joker? might work. The scarecrow could become more deadly and powerful. He and the joker could team up only to suffer a double cross and be killed by the joker. Then batman could chase him thru the tunnel of love and twist the jokers neck (this will of course be borrowed from frank miller) killing him. Its an idea. Just as long as the joker is&#39;nt played by alan cumming. *shudder*

The Burton vs. Begins debate is almost pointless (almost) because without Burton&#39;s &#39;89 "Batman" there would be no Begins. It&#39;s as simple as that. He was the first one to take the character seriously on film and his vision of Gotham remains the best ever put to screen. Frankly, there would be no Begins without Schumacher either, because the only reason to remake Begins was because of how awful his movies were. If the series had ended with Batman Returns then Nolan&#39;s flick would have been a sequel to that.

Is it a perfect movie? No. But not many movies are perfect. It&#39;s a great genre film and I&#39;m impressed with the job Mr. Nolan and crew have done. I do have a couple of quibbles: as has been pointed out, yes some of the action sequences could have been shot better, particularly the final fights between Bats and the ninjas and with Ra&#39;s on the monorail. It wouldn&#39;t be a scandal if Chris Nolan could perhaps use a great second unit director that&#39;s great at fight scenes on the sequel. Another thing, the ending suffered a bit from Peter Jackson disease. After the monorail sequence the movie was effectively over and should have been wrapped up quicker with the last few scenes a bit more condensed. It just seemed to go on and on for a few minutes. As any storyteller can learn to improve by paying attention to his audience, the audience I saw it with got restless and quite a few people were getting up and leaving even when the Joker allusion scene came up. There should have been just a brief, few second coda after the train crash and wrap up the story. Now these are again, just quibbles in an otherwise very good movie. Good show, Mr. Nolan. Good show.

just saw it. awesome. but if liam neeson was ras al ghul, then who was ken wantanabe?

The first half was really good. I felt like it was a good C. Nolan movie. Apparently Michael Bay directed the second half.

--Without Burtons Batman - Begins would DEFINITELY have happened. Superhero flicks are in, and Batman is one of 2 DC big boys. To think Batman would never be made is deluded- if anything Batman has been hampered by the crappy gothic camp with stars slumming as overacting villans that Burton templated for us (and Shumacker just continued- and no more lamely than Returns

Though I disagree that the ending needed shortening (as it certainly did in ROTK), the comment about a second unit action director is PERFECT. That is the one area that could be vastly improved- and there are excellent 2nd unit action directors out there

fucking awesome. That is all.

Batman Begins Starring Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman Directed by Christopher Nolan About a year ago, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban came out. They had gotten rid of the previous director, Chris Columbus who had done the originals as well as other kiddie movies such as Jumanji and Home Alone 2, because they wanted a darker, more serious film. And that

. . . that contains a gross misspelling as "Michelle Phiffer." Phiffer? Yikes. You know what? My mom and dad are not comic book geeks. My dad fell asleep during the first Batman movie when we went to see it opening day back in 1989. My parents both loved BATMAN BEGINS. So I&#39;m sure the reviewer will be proven wrong and BB will do just fine. Oh, and one more thing, AZKABAN made a whopping $15 million less than CHAMBER OF SECRETS domestically. Yeah, that&#39;s "far less" than the previous two.

HEY!, did any TBers here read that old videogame magazine GAMEFAN? It hyped games endlessly and their scoops were so early that you knew the writers had never really experienced the game. The point is is that Harry has an infectious enthusiam towards his chosen entertainment, although unlike Gamefan, he&#39;s obviously seen the movies before he posts a review. Kudos to Harry for showing unbridled joy and unhinged hatred towards films. He cares, and that&#39;s what matters. Reviews shouldn&#39;t ever sway your opinion of a movie, you should judge it for yourself. But, as long as people like Harry run websites like this, I&#39;ll be more amped for movies than I wouldn&#39;t without his input.

I generally don&#39;t read any reviews of any sort before seeing a movie. You may think that reading Harry&#39;s review of this movie won&#39;t sway your opinion when you watch the movie, although it totally could bias. If you feel a movie is great or terrible, those extremes are obvious and simple to decide. But when a movie falls somewhere in the middle, I find reviews should be avoided because that&#39;s when they could really alter your final opinion. I guess this post is redundant though, because a good movie should absorb your attention to the point that preconceptions are eradicated and the focus is entirely on the lights and sounds.

incredible! I went in not really knowing what to expect and it kicked my ass! Easily one of the best movies this year. Try to check it out in IMAX.

the worldwide box office take for Sorcerer&#39;s Stone was 968,600,000. Hor Chamber of Secrets 866,300,000. And for Azkaban 789,458,727. So the 3rd film made nearly 180 million less than the first and 80 mil less than the second, for an average of 130 million less than the originals (not taking into account that the ticket prices were higher for the last movie so actual ticket sales were even lower) So, yes, I believe my point was valid. UNless, you believe the rest of the world isn&#39;t worth considering, and you are a member of the Bush family. My apologies go to Michelle on the misspelling of her name, but for somebody who calls himslef "Darth...something" to say a simple spelling issue negates the seriousness of the thoughts has some issues. Finally, this was not an attack on those who loved it...it was likely made more for you than for the general public (BTW I think Sin Ciy is the best movie of the year, so far) So don&#39;t fear those whose opinion differs from your so much. I just happen to believe this Batman isn&#39;t as entertaining as the first 2 were, and will be most loved by those who read the comics and not by those who don&#39;t. Not too offensive a point, I wouldn&#39;t think.

and it still stands far below SPIDERMAN (and SIN CITY) in terms of superhero/comic book movies. still, it gets major points for being the first good BATMAN movie, and i could see it getting better as the series continues, but, meh. it didn&#39;t blow me away. maybe that&#39;s because i don&#39;t have a personal connection with the character like hardcore Batman fans do. i just wish they would make Miller&#39;s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. howabouta Rodriguez and Miller collaboration? hmm... that could be a classic. (oh and in terms of summer movies, ROTS stands head and shoulders above BB. both in terms of delivering the goods, and making big bucks. but i would hardly call Batman a bomb. it&#39;s a good movie and it&#39;s doing decent business. i imagine the sequal will be more "meaty." you know, what wit&#39; the Joker and all. Now, who to play the Joker?... hmm...)

was my favorite part. the whole League of Shadows business and the vaguely fascist ideology of Ducard / Ras Al Ghul / Darth Neeson was awesome! i mean, of course Batman was trained in the dark arts of the ninja! how cool was that? (i&#39;m assuming this must be part of one of the comics, but the only Batman comic i have (and love) is Miller&#39;s DARK KNIGHT RETURNS) anyways, the rest of the movie, the Batman parts, were "meh." who the fuck is Rachel, for instance? Gary Oldman and Michael caine were both great, however. Oldman should play subdued nice guys more often. and Christian Bale was the first convincing Batman i have ever seen. he was great. in short, the casting was mostly great. maybe next time around will be a more involving and exciting story.

poa was easily the best of the three movie not just because it was darker, but because it was an actual film that had a tone and was actually shot compellingly by someone compentant. the first two movies just bore me aside from lockhart scenes. and i&#39;m sure it would of made more money if it was released in novemberish like all the rest of potter movies. less competetition but it was released in friggin june.

Warner Brothers was allegedly offered a Batman origin in serialized format, or a television series. Warner passed in favor of Smallville instead. In watching Smallville and seeing Batman Begins their error is apparent. The Batman mythos has a much richer heritage to complement an episodic format than Superman lore, and might have culminated in the Christopher Nolan movie playing on screen, albeit with an established hero from the onset that the audience witnessed forged during the television series run

---I agree that more money can be made with standard action scenes- and I actually would have liked a few in Begins

I add "Batman Begins" to the uber-overrated (by critics) movie pile including recently Spider-man 2 and Incredibles, though those films are far, far beyond "Begins" I agree with others, the badly done action and lame score really take a toll on this film. It&#39;s like a really good "origin" movie and a pretty lame "action" movie put together. I popped in the original Batman since seeing "Begins" and you know, honestly, both films have equally cheesy villian plots, except Burton&#39;s film actually has an interesting villian to go with it. Granted the villians before "Begins" got too much screen time but honestly, movies NEED good villians. This opened pretty decent but will fall off, especially when WotW hits. THAT movie will be big.

There was a piece on it in the The NY Times a few days ago. Apparently this could be the second coming of Dumb and Dumber and Warner Bros. execs are really excited that they have something really great on their hands. The article also mentioned that WB is hyping it to their stockholders in the same breath as Batman Begins. Wedding Crashers stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as, well, a couple of dudes who crash random weddings for the free food and the hot bridesmaids. It SOUNDS like a great idea. Everyone always needs a good belly laugh of a movie every so often. Hope this is the genuine article.

I like all of the takes, even the campy Adam West show, but the Dini/Rodomski show is the best IMO. I also agree that one of the things that made this movie less enjoyable was its depressing darkness and a lack of focus on the villains. Yes, I liked the focus on Bruce Wayne, but the villains were not really too compelling. It seemed like a good setup for a TV serial but not for a movie. I also agree with itsmedave that there was lacking a certain amount of fun. Batman TAS proved that you can have a dark Batman AND have it fun, too, so it IS doable. Four out of five for me- best film of the summer so far. I just like to bitch and moan.

The tone, style, acting, whatever you want to call it, did it for me. I forgive the crappy fight scenes when I think back and remember all the juicy bits, like the maggots, how Scarecrow sees Batman when he&#39;s gassed, the Batman flying over the city with red eyes, Batman actually instilling fear in criminals and the audience, Batman&#39;s gadgets trying to apply plausibility and allowing me to suspend my disbelief, Katie Holmes nippin&#39; out. Overall, great fucking movie.

Seriously. I dont think mainstream audiences liked the pic. A guy at the video store on Thursday was telling all his friends that the movie sucked and it&#39;s no where near as good as Xmen. Come on. Where do people come up with this shit? Xmen and X2 were average acting films. Daredevil was mediocre. Spiderman was cartoonish. Spiderman 2 was nearly 3 hours and for a sequel needed to up the ante actionwise. Batman Begins was a well acted, well paced origin story, with just enough twists in the story to keep you entertained. The action was good. The direction solid. Come on people, support it.

...is immortal isn&#39;t he? so therefore he is just set back a bit not dead???is that right?

Call me a thread-jacker, but the presumed reason by WB brass why the third of the Potter films did less box than the other two is that they released it during the summer, and typically a winter release for these films fits better...Not to mention PoA&#39;s competition that summer (Incredibles, Shrek 2, Spidey 2) was pretty rough...Usually the holiday season belongs to fantasy in recent years (Potter/LOTR)...All this aside, speaking for myself (a thirtysomething comic and film buff) Begins is the perfect title for that kickass movie...

Bale&#39;s Batman makes Michael Keaton&#39;s Batman look like Adam West&#39;s Batman.

<<<

lets see how it does over subsequent weeks.

Yes, Batman does begin, and what a start. Saw it this afternoon. I never seen a superhero so humanized as Batman was in this movie, everytime it looked like it was about to get cheesy. It was saved by common sense and believable dialogue. This movie doesn&#39;t insult your intelligence. It actually even questions itself, whether the concept of a Batman is even possible. Bringing it to a human level we can all believe. Christian Bale will be the definitive Batman from here on out. I can&#39;t imagine anyone else portraying Batman. Bravo to Christopher Nolan and the entire cast.

The word of mouth has been amazing, I havent heard one bad thing about the movie, and listening to audiences as I left the theatre i heard nothing but positibe reaction. I could see this holding up very well during the week and dropping 40% which would be great. By the way i saw it at 4 at the grove and every shpowing was sold out for the rest of the night

I have to agree with mpfanatic -- I&#39;ve heard nothing but positive word of mouth since the film opened. The problem I see is this: most people not inclined to watch sites like AICN and keep track of productions approaching the theater have nothing to base their opinions on, other than a) the marketing for this film, and b) the previous films. Unfortunately, in my opinion, there hasn&#39;t been enough effort made in distancing this film (which I think was fantastic) from the previous movies. Consequently, Batman Begins is having to overcome disappointment in the previous films (including, unfortunately, Catwoman -- ugh). That said, I&#39;ve now seen the movie twice -- once on Wednesday night and the second time today on IMAX. Both shows were sold out, and both ended with enthusiastic applause. The guy next to me at the IMAX showing had already seen the film, and had dragged a bunch of his friends to see it again. It will be interesting to see what happens in the second week -- no doubt. It would be freaking awesome to see it pull a "Sixth Sense".

all i said is lets see what happens in subsequent weeks. i loved the movie though. but unless you can peer into the future and gaurantee it drops 50 percent then so be it...but is it wrong to say lets wait and see? everyone thought polar express bombed when it opened then it went on making money and lots of it. so lets not just to conclusions and the word of mouth with the times i&#39;ve seen it has been positive...plus not one weekend has been as good as last year money wise if you haven&#39;t been reading up...lots of polls saying ppl perfer to watch dvd at home instead of going out to theatres which is showing true thus far this year.

all i said is lets see what happens in subsequent weeks. i loved the movie though. but unless you can peer into the future and gaurantee it drops 50 percent then so be it...but is it wrong to say lets wait and see? everyone thought polar express bombed when it opened then it went on making money and lots of it. so lets not just to conclusions and the word of mouth with the times i&#39;ve seen it has been positive...plus not one weekend has been as good as last year money wise if you haven&#39;t been reading up...lots of polls saying ppl perfer to watch dvd at home instead of going out to theatres which is showing true thus far this year.

didn&#39;t mean to butcher your name.

It needs to be COMPLETELY re-edited for the DVD release. Aside from that, the film was very, very good. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Gordon and Batman. I hope they develop it even more in the second film. I really enjoyed Scarecrow. He felt REAL. Not some over-the-top raving moron like most villains. I believed that he could really exist in our world. Yes, it would be nice if he pulls the camera back a little during the fights in the next movie. But I believe he was building a foundation in this movie by showing us that Batman relies on the elements of surprise and stealth. The next time around he&#39;ll be able to reveal his fighting style a little more. I actually appreciate that, because now the second film won&#39;t feel like the same old tricks. If they re-edit everything up until the court scene where his parents&#39; murderer gets shot, this will be a GREAT film.

But at least her part was minor.

Haters and fans can all agree that the helicopter shot of Batman standing on the edge of the building was fucking amazing!. Just watched the movie for the second time and, yeah, the third is act is really rough. The editing shows the demands of studio and Nolans inexperience with action. Nolan now has more experience shooting action. Next time around, people wont be as forgiving. Good film though. It&#39;s good because it&#39;s the opposite of comic book movies of the 90&#39;s. Everything with Batman has a purpose (i.e., the ears). Wouldn&#39;t be surprised if Caine is nominated for an Oscar. He&#39;s really the heart of the film. Bale is still finding his Batman but can&#39;t wait to see what he does with it. Not surprised by the box office. People still have the aftertaste of the last two. Some found the film boring because they felt they had seen this already. We&#39;ll kinda. Nolan had to restart the whole franchise and he layed down his foundation for a new version of the franchise. It&#39;s like someone making a new version of X-MEN 1. A new origin film. Kinda the same but different. Hope that made sense. Now, the only thing to do is wait for War of the Worlds and King Kong. Bitches.

Well,well,well,....I went in as a "joke"...cooler in the cinema with the air-conditioning than the street with 32 degrees and rising...I only really made my final decision to see this,&#39;cos someone told me Rutger Hauer was in it...and I&#39;d been surprised to see his appearence in Sin City.Anyhoo,who woulda thunk it!? I&#39;m 31 and I sat there thinking,Is this [Batman Begins] for real or what!!? Its a decently structured story [on most if not all counts] and I&#39;m actually beginning to give-a-sh*t about the Dark Knight once more!Whats happening!? hollywood finally woke up to what fans have been wanting and not what the gay-population wanted!Rubber-Bat-Nipples will never again cause us to go wretching with the dry-heaves ever again.One "grumble" I have is.....150 Million Dollars....Where!? It was good n&#39; all,but, 150 MIL!!!!!

1. From the tiny word of mouth that I&#39;m hearing around family and friends, and I&#39;m guessing may refelct the wider public, is that a group of parents were planning on taking their young grade school kids to see Batman, but quickly changed their minds as they heard from other parents that the movie was violent and contained disturbing images/material innapropriate for young kids. It may be that the return audiences, i.e. kids, are being kept away. 2. Another thing: plotwise, the last third of the movie is kind of a mess. We get a howler of an Austin Powers-Basil Exposition moment when Ras Al Ghul pops up again out of nowwhere, describes his evil plan and why he&#39;s doing it to Bruce Wayne, for a solid few minutes, and when he has Wayne at his mercy, leaves him for dead. That&#39;s the kind of scene that is spoofed in other movies; it shouldn&#39;t be included in a mega-million dollar picture. And don&#39;t forget a really silly Macguffin about some microwave whatchamacallit that will evaporate Gotham&#39;s water supply that left me (and probably most of the audience scratching their heads). Also, what does that device have to do with the monorail speeding towards the Wayne building? The logic in this section just fell down. In conclusion the first 2/3&#39;s of Batman Begins is superb, but unfortunately the final act/climax pretty much botches the whole enterprise. And audiences DO NOT like bad endings. That is possibly the reason for the bad word of mouth. The filmmakers got the character of Batman spot on. Too bad they couldn&#39;t craft a coherent, believable plot. Just one more thing: you know what would have worked? If the criminal mastermind behind the Scarecrow wasn&#39;t Ras Al Gul, but instead The Joker---save Ras as a plot device, a foreshadowing if you will, for a future sequel. And don&#39;t even get me started on the logic behind The League of Shadows---there is none. And I don&#39;t want comics fans explaining it to me. If it can&#39;t be learned from the material contained only in the movie, then the screenwriting is flawed.

Check out this Associated Press article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050620/ap_en_mo/box_office;_ylt=Ar8AlYjQatNNIr92fIayYqSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2OXY1b2VrBHNlYwNlbg-- The sections to pay attention to are these: "...overall movie revenues skidded for the 17th straight weekend, tying a slide in 1985 that had been the longest box-office decline since analysts began keeping detailed records on movie grosses." "The top 12 movies took in $128.5 milliion, down 1.6 percent from the same weekend in 2004..." "The slump may be a sign that more people are seeing movies at home. An Associated Press-AOL poll last week found that 73 percent of adults prefer watching movies on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view rather than going to the theater."

I hate how Batman "Purists" are salivating for what they should feel be the definitave origin story. When you make a film you have to take creative liberties but still be true to the comic. I dont get how people dislike BB when Burton&#39;s Batman made a generation of people believe that The Joker killed Batman&#39;s parents. I viewed the film as the 1st part of a franchise. An Origin story. And this was a great one. Why are people forgiving of Crap like XMen (Which totally fucked up all the characters) and shit on Batman Begins? I feel bad for people who can&#39;t allow themselves to be entertained by a movie which is a summer blockbuster. It&#39;s not high art. And it&#39;s not something that is life or death. It&#39;s a fucking movie. Lighten up.

Hey, if people keep expectations low, maybe that would be a good thing. That is, as long as these expectations are high enough to actually put their collective butts in the many available theatre seats.

To say "Couldn&#39;t have wished for better word of mouth before this thing opened..." is utter bullshit. Maybe around here, and with the general geek population -- but not at the movies. I remember being in the theater when the first trailers hit, and, yeah, people were definitely not interested. Not after Catwoman. Word of mouth from the critics is good -- but that&#39;s substantially different than somebody&#39;s buddy saying, "Hey, know what I saw last weekend -- and it was really great!" And, from what I can see, that seems to be happening. As to your "Twenty people in the theater"... well, as I mentioned, both showings I saw were sold out. Obviously, the numbers reflect that wasn&#39;t the case everywhere -- but I think you&#39;ll be in for a surprise in the coming weeks.

off i go on my merry way

Rotten Tomatoes: Weekend gross $46.9 mil, $71.1 mil total. Five days. I don&#39;t know what you&#39;re smoking that that&#39;s weak, but it must be good stuff. BB is doing very well. It deserves to. It&#39;s a good movie. And it will have legs, unlike many summer movies, because A) the word of mouth is going to be good, and B) it stands out during a summer where even the A-list talent is getting cast in remakes of "The Bad News Bears", "The Longest Yard", and- God help us all- "The Dukes of Hazzard". The house I saw in was packed, even with showings every forty-five minutes. There was applause when the lights went up. I have no fear that anyone at WB will have reason to be sorry about this release.

plus the word on the street should keep Batman going. Those who have seen it love it and for the first time thie year people actually clapped at the end.

There there had damn well be more Nolan/Goyer "Batman" movies. Raimi, Singer, and Nolan all seem to get the fact that superhero movies can be done seriously and have all delivered films that all but the most jaded fanboys have come to love. "Batman Begins" is as good an introduction as you could get and I con only hope that we get to see Nolan&#39;s vision of the Joker and the other classic Batman villians.

"..considering it&#39;s underperforming at the box office. Maybe, direct to dvd sequel??" LOL! Whatever dude! Batman Begins did pretty well considering where the franchise had gone. I&#39;m not surprised by the numbers at all. And like another poster said, $71 million in 4 days is NOTHING to sneeze at. In fact, considering where Batman left off, these numbers are awesome and everyone I&#39;ve seen the movie with loved it. I saw it at the employee screening on the WB lot, and I saw it Friday night at the Mann&#39;s Village in Westwood, and everyone cheered at the end. It&#39;s a good movie... you geeks from buttfuck Egypt have NO IDEA WHAT YOU&#39;RE TALKING ABOUT. Stop talking as if you&#39;re in the business. You folks have no idea of what you&#39;re talking about. And the reason why Mr. and Mrs. Smith lost 50% because it&#39;s not that great of a film, for which nobody applauded at the end.

You are such a hack! There&#39;s nothing I hate more than wannabes who think they know everything but don&#39;t have a freakin clue. I was born and raised in L.A., and around the business my entire life. You&#39;re nothing more than some hack from a state where nobody cares to know you exist. Batman Begins is a great film... I highly doubt your story in the first place. Only 20 people in the theater on a Friday. Hmm... maybe for a loser like you who doesn&#39;t have anything better to do but see a matinee on a Friday. Well, I was at the Village in Mann&#39;s Westwood and the 10:30 PM show was sold out, to the point where they had to open the balcony, which is a rarity these days.

The movie was fantastic and is about as close to perfect as you&#39;re going to get. My only two gripes were the fight scene editing and batman&#39;s overly gruff voice. The League of Shadows made complete sense and I actually thought Katie Holmes&#39; character was good. The whole water machine thing was good too I thought. Hurry up with the next one please. DO NOT USE TWO VILLIANS, ONLY THE JOKER. Perhaps use the Scarecrow at the begining but have Batman kill him quickly.

anyway i can&#39;t wait to see what they do with the sequels...batman vs. the CLOCK KING!

Because Crispin is old and a bit on the wacko side in real life. And since *****SPOILER******* The film makers seem to not want to kill off villains, you cant risk having a wacko actor get tempermental and not return for a sequel. Did anyone see his odd movie about freaks???

So, are you arguing that you can measure the quality of a movie by the interest of the general public? Or is it more of a "nyah-nyah" kind of thing?

One more point and then back to work: the mediocre weekend numbers for Batman may be a sign of bigger issues... by JohnnyTremaine

The hallucinogen, which could only be effective if breathed into the lungs, had been fed into Gotham&#39;s water supply, which spanned the entire city. The microwave transmitter - which is based on real-life experimental military technology, and is not a "macguffin" in the film - was designed to boil an enemy army&#39;s water supply into steam. You point it at the water mains beneath the city streets, they explode and release the hallucinogen into the air. By hijaking the monorail, the League of Shadows could go anywhere in the city, setting off water mains and turning the denizens of Gotham into raving lunatics. I thought it was actually a pretty industrious evil plot, for a comic book movie.

Holmes Dropped from &#39;Batman&#39; Sequel Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman have signed to star in a second Batman movie, but love interest Katie Holmes has been dropped. Movie bosses are thrilled with the response to Batman Begins - it took $46.9 million in its first weekend at the US box office - and have snapped up the film&#39;s stars for a sequel. Bale as Batman was the first to put pen to paper, followed by Caine as butler Alfred and Freeman as Bruce Wayne&#39;s business associate Lucius Fox. But Holmes won&#39;t reprise her role as district attorney Rachel Dawes - reportedly because Warner Bros is angry her engagement to Tom Cruise has stolen media attention away from the movie. A source tells Pagesix.Com, "Everyone is in agreement that the movie&#39;s strength is with Christian Bale, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman." Adding of Holmes, "She won&#39;t be in the sequel... the next romantic interest will be a much stronger actress. Warner is happy that people are now focusing on who&#39;ll be playing the Joker rather than Katie and Tom."

Batman Begins has the highest Box Office 5 day record for a Batman Movie ever at $72.1 million , beating Batman Forever which had $66 million. So this pretty much means sequel. &#39;Nuff Said PS: Saw it twice and it rocked.

I&#39;m hoping just as much as anyone that she got dropped, but we all know that the New York Post is not a reliable source. If you can verify this info anywhere else, I&#39;d be happy to see it.

A lot of the stuff in the article sounds pretty true. People are in fact debating who should be Joker. And People are saying Bale, Freeman, and Caine were strong. And people are sick of that sham relationship between Tom (Im not GAY! Really! Watch me jump up and down) Cruise and Katie can&#39;t act her way out a paperbag Holmes. Rachel McAdams would have been a better Rachael Dawes, since she is a better actress.

"BATMAN BEGINS". The GOOD: 1. Story and visual elements or characters taken from various comic books including BATMAN:YEAR ONE, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, SON OF THE DEMON, etc. 2. Some nice visuals(sets, locations). 3. Good SPFX. 4. The CAR. Kinda like the batmobile in Dark Knight.(Just a little more Bat-motif next time please. Oh, and lose that "laying down in the nosecone thing to fire weapons" too.) 5. Excellent performances by Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman. 6. A good but not great performance by Christian Bale. (He embodies the proper attitude but seems to struggle w/his accent at times.) 7. The foreshadowing of The JOKER. The BAD: 1. The "Batsuit". The easiest and clearest way to send the signal(pardon the pun) of a "franchise restart" would have been to NOT have a costume so similar to what has been seen in the previous films. Also, despite giving him slightly more agility than previous Batmen, there are times when it looks "ill-fitting" on Bale. 2. The filmmakers have Wayne study the criminal mind and ninjitsu but forget that he also studied SCIENCE and the art of DETECTION. His lack of these particular skills is unfortunately apparent later in the film when Lucius Fox is the one who analyzes the fear toxin and creates the antidote to it and when Bruce does not deduce the true identity of Ducard! 3. Precious screen time spent on Rutger Hauer&#39;s character that could&#39;ve been used to expand on other characters and situations.(Why not just have Lucius in charge from the get go? As CEO he&#39;d have access anywere in Wayne Enterprises.) 4. Gordon saving the day NOT BATMAN!!??-Think about it, Bats is fighting RA&#39;S on the train while Gordon&#39;s taking out the monorail. I don&#39;t mind the sidekick HELPING to save the day but when it comes down to it -THE HERO SHOULD SAVE THE DAY! That&#39;s his story function. All this served to do is highlight the need for ROBIN - sorry fanboys, but they went and proved that Bats can&#39;t be in 2 places at once! Gordon in the Batmobile? WTF? 5. Batman killing - either directly or indirectly.(Alwasy a problem in the films. He&#39;s not supposed to be the PUNISHER for Chris&#39;sakes.) 6. Bruce Wayne, Billionaire Drunk!?(He burns Wayne Manor down. WTF!!??) 7.Katie Holmes and Rachael Dawes. Good performance, not as bad as critics or fanboys let on. Her character here, however, is a clumsy attempt to replicate the Peter/MJ relationship from SPIDER-MAN and it never works. There&#39;s no palpable chemistry between the actors and it just doesn&#39;t fit in w/Wayne&#39;s laser-like focus on his mission at this stage in his life. Maybe later and w/an altogether different character.(Vick Vale, Talia, Silver St. Cloud, Selina Kyle?) 8. The uninspiring score. All in all a good Batman film if not a great one. Definitely the best since the first one. 2 and 3/4 stars out of 4.(The filmmakes on these films still need to find the right balance between drama, fun and adventure! Think the first SUPERMAN film or SPIDER-MAN 2.) I&#39;ve seen the 5 day box office tally. Definitely not "Summer Popcorn Blockbuster" numbers. Hopefully this won&#39;t be another case of "Bats-All-Folks!"

First up I wanna say that I thought this movie was top notch (well how could it NOT be good with such a good cast & director!?) .. (Mind you that never did Oceans 12 any favours). Virtually ALL the cast were fantastic, Bale, Murphy, Oldman, Hauer etc.. Michael Caine was inspired casting as Alfred and was very funny, when called upon. ************ HOWEVER

His (Tom Wilkinson) OTT interpretation of mob boss Falcone, was the only performance from this stellar cast that would have been more at home in Schumacher

$71M over 5 days sounds okay on paper but for a movie this widely marketed and considering its box-office pedigree, it should be pulling in a lot more than that. So why isn&#39;t it? Possibly because its suffering from a general hesitation on behalf of moviegoers after the last two films, perhaps not enough realise this is the start of a new series not a prequel to the old one and just maybe the lack of A-List names in the two lead roles of Batman and Scarecrow haven&#39;t created enough of a incentive for casual viewers. That said if its as good as they say it is with any luck their won&#39;t be a too steep decline next weekend. I hear Bale is superb in the title role and that if we&#39;re cheated out of sequel because of poor box-office then it would be a cine-crime of epic proportions. The problem for serious fans though is that a proper treatment of the source material as you find here alientates the kids and their parents that push up those dollar figures. The movie is so expensive and has such a huge promotional budget that it must perform better than most movies to secure the series. That&#39;s the unfairness built into the film business. A terrible movie like Batman Forever can spawn a sequel because it brings in the masses but Begins is screwed for doing things correctly. I&#39;m placing my hope in positive word of mouth prompting small declines and along run at the box-office. If the people don&#39;t go and see it they&#39;ve only got themselves to blame if they&#39;re isn&#39;t another one. Pray Speilberg doesn&#39;t royally fuck this one in a forthnight&#39;s time.

a sequel will still be made.

As the rumour mill is growing over the casting role of the Joker, i thought of Al. Working with Nolan on the excellent Insomnia, a great performance by the two leads (Williams may get to play the Riddler at some point now) where both were not OTT as they have been known for. But Al as a crazed Joker would be Awesome! To hear him scream the name Batman would be crazy. Mark Hamil has a truly great vocal take on the joker in the still impressive animated series (not a cartoon like most crap), but can he act it off? With the cast aleady tanked up with great actors, everyone will have to be on form to stand up equally again, I dont think Hamil could. As a film, Batman Begins origin / story telling style was inspiring to all future potential comic conversions coming soon. X-men 3, with Ratner still makes me Shiver, while Superman now has a greater challenge. I&#39;ve read criticism of the score, but i think its emotional and bold. The fact that a winged noise is used a the Batman Motif, not a super hero theme as normal is just shows the level of thought that the team have done on the film. yes the fight scenes were like the Bourne Supremacey on steroids and i&#39;m sure they will improve on the next movie, but it&#39;s better then campnes of the last 2. Hell it even enhances the horror / fear element in the film. I love the fact you see Wayne Sr, how he talks to Bruce, the monorail is a clear metaphor in the film for Gotham. The way the Bat signal used is true class. Isnt this how films are supposed to be made....?

Every summer, I am further convinced that there is just no pleasing comic fans (I am one, btw) when converting to film. There will always be something for someone to bitch about. You all need to fucking RELAX! BB was amazing. The hallucinatory stuff with the Scarecrow&#39;s gas was intense and brilliantly done. Not sure why Ken Wattanabe had to be wasted in the story. That seemed kinda pointless, but I spent about..oh, I don&#39;t know... 4 or 5 seconds thinking about it. For all you hating bitches, go ahead and stay home. Boycott the next one(s). It&#39;ll be one less sweaty fat-ass in line in front of me in the popcorn line.

Hugo-motherfucking-Weaving... Can&#39;t wait to see if Nolan does something with the Red Hood origin story ala KILLING JOKE. Weaving would leave Nicholson in the dust... ...though the Christopher Eccleston idea is intriguing... but only if he can pull off the accent change. His "northern" English is pretty thick. still, Hugo Weaving, bitches...

CoS grossed 89% of the first movie&#39;s gross. PoA grossed 91% of CoS&#39;s. These percentages are based upon your worldwide figures. The audience didn&#39;t stay away from AZKABAN in droves like you say. It&#39;s the law of diminishing returns: sequels rarely outgross their originators. Especially when their originators were such huge phenomenons, like the first Harry Potter flick was. Have you read any of the books? They get progressively darker. Don&#39;t think subsequent films are going to lighten up because they aren&#39;t. When a $789,458,727 worldwide take can be viewed as a disappointment, as a sign of a franchise needing fixing, then the world has gone crazy. Look at Star Wars: ANH grossed above and beyond EMPIRE and JEDI. Is it because the other two films were less fun? Or is it maybe that the first film was such a phenomenon that it the sequels couldn&#39;t replicate its success? But I guess to prove my point we&#39;ll have to wait for the next film&#39;s box office, huh? Whatever. You&#39;re argument is flawed. There was less than a 10% drop in revenue from film to film, which is a virtually unheard of number, but you think the franchise needs fixing. Not one complaint I ever heard about AZKABAN was in regards to its "darkness," but rather to how much it deviated from the book. I&#39;m sure we&#39;ll see more complaints of that nature for the next film, too, since the books are progressively growing more dense, making a straight adaption an impossible task. I also like how you go on to say that BATMAN BEGINS was made for me, which is why I liked it so much. #1 You don&#39;t know me. #2 I&#39;m not a comic book geek. #3 Did you miss the part of my post where I said my parents loved the movie? They are the furthest things in the world from being any type of genre geek, but they thought this was the best Batman film to date. Why? They liked how the material was taken seriously. They liked how the story was rooted in reality. They liked the characters and the drama everyone was experiencing. And they also thought the Batman scenes were "fun." They got a real kick out of this movie, more than I&#39;ve ever seen them react over any other movie I&#39;ve taken them to. I know they are both going to talk it up to their friends and coworkers. I think my parents are pretty typical people. So if they liked it, then I wager most of the general public who sees it will like it too. You want to debate the merits of the film, go ahead. But don&#39;t bring in unrelated arguments to pad out your opinion. Box office for another franchise has shit to do with why BATMAN BEGINS is or isn&#39;t a good movie. You may not like the fact the movie tried to play it realistic, as a human drama instead of a blow &#39;em up action pic. Say that. Don&#39;t argue "fun" (which is a vague and relative term to debate) and start making unrelated comparisons to other franchises. You want me to take your review seriously? Learn to spell. Think before you type. Organize your thoughts and support your argument with real evidence, not specious reasoning. Then maybe I can appreciate your opinion without having to agree with it.

Daniel Day Lewis would be the ideal Joker. I think they will probably want the character to be more sinister and menacing than Nicholson&#39;s Joker. In this month&#39;s Fade In magazine, Day Lewis says he would be open to star in a franchise type movie or sequel if the script was right. If they can get him to be Joker, and I think they can, then they will.

...perhaps the perfect follow-up to JACK.

I can&#39;t wait to see this film 50 times. I will buy every damn version on DVD. I am drooling for a sequel!!!!

Only took them like 20 tries. Problem is, now the execs are all patting each other on the back and sucking each other&#39;s dicks. We&#39;ll be in the same shitty boat when the sequel to this comes out -- I guarantee it. Don&#39;t make a sequel! Ending it with the promise of giving the audience the Joker would be the greatest prank ever pulled, and I would commend them for it. But we all know the slobbering money-hungry WB can&#39;t pass up a sequel and will fuck it all up, Nolan or not.

Batman Begins is not only the best Batman film made so far, it is also the best superhero film, and the best film of the year so far(Sith is not even close). This film reminds me of the first half of Superman I, having an epic feel, yet this film keeps it throughout the entire film. Nolan and Goyer truly do get it just right with great storytelling, along with a great performances from the cast to tell the story. The performances of the cast reminds me of the LOTR cast, not one really standing out, but working well as a group, each seeming perfect for the role, and delivering the well written lines with sincerity. While neither had a lot of lines, I thought Oldman and Caine gave great performances, even Oscar worthy, if that means anything anymore. If the Oscars are worth anything anymore, then this should be the first Oscar nominated &#39;superhero&#39; film, in many categories, but especially in writing and directing. Everything coming together to tell a great story and set up for future ones.

Just cutting Katie Holmes out is a BIG mistake. Instead use her to establish the relationship between Joker and Batman. Have the Joker kill her. Her death could have a huge effect on Batman, Bruce, and Gordon not just in the sequel but for as many films as they want to use it. One humble guys opinion on how to make a lemon (Katie Holmes) into lemonade (psycological drama out the yingyang).

After having seen it twice i think BatmanBegins is one of the BEST comic book adaptions and one of the BEST summer blockbuster movies this year. And until now it&#39;s the most satisfying one. I have my problems with KingdomOfHeaven and ROTS. You can say that aicn crew tends to be too positive on many movies but i can tell for sure one thing: For me Devin Faraci(reviewer of chud.com) lost many many credibilty points.

Hear me now and believe me later! Gary Shandling as the Mad Hatter.

so there!

Batman Begins began so well how can Batman continue and live up to its start? Well imagine the following... What if the joker was less comic book/Bond villain (no bank robbing/take over Gotham crap) and more Buffalo Bill (think Silence of the Lambs)? A psycho who preys on fear and torture not for any reason (at least at first) other than it gets him off? Oh, and he thinks it&#39;s creepier to kill while wearing a harlequin outfit. Aaaand of course he&#39;s right. Brrrrr! And think of Jim Gordon as Clarice and Batman, our good guy fear monger, as a pseudo-Hannibal. This is assuming *spoiler* that getting tasered in the face won&#39;t make a joker of a scarecrow. *end spoiler* Gordon has to do most of the initial detective work because Bats is busy dealing with a gang war spawned by the events of the last movie: (minor spoilers) Arkham emptying out and the void left behind from Falcone. (Gangs to be headed by other Bat characters.) However, Gordon can&#39;t handle the Joker alone and so Bats descends in a timely fashion to foil a Joker killing. Well now, this ticks the Joker off, so he decides to take over a gang, torture some people to draw Bats out, and get some revenge. I can&#39;t see Joker and Batman hand-to-hand, never could, but Joker with a gang more scared of him than Bats, certainly. Just imagine those Buffalo Bill-like scenes followed by the Joker taking over a gang from someone like Bane just because he&#39;s insane enough to gouge out eyes, bite off fingers, etc. Chilling. Well, it&#39;s dark, but the Joker was always supposed to be the scariest (sorry scarecrow) of Batman&#39;s foes, mythological size of Ra&#39;s notwithstanding. In keeping with a more real-world feeling, the Ted Bundys and Son-of-Sams and Zodiac Killers are as scary as they come. Give a psycho of that level a gang of Arkham inmates, fear-muddled Narrows-dwellers and Falcone muscle to bring him prey, and see what Batman can do about it... Most importantly, though: NO SIGNIFICANT TIME ON VILLAIN ORIGINS.

Willem Dafoe. He doesn&#39;t even need make up. Who cares if he already played the Green Goblin. He&#39;s perfect. Crispin would be a great second choice.

Just thought I&#39;d put that out there.

Because that opens up the flood gates to do the stupid "Hire the hottest actor" bullshit from the previous films. I say Guy Pearce or Paul Bettany for the Joker. They are both not famous and are good actors. You don&#39;t want the person portraying the Joker to be Campy and over the top. Glover could be perfect, but unpredictable. You don&#39;t want to have to recast the Joker for a sequel because of his erratic behavior or ridiculous salary demands. Also Rachel McAdams would have been a better choice as Rachel Dawes. Katie Holmes was wack. And the dialogue written for her character was weak. She always stated the obvious. But had she been played by a better actress like McAdams, we probably wouldn&#39;t have noticed how underwritten the Rachel character was. You think that they could replace that hack Katie and no one would really notice? Everytime she was on screen I swear I heard Paula Cole in the background. And was always expecting Michelle Williams to appear and try to steal Batman away from her.

As they say, boring people are usually the first ones to use that descriptor. Nothing about this film was "boring", and though I share your enthusiasm regarding the atmosphere, of Burton&#39;s &#39;89 effort, it was far from perfect. In 1989 it was definitely ahead of it&#39;s time in many respects, but despite a superior musical score and great cast the film was weak on character development and ultimately failed to properly explain who Batman is and why he "dresses up like a bat and fights with gadgets". The new film clearly doesn&#39;t make this mistake, as it describes where he got the gadgets, and instead of a beautiful but ridiculously impractical batmobile that can&#39;t corner without a grapple they&#39;ve traded it for a vehicle that actually looks like it could have been used in a tactical capacity rather than just as a showroom piece. So BIG improvement in the believability department. Sorry if character development bores you, but this is more akin to the Batman film that the majority of fans have been clamouring for. Is Batman Begins perfect? No. But short of getting Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller to co direct a film version of BATMAN YEAR 1, in the frame by frame style of SIN CITY any director or studio would be hard pressed to do better. The fact is, Batman isn&#39;t real. We all have our own interpretation of the character, and all of the nit picking and bickering in the world won&#39;t make any one view of the character more relevant than any other. Those of us who followed the comics have our own opinions of how the films should be handled, and most of us are pretty happy with the direction the new film has taken. As for the people who don&#39;t follow the comics, well fuck you. If you don&#39;t read the comics you aren&#39;t going to take the material seriously, so why should your declarations of "boredom" mean anything to any of the rest of us.

Ok, this is my first AICN post, and i have something that i don&#39;t think anyone has mentioned yet: The Cape - yes, those are capital letters. One thing that swelled my gall bladder about the Burton Batman was the opening shot. You know, the two crooks on the rooftop counting their loot, and then in the distance, Batman appears, flares his cape, and then... just... stands there, arms spread. "Hey, look at me, I&#39;m a menacing figure in a dark cape, watch me flourish, watch me flounce!" He looked like Leslie Nielson from Dead and Loving It, and the Dark Knight should never look like Leslie Nielson. So, give Nolan some credit for giving him a badass hang-glider, live saving cloak whose usefulness even Edna Mode wouldn&#39;t argue with.

I should probably mention that i loved this film, and thought summoning the distractionary cloud of bats had Batman Returns&#39;s waddling carpet of tuxedoed rocket-launchers beat all to hell.

The Man in the Brown Potato Sack (aka the Scarecrow) Was Liam Neeson Ra&#39;s Al Ghul? WTF? The Joker didn&#39;t kill Bruce Wayne&#39;s parents? OK

Yes Liam Neeson WAS Ra&#39;s Al Ghul and the criticisms of the scarecrow&#39;s potato sack mask are a bit harsh. What the hell do you think they used for scarecrow heads? Potato sacks genius. Perhaps you were hoping for some ridiculous prosthetics and neon straw for hair. Batman was grounded in realism when the comics were starting and there weren&#39;t costumed villains, he fought crime lords and petty crooks. You want outlandish impractical costumes watch Schumacher&#39;s films. Nolan&#39;s take on the Scarecrow was pretty appropriate. Sure he didn&#39;t look identical to the character in the comic, but this is the first movie, the sequels are inevitable so calm down. He was a diversionary villain in this film anyway, not the main baddie. He&#39;ll probably do some time in Arkham and come back for seconds in some future film, perhaps in more dramatic attire. It isn&#39;t as if a psychiatric physician can really walk around in a friggin scarecrow costume is it? Suspension of disbelief is one thing but you have to be reasonable. They&#39;ve said a dozen times that this film was about Batman, and that they had no intentions of upstaging him with some flamboyant latex coated freak. Besides the effects with the fear toxin worked really well at establishing the menace of the character. Regardless if you know so little about the material, maybe you should go read a comic or two before bashing a solid film.

Saw it last week with my 7 and 9 year olds. When the scarecrow was first unveiled, I was thinking of the nightmares I would have to save my poor kids (7 and 9) from. I didn&#39;t take my older one to ROTS but in comparison the imagery in Batman was far worse, and I would tell other parents not to take the young ones as well, which I do think will harm the box office. There has been lots of analysis of the film here already, I agree with much of it. Overall, the script was n&#39;t the best written, and I do think there was some wasted screen time in the beginning, the whole love interest plot (esp if they are not continuing it in the next film). But, unlike with ROTS where the gaping stupidity of the script kept pulling my attention away from the atmosphere and action of the movie, in Batman I really felt more absorbed in what was going on, it it certainly didn&#39;t feel as predictable. I loved the lighting and the way the action was filmed, and indeed I think Nolan captured the aspect of Batman being a shadowy sinister figure (even if he is a superhero) I loved the TV series, but greatly prefer the darker Frank Miller version and I think this movie fits that to a T. Will eagerly await the next one!

I&#39;ve been trying to figure out the guy&#39;s name. He&#39;s on "Crossing Jordan" and he would work as the Joker, for sure.

http://www.batmantas.com/cmp/scrow.htm

Saw Batman Begins a few nights ago, and I walked out going DAMN! that was a good movie. It had everything: back story, realism, suspense, and lots of action. nice twist too. If anyone has ever read Year One, you had to chuckle at a few of the similarities (especially the end). The Batmobile kicked ass. I had doubts, but the whole stealth, missile launching, roof top jumping, cop car crunching bad ass of car just blew me away. Hey Warner Bros: Resign everyone involved with this movie this instant. You have a hit on your hand thats on par with Marvel/Sony&#39;s Spider-man. Don&#39;t mess it up my mixing different actors/directors BS ever again. P.S I&#39;m sure the hundreds of us who who Batman and Robin are still waiting for out refunds back!

Talia could use and manipulate Bruce into resurrecting her father. Then have Bruce and Ra in a better fight than that train fight. You can also have a Love traingle with Bruce,Talia, and Rachel

I wish this was my idea but sadly not. Suggested in an article on empire magazines website. Sam Rockwell for joker. Genius surely? And not even on the poll to vote for.

I liked the film and don&#39;t understand why people would actually hate this film. However then I realize they probably share the same fervor of hatred towards BB as much as I do towards Star Wars ROTS. In the end, all this BB bashing is just to soothe their egos being disappointed due to their own high (but respectable) expectations/standards on what a Batman movie is supposed to be. No matter who you are, it&#39;s pretty fun to stir the fan&#39;s nests just to see them illogically disagree with you with "I love it so there." So those who defend it...don&#39;t. It&#39;s pretty much useless and to stressful to convince a person otherwise. Those who bash BB...continue on because man, that&#39;s the only good feeling you&#39;ll get out of the movie anyways.

I finally saw it today in IMAX and was such a good movie, THE best movie of the year. The ending was just fantastic. I was spoiler free going to see this movie and my god, the sequel must be done by goyer and nolan and the whole cast. i read forums about who the joker should be and all i can say is that he should be tall and thin and can match that great voice done by Mark Hamill in TAS. anyone who doesnt like this movie liked Shumacher&#39;s batman, and should be purged from this planet.

Best Batman movie yet! Can&#39;t wait for the sequel. Okay, maybe I can! LOL! Crispin Glover would make an awesome Joker! And if anyone wants a free DVD of my movie Opie Gets Laid. Send a mailing address to witrack@aol.com

Batman Begins is simply and without question the best live-action superhero movie ever. (The Incredibles is still best overall.) This is the Batman that Batman fans have always wanted to see. Blood, guts, sweat, and balls. Big, swinging kevlar-clad balls. Holy shit this movie is awesome!!!

For me, this was really the definitive batman movie - Burton&#39;s film was also excellent but it definitely skewed more towards "fantasy". Not sure why the people who were bored were bored though? It&#39;s called character development. Only have a few minor quibbles: 1)...why the heck does one need to lie prone to shoot the cannon? Hardly seems like a feature that a military vehicle would have, esp if it came under fire; 2)...The cowl needs to "slim" Batman&#39;s face-he looked chuckier wearing it, which was odd;3)...the fight scenes should be more &#39;fluid&#39; when Batman comes into the light (fine when he taking people out one by one). Great movie overall! Kudos to Nolan + Goyer et al... ps GRIM READER: Really good take on the Joker-really creepy...the bank robberies could be used as a rouse for the Joker to have accomplices for those sadistic acts though...where the act of the heist is merely an excuse for the Joker to do those things you mention under the pretense of "the big score".

though I loved the movie, I have no idea how they spent 150 million on it?! The budget seems a bit high compared to what was on the screen? the Batmobile was cool too!

It&#39;s still holding well and has become a word of mouth hit. It&#39;s a solid #2 and has made over 150 Mil.

the performance of Batman Begins...I read on Dark Horizons, that the initial estimates were 175 million...so BB will definitely break that. A sequel is assurred.

batman has always been my favorite character. he is the most believable. He would be the only one of the justice league members to know how to stop another if they got out of line. he is a real guy with no supernatural powers. i loved every second of batman begins. if you notice the cinematography in the mountains, that could rival dances with wolves. totally underrated in reviews and the like. breathtaking. Absolutely gorgeous. Comic movies do not have that presence. the dialogue isn&#39;t contrite or forced. Bale is Batman. I thought that Keaton was Batman, but Bale is the bat. rachel was a stretch as a harvey dent, but worked well into the film. overall, this movie was perfect. i don&#39;t want to see a sequel. how could you top this? spider-man 2 was a very good sequel, but how can you top quite possibly the greatest comic film of all time. 1. batman begins 2. spider-man 3. batman 4. daredevil (just kidding) your insight was awesome from a fan of film and comics.

Well, if the initial estimates were $175 million, and it&#39;s grossed $170 million so far, why wouldn&#39;t these be the numbers WB was expecting? In fact, BATMAN BEGINS is poised to break $200 million. It is holding up very well. I don&#39;t see how you can call this a disappointment considering a) it&#39;s coming off the stigma of BATMAN & ROBIN and b) it&#39;s going to gross more than any previous Batman film save for Burton&#39;s original. How can that be a disappointment? Worldwide it&#39;s doing well too. Warner Bros. cannot be unhappy with the money they&#39;re making. It truly has turned into a word of mouth hit. Which means the inevitable sequel should be even bigger and better (a la X-MEN and X2).

Crispin Glover would definitely be good, but come on, Depp is the man. We all know he&#39;d give the Joker a spin like no other actor could. Come on WB! Depp!

Hardly a flop. It has become a word of mouth hit that has hung in there to quietly gross 171 in the US. It&#39;s on track to gross 200 Mil. Make a killing on DVD. And beef up it&#39;s international gross. I don&#39;t know how people know the WB was "Unhappy" with it&#39;s performance. Do you work for The WB? The film made it&#39;s money back, restored faith in the majority of the fans, was well reviewed by critics, and restarted a dead franchise. I don&#39;t see how it&#39;s a flop. Also Avi said anyone can do dark and brooding. That man is crazy. If he&#39;s sooo good at that how come The Punisher was weak? And Paul Bettany as The Joker.

You can count on it.

Domestic and Worldwide. Flop? Hardly.

Think about it.

Loved the movie--great review, Harry! You really nailed it. Script, sound, set--all superb. This movie should transform the way future

Loved it. Best Batman movie yet, and maybe the most realistic comic book movie I&#39;ve ever seen. Though I have a special place in my heart for X-2 and Spiderman 2, Batman Begins comes damn close to my upper echelon. I&#39;ve been a lurker around here a long time, and I enjoy and respect many of you posters and your posts. Moviemack.. well, it&#39;s obvious that this pretentious blowhard just loves the sound of his own voice. Dispensing his "wisdom" like he&#39;s Buddha on the Mountaintop... please. He actually has the nerve to pick apart plot points in a comic book movie. It&#39;s called "suspension of disbelief, dunce... my comments about the movie&#39;s realism aside. To all the For&#39;s.. I&#39;m with you guys. To moviemack... G&#39;way kid... you bother me... CHIAPET- You Water Me, And I Grow...

Well, for one thing we have to slow down the nuclear arms race. We must ensure a strong national defense, prevent the spread of Communism, the insidious evil, and work for peace in the Middle East while preventing a U.S. military involvement overseas. We also need to stop terrorism and end world hunger. Now that&#39;s not to belittle our domestic problems which are equally important, if not more so. (MORE) PATRICK (CONT&#39;D) We need better and more affordable care for the elderly. We need to control and find a cure for the AIDS epidemic and we need to improve the quality of education. We also have to crack down on crime and illegal drugs. EVERYONE at the table stares at PATRICK. He&#39;s on a roll: PATRICK (CONT&#39;D) But economically we&#39;re still a mess. We have to find a way to hold down the inflation rate and reduce the deficit. We also need to provide training and jobs for the unemployed as well as protect existing American jobs from unfair foreign imports. We have to make America the leader by promoting economic growth and business expansion. PATRICK sips his drink and continues: PATRICK (CONT&#39;D) But let&#39;s not ignore our social needs, oh no! We, as a society, are obligated to provide food and shelter for those who are unable to provide for themselves, however we must stop people from abusing the welfare system. We must unite in our fight against racial inequality and celebrate the diversity of this great nation. The abortion laws must be changed to protect the right to life yet still somehow maintain women&#39;s freedom of choice. (beat; then) But before any of this can happen, we must encourage a return to traditional moral values, curbing graphic sex and violence on T.V., in movies, in popular music, everywhere. Most importantly, we must promote general social concern and less materialism in young people. PATRICK finishes off his drink, triumphant.

and I last!

at the buzzer!

I watched Batman begins last saturday and I hated every minute of it.. I expected something new. Schumacher has massacred the last two films and I was expecting something dark and cool and adventureous and with all the neuroses and angst that FranK Miller bought to the dark Knight without the baggage, rhetoric and posturing of the later writers.. Instead I got a Jerry Bruckhiemer actioner.. lots of bang, leather, hollywood flashcard filmmaking.. no story and bloody awful rhetoric about &#39;fear&#39; and &#39;good people&#39; - absolute white trash.. When I think about it Is there really a problem with adapting a comic book for a big screen.. NO.. Let&#39;s look at two really interesting and unusual adaptations.. Ang Lee&#39;s Hulk - probably the only truly authentic superhero comic film with it&#39;s split-screen comic page style editing and it&#39;s capturing the HULK in a very non hollywood poetic kinda way.. and Batman returns - Burton&#39;s majestic pulpy vision which has possibly the most expressionistic sets of all the batman films.. Each of these films have a visual style and statement made by thier auteur directors - The way I see it comic books have a character whihch is pretty hard to transalate onto screen.. visually that is.. for one thing.. the kind of things you can do on a page takes up a thimble of India ink - whilst it may cost half a million for the &#39;truck blazing down main street and spidey just webs it back&#39; cost plays a factor then but the smart screenwriter knows how to add drama and keeps these insane stunts to a minimal. Take a look at Spiderman - It&#39;s a simple coming of age story - there are like five major action scenes in there with Spidey and three with the Goblin.. The story is not a string of action sequences.. and there is great buildup and amazingly understated dialogue by David Koeff . Back to the point.. About Batman - the way i see it you have a couple of options with him - he&#39;s a detective, a vigilante, an adventurer at times.. different modes require different mise-en-scene.. yet there must be some kind of unity... you can&#39;t have the film scrambling in all different directions.. Batman sets out to be an all out actioner and as one it succeeds but it is a poor legacy tyo take the film into.. I personally believe that David Goyer the writer is an idiot.. Blade 1 and II are the films of the directors Steve Norrington and G Del toro.. with the world of the vampires (ice cool chrome urban jungle for 1 and rock gothic nightmare for 2) being so much more cooler than any regular vamp flick.. Goyer blew it in III coz he had nothing to offer cinematically.. Nolan is pretty much in the same boat..I really disliked Insomnia- seen the original film which is much more moodier and leaves you feeling jet lagged at the end.. I would like to have seen Michael Mann direct Batman - he is so much cooler with a great sense of storytelling and knockabout visuals- Manhunter is possibly the best American film of the 80&#39;s.. back to adaptation.. you&#39;re stuck any way i see it if you go to adapt a comic.. studios are doing it because there is very little original screenwriting- comic offer a pretty good deal- they have cult followings- they have a story tradition already in place - Comics are a rich medium to harvest coz of the colour and the nature of the characters who can be moulded into soemthing watchable on the big screeen..but where does that leave the original creator.. Alan Moore personally diswoned all the films on his creations - Constantine, From Hell, LOEG, V fro Vendetta... The first three are quite dull films.. lacking in everything that made them cult characters to begin with.. I blame the transition on a lot of things. 1. Money 2. Illiterate studio heads and production dudes.. 3. Unimaginative directors 4. Lack of knwoledge of cutting edge ways to turn the film around(look at what the editing team accomplised on Hulk using an AVID) 5. BAD WRITING - LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF THEME STRUCTURE CHARACTER 6. Budgets.. a big budget will kill a film just as much as a small budget starves it.. Action does not mean explosions.. it just means that things happen-change and you care about the change..

I enjoyed this film.A solid foundation.I appreciated Batman&#39;s Fighting style.It seemed practical and suited to his surroundings,I don&#39;t really enjoy shakey cam close up but here it didn&#39;t bother me at all.I hope the Superman film goes well so that one fine day I may be served with a Worlds Finest film.

Borrowed the DVD from a mate and enjoyed it alot!

FINALLY! A BATMAN movie that was not only good,but GREAT!!

woopieee

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Damn you, Orcus!

Aren't you stoked?! I'm having a frickin' meltdown here!

As if you didn't know, you fuckin' pussies!!!