Batman Begins

[poliphilo]

1. It's another one of Hollywood's daddy films. Bruce Wayne's daddy is killed and he grows up to be a sulky, emo kid. Then a number of older men- good daddies and bad daddies- mentor him into a shape of which his daddy would be proud. No-one seems to notice that he lost his mommy too.

2. Note to the critics: Crime and Punishment is "dark"; Batman Begins is merely portentous.

3. All those car wrecks and nobody is killed. It's just like The A Team.

4. Batman is mythic. The more you try to fit him into the real world- real politics, real psychology- the more ridiculous he becomes.

Comments

[oakmouse]

I haven't seen (and won't see) the movies, but a key element to Batman is that he's just not a real world guy. He's nuts, he has almost superhuman physical abilities, he's nuts, he has endless wealth, he's nuts, and did I mention he's nuts? Just not somebody you'll meet on the street, even on the streets of NYC.

Also, true about the fact that he lost his mother as well as his father, and in the original early comics rather much was made of the fact that he lost, not his daddy, but his parents. Both. That was important. But then again, when does Hollywood ever stick to the book in making a film?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The more you try to make sense of the character- to make the psychology plausible- the crazier it all seems.

I think Tim Burton got it about right. His Gotham is so mad that Batman, in comparison, seems almost sane.

[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Yes! Tim Burton got it right, I think. His second Batman film was too overwrought for my taste, but that first movie, with Keaton and Nicholson before the camera and Burton behind it, was pretty good, I thought.