PG-13 for really intense action. I'm going to be writing about this a lot, but while Batman Begins is definitely a comic book movie, it's almost just a really intense Christopher Nolan movie. That means that a lot of the violence or scary parts don't necessarily come across as cartoon-y or fantasyesque and I'm not really sure why. Perhaps this movie is so cinematic, that it just seems scarier. Also, one of the villain's M.O.s is fear gas, so that makes things scary. There's also so mild language and moral debates about guns.
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan Man alive, it's been a long time since I sat down and watched this movie. I forgot about how good it is. Honestly, I'm afraid to watch The Dark Knight now, because I know it's even better than this one. But I want to sit in a place in time where Batman Begins is potentially the best superhero movie of all time. I remember leaving this movie and thinking that there will never be a Superman movie as good as this and it depressed me. It all comes down to Christopher Nolan, by the way. There was a time where I don't know if I could put my finger on what made Batman Begins such a good movie. I think I have the words now. I actually showed this movie to my Honors English IV class as they read The Count of Monte Cristo. I was really riding that fine line between "How educational is this?" and "Dear God, will my seniors please pay attention to something the last few weeks of school?" But I think I nailed it with educational value. They just did this compare and contrast presentation between Monte Cristo and Batman Begins that really took me back and made me reexamine the film from different perspectives. What I'm saying, seniors, is "Good job", I guess? I wouldn't show Dark Knight or Dark Knight Rises for that comparison, by the way. But because Batman Begins is the ur-origin story movie, a lot of it based on Frank Miller's Batman: Year One, it works so well as the story of a man stripping away his humanity to become a concept. Nolan doesn't exactly hide that theme in his movie either. Nolan verbalizes his intentions so clearly that my students were easily able cite elements of the joint themes clearly. But because Batman Begins is so origin heavy, it almost becomes something outside of a comic book movie. It's not that Nolan is ashamed of comic books or the comic book movie. It's just that he wants to do a deep dive into a character that is both somehow universal and nearly impossible at the same time. Like with The Batman, there is a need to give the World's Greatest Detective an apocalyptic threat. But the meat of both movies comes from the notion of having to redefine oneself. Nolan, wisely, treats this as a global adventure. It's weird that we always lock Bruce Wayne in Gotham because he literally has the money to go anywhere and do anyhting. I've heard --and agreed with --so many people say that Bruce Wayne should just use his billions to renovate Gotham instead of pounding on poor people. But that's a different point. The fact that it takes a while to get to something that is proper Batman in this movie is pretty satisfying. A lot of movies forget that the heart of a good superhero story lies in the altar ego. It's why I forgive so much of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. It's because Peter Parker is perfect in those movies, even if Spider-Man is a little bit wooden. I think I'll always prefer character over plot. Don't get me wrong, Batman Begins mostly nails both. The plot is tied into the character in a way that is incredibly satisfying. But I love that we don't realize that we lose the protagonist, young Bruce, fairly early in the film. One of the last lines of the movie is Rachel commenting on Bruce's mask. She claims, rightly so, that the Bruce Wayne of the end of the movie is not Bruce Wayne. Neither is Batman. He's potentially elsewhere. She's right. Nolan creates a third Wayne persona at the beginning of the story: mopey Bruce Wayne. It's a bit unfair. His parents were killed. But Nolan is almost aware of the absurdity of the Batman concept. Lots of people lose their families. Heck, I'm horrified to think of the sheer number of people who have lost their loved ones to violent crimes. (I'm sure that comic books would have us believe that all of us have lost our families to criminals post Detective Comics.) But there's this moment in the movie that is so small and yet, we see it as the death of a character. When Bruce is about to assassinate Joe Chill and Rachel scolds him, Carmine Falcone is the one who creates Batman. God, I wish the movie just went a little further with this moment because it's one of the Batman elements that I actually really like. (Again, I'm a Superman guy.) Carmine Falcone talks to Bruce like no one else has dared talk to him. He refers to him as the Prince of Gotham and fabricates a story that Thomas Wayne begged for mercy. (It's a weird attack because Bruce was there and knew exactly how it went down. Maybe he's gaslighting him?) But Bruce walks out to Gotham Harbor and throws the gun into the water. I love how the abandonment of a gun makes Bruce Wayne disappear and institutes the birth of Batman. I mean, Nolan has regular bat imagery to stress that the form of Batman comes from Bruce's fear of that childhood trauma. But it's in the moment that the gun gets thrown in the harbor that we understand that Batman has killed young Bruce Wayne. Golly, so much I want to do, but I also know that this, to a certain extent, is a movie about restraint. What makes Batman Begins such a powerful film is that it is fundamentally and primarily cinematic first, comic books second. The lesson that a lot of directors and studio head took from Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy is that movies have to be serious and dark. Batman Begins, in many aspects, is serious and dark. I don't necessarily call it a serious or dark movie, but I get where those descriptors come from. But it's not good because it is serious or dark. It's because it is crafted with nuance. Now, we're going to be walking a very fine line here, because we're going to empower the Snyderverse people here in a second. Both Nolan and Snyder are auteurs. I know that Nolan had his toe dipped into those early Man of Steel Snyderverse movies. But if I want to simplify an arguement before I even start one, Batman Begins is a better movie than anything Zack Snyder's made because Nolan is just a more talented director. Nolan knows how to tell a joke and balance that darkness with other stuff. It's never an experiment in cool. It's just Grade A storytelling that doesn't care that it's about Batman. The fact is that the movie comes from a complete lack of shame. One of the most questionable choices in adaptation of comic books came from the Adam West Batman show. I don't blame the Adam West show. I kind of liked it when I was a kid. But there was the understanding that comic books are-and-always-would-be something for kids. It took a lot of movement away from Batman when stuff like Superman: The Movie came out and even more so when Tim Burton's 1989 version of Batman came out. Because studio execs would use Adam West's Batman as a touchstone, even if a director chose to not use Batman as a template, there is still the active decision to go against what West's Batman presented. But there's something that is quintessentially Christopher Nolan about Batman Begins that almost makes it a crime that Batman Begins had two sequels. I know. The Dark Knight is not just a great comic book movie; it's a great movie period. But Batman Begins is also a solid piece of cinema. It's compelling and well-filmed. Its narrative is captivating and its visuals are borderline unmatched. But I do want to nitpick. Nothing I say will be new. There's nothing controversial to what I'm about to write. Christian Bale makes an amazing Bruce Wayne, but an absolutely silly Batman. Sure, I'm not the first person to point out the voice, but I do have to mention it. But do you know what I have a bigger problem with? I have a bigger problem with the costume. They really fix it in later Dark Knight movies, but golly the costume just looks bad. But for as much as I complain about stuff that they just didn't get right, the attention to detail in other matters is far more interesting. Can we have a conversation about how Christopher Nolan made Scarecrow stuff scary by showing elements that are only on-screen for seconds? The scene of Scarecrow's Batman hallucination are something else. It's only there for a moment. It's borderline blink-and-you'll-miss it. Yet, that's the stuff that goes into making a movie absolutely memorable. Part of me considered only half-watching Batman Begins. When you are teaching a movie, it's not exactly watching for entertainment. But it had been long enough since I had seen this entry and I wanted to remind myself. Golly, this movie still holds up. I know that a lot of people preach either The Dark Knight or The Batman for best Batman movie. I really love Batman Begins. I know. If I went home tonight and watched The Dark Knight, I might be changing my tune. But this movie absolutely hits in all the parts that matter to me. Sure, it's weird that he has so many Daddy issues in this movie and Martha Wayne can go jump off a bridge according to this movie, but I don't even care. It's so good and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. |
Film is great. It can challenge us. It can entertain us. It can puzzle us. It can awaken us.
AuthorMr. H has watched an upsetting amount of movies. They bring him a level of joy that few things have achieved. Archives
February 2025
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