Batman Begins

“You must become more than just a man in the mind of your opponent.” -Ra’s al Ghul

The next movie in library is another Batman origins movie Batman Begins. Between Christopher Nolan’s writing and directing to Christian Bales’s remarkable acting this movie couldn’t be anything less than amazing. I love Nolan’s style of film making it’s as though he is telling a story and he just so happens to be doing it with film. I love how he breaks the pattern of putting the title at the start of the movie or having over dramatic music while the main credits roll. Nolan treats us like we actually have some intelligence and give us the illusion that his movies could happen in real life. I can honestly say I have yet to see a Nolan film that I didn’t like.

Anyways this movie does an amazing job of rebooting Batman from the family friendly campy crap fest of Batman & Robin. This movie puts Batman into the darkest area he has ever been. So much so that in the next Batman reboot if they want darker Batman will have to be eating kittens in a corner. But it all works amazing in that it gives us more of a background of why Bruce is the way he is. Rather than a 2 minute flashback it gives us a full history and shows what watching your parents get shot in front of you will do to your mind. Of course though in our minds we always wondered who trained Batman? At least this gets answered and the action sequences do not disappoint. In the past Batman movies the opening music always gave us the sense that we would see Batman knocking out criminals with style but when the action came it was lackluster. I especially enjoyed how this movie got us away from the cartoon aspect of Batman. The villains are not overtly strange or mystical they are more of the genius that went psychotic and is now using what they know to gain power over others or justify their actions of murder.

My favorite scene in the movie was after Batman’s first successful night out fighting criminals. They never show Batman completely until after he has already ghosted a few criminals which adds to his own myth’s for criminals to talk about. It makes him more of an entity than a man and you almost feel sorry for the poor bastards who decided to take him on. Then scene shifts and then shows him standing like a statue on top of a Gotham building with his cape flowing and he almost blends in with the building. This is obviously a Batman trademark that many directors have tried and only a few have succeeded. To be the cinematographer for this movie must have been amazing and a chance of a lifetime. There are many shots like this in the franchise and even though I saw this in theaters watching it today still puts me in a state of awe.

Then there is the general setting of Gotham. In previous Batman movies it seemed like the buildings were almost cartoon high as though they could reach space. Also did you notice an amazing sculpture of a full size face in an alley during Batman Returns? Why would you have a beautiful building sculpture in an ally next to the sewer grade? In the other movies it was like Gotham was a World’s Fair on ecstasy. The shots in this movie you could easily mistake Gotham for New York, Chicago, or Detroit. It makes it an American metropolis instead of a cartoon town that was made in a Warner Bros studio. It adds to the realism that Nolan is trying to give us and it makes the movie and the franchise look so much better.

Well that is all I got for this reboot. My next movie is the sequel The Dark Knight and my favorite Batman movie. Time to watch the Joker do what he does cause mischief, mayhem, and murder. Until then this cinephile is out.

Remakes, Reboots, and Sequels

“Are Hollywood writers and producers lacking creativity these days?” – Megan Korn on the Daily Ticker

Since I have not done a blog on a remake or a reboot but plenty of sequels I thought that just before writing about a remake I ought to put out my opinion on the subject of remakes, reboots, and sequels that Hollywood has been making over the last decade.

I have mixed emotions about remakes or reboots and have only mild concerns about sequels. A remake has the problem of having to be just as good if not better than the original. The reboot has to recapture the story and tell it the same way but in a different way with different actors. The sequel is only as good as the last sequel and if the bar is set high enough it has to outshine the first which is a near impossible feat. Each one of these has their own problems and movie goers as well as cinephiles like myself love to complain constantly about how Hollywood isn’t giving us anything better to watch then recycled ideas. Even on Facebook there is a group called One Million Fans Tired of Remakes, Reboots, and Sequels. At the same time though we are paying Hollywood to make these movies so is the culprit Hollywood or is that person looking at us in the mirror?

When I complain about movies it is more about what Hollywood has control over such as the writing, directing, casting, and effects they have full control over these elements. What I can never complain about is what they eventually decided to green light because essentially that is my fault. Put yourself in a Hollywood studio executive’s mindset before you judge what he or she puts out. Making movies is yes an art from beginning to end and if you don’t hire the right artist to make that visual it can fall apart fast. What we forget is that it is also a business. The movie studios have to make money and their job is to make as much as they can. Let’s say for a moment that you are a movie executive and you have two choices of a movie to make. One is a great story about life, music, and living your dream. It is well written and with right actors could really be a great flick however it won’t even make back its budget of 45 million and you’ll have to fire some people because you can’t pay their salary. Or you could do a Batman sequel that has a terrible script even worse acting and make twice its budget of 140 million because it says Batman on it. Any idiot trying to make money would choose Batman. This really did happen and we got 1997’s Batman & Robin. So who was to blame for the worst Batman movie ever? Some say Joel Schumacher but I say everyone had a hand in that including us. We paid to see Batman Forever and with our dollars we told Warner Brothers, “I loved that campy movie! Please make just one more!”. Okay maybe it was Joel Schumacher that shot Batman in the balls but movie goers gave him the gun and bought the bullets.

It is not the lack of creativity that is making some really crappy movies but our willingness to buy to the tickets. There are hundreds of writers in Hollywood and tens of thousands of potential writers with good stories to tell out their. But we aren’t willing to pay for good storyline we want special effects, stories we already know, and actors we like . This is why Twilight, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games did so well. They all had an established fan base that Hollywood could bank on. This is also why Michael Bay has a job because he can deliver all of the crap we like. All of those directors that we think have horrible ideas and bad movies are not going away any time soon because we are paying them to stay. If you hate these types of movies do just a little bit of research on who makes the movie rather than say, “Wow Johnny Depp or(insert any actor you think is hot) is in this movie let’s go see it!”. With a simple Google search you can find that the same writer who wrote Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter also wrote Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp. Didn’t think that one through before you bought that ticket did you?

In closing use your dollars wisely because essentially it’s a vote. Every time you buy tickets, purchase the blu ray, or rent Batman & Robin you are voting that they make another. Don’t be that guy who wants more crappy movies. Vote wisely about the movies you watch or another campy Batman will come soon to a theater near you.

That is all I got for this subject. Two more nightmare movies left of Freddy left. Until then this cinephile is out.