Batman Begins (why bother?)

SamuelAWilkinson · 22 January, 2006, 08:56:01 PM

"Batman is the greatest of the superheroes because his only power is that he's fucked in the head."

Alas, I forget who said that.

Funt Solo · 22 January, 2006, 09:08:27 PM

I thought it added well to his unbalanced state of mind. Now he's not going around dressed as a bat taking down criminals because his parents were murdered - he's doing it because his phobia of bats indirectly caused the death of his parents. That's more of a head-fuck.

Jared Katooie · 22 January, 2006, 09:52:31 PM

I didn't like this film for a few reasons. I dont see how anyone could HATE it though. It's just boring and occasionaly irritating with lines like: "Does it come in black?"

The Scarecrow could also have been snipped out of the film without making much difference to the final product. Why have two villains if one of them is completely useless?

Absolute worst bits were...

SPOILERS

1) The Scarecrow gets beaten by the assistant District Attorney. I mean, for f*cks sake...

2) "I wont kill you, but I wont save you either!" Right. So leaving him to crash in an out of control train isn't killing him? I suppose it's the trains fault, is it? Moronic.

philt · 22 January, 2006, 10:10:42 PM

my point exactly - by his actions or his inaction he allows people to be killed.

and that he can't function properly unless there are outlandish villians to face.

Rob Spalding · 22 January, 2006, 10:34:10 PM

The thing I found best about the whole movie was during his training sequences when I suddenly thought "Batman's a ninja! Of course he's a ninja, it so obvious." It had honsetly never ocured to me before.

Funt Solo · 22 January, 2006, 11:11:16 PM

The complaint about outlandish villains seems odd, as that's pretty much the cornerstone of the series, whether it's in the comics or the movies. You'd rather a completely cerebral Batman, or boring villains?

I thought the "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you" was a brilliant "get it right up you" pay-off line.

And if you know your philosophy of morality, it's clear that Batman didn't actually kill Raz. Arguably, he allowed him to die, but only arguably. You might just as easily posit that Raz commited suicide by placing himself in that situation in the first place.

I fail to see how the Scarecrow was useless. He defeated both Batman and the A-DA, before the tables were turned, and also served to take the audiences attention away from the League of Shadows whilst introducing Arkham Asylum. Beyond the dramatic reasoning, I thought the fear sequences were amazing - especially the evil Batman drooling black mucus as he interogated the Scarecrow.

I will concede that the villainous plot about evaporating poisoned water was contrived - especially as it involved a high speed train for no reason other than a high-speed train would be fun at that point. But it was fun.

I suppose I better just agree to diaagree - it's obvious a lot of people found it below par - and I was expecting to - but despite myself I really enjoyed it.

Tiplodocus · 23 January, 2006, 01:04:32 AM

I'm with Funt.

The rest of you are all wrong.

It was brilliant.

Interestingly, I once met a bloke who wrote the Batman comic for god knows how many years and he thought it was "pish".

I said "Big man, what did you think of Batman Begins"

And he said (adopt a Scottish accent for this bit) "It was pish. They got it totally wrong. Batman is a self-made man. The idea that Ras had anything to do with making him the man he is is utter pish".

But you know what, I think he was wrong as well.

(And I actually did disagree,ever so politely, with him.)

Roger Godpleton · 23 January, 2006, 01:46:43 AM

The Montage song first appeared in South Park, in a parody of teen movies, but leapt to wider acclaim in Team America

House of Usher · 23 January, 2006, 04:38:52 AM

Self-made man? Pish! It's well known in recent Batman continuity that Bruce Wayne had very expensive and rare training to make him the combatant and detective he is now. There was an assassin gunning for them all in The Many Deaths of The Batman.

Bico · 23 January, 2006, 05:12:21 AM

Wasn't that rendered non-continuity by one of the (several) post-Crisis On Infinite Earths clean-ups?
Or as we normal folks call them - money-grabbing multi-part crossovers where nothing really changes much, except Forbidden Planet forgets to keep parts of your order so you go somewhere else to buy your books.

Carlsborg Expert · 23 January, 2006, 08:35:32 AM

At the end of the day; Is Batman not a permeable liberalist?

Maybe not. Maybe he is a hardcore vigilante who has had sex with tons of women?