I was at the Crossroads screening tonight as well; I thought the movie was excellent and a great representation of the Batman mythos. Christopher Nolan hit the nail right on the fucking head and Christian Bale, with the exception of the (at times) too gravelly voice, made for an awesome Batman/Bruce Wayne.

Also, 9.

[Edited on June 15, 2005 at 3:28 AM. Reason : 9]

6/15/2005 3:28:30 AM

With Qui-Gon Jinn talking about giving in to fear and using its power I half expected him to break out “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering."
but I SWEAR I heard him say " I sense much fear in you.”

6/15/2005 3:28:57 AM

a lot of blame can be given to the Bourne series, but I felt that the style was not really overused and suited the character wel

6/15/2005 3:29:32 AM

sometimes its ok. But its also ok to mount the camera back a bit, kinda like sitting at the end of an alley and witness the entire action.

Sometimes it feels like trickery to make quick-jerk fighting sequences seem plausible. Fights simply dont involve western-style brawling these days in movie -- which can be good, yes it does seems like every movie uses super kintetic Eastern style martial arts at all times now.

Kinda like in SW, where Lucas used to insist the lightsaber was heavy and needed to be 2handed and battles needed to be more mental. Instead you get movies now that are like martial arts expos and all about kinetics.

I'd prefer a balance of both, if i had my way.

[Edited on June 15, 2005 at 3:47 AM. Reason : ]

6/15/2005 3:46:01 AM

didn't go at midnight, have a job interview at 10am (read: sleep)

I will go today though. Thanks for not spoiling with the reviews too!

6/15/2005 8:30:29 AM

I was also at the midnight showing last night. Awesome movie. For me, it's the best batman that I've ever seen.

Bale is a good Batman. All the supporting characters did really well. I loved Michael Caine as Alfred. Katie Holmes wasn't too bad...although I wanted to pin her as Bruce's sister more than some sort of love interest.

I only wish Ra's Al Goul (sp?) would've called Bruce "detective". I always liked that line in the tv series

6/15/2005 12:25:01 PM

omg omg omg

6/15/2005 5:57:22 PM

I'm interested in seeing if this movie actually displays any of his detective prowess. Thats one thing thats been lacking in the films and its one of my favorite things about Batman.

6/15/2005 6:05:25 PM

I :heart: Christian Bale

6/15/2005 6:19:21 PM

Best Batman movie so far.

Really good storyline, and the way they tie EVERYTHING in makes it that much better.

6/15/2005 6:30:10 PM

Bale's voice in the Batman suit reminds me a whole hell of a lot of Alec Baldwin's voice.

Maybe Bale sounds like Baldwin did in The Shadow.

6/15/2005 6:34:58 PM

the shadow is a great movie (or maybe its a bad movie that i really enjoy. one of you nerds clarify for me)

6/15/2005 6:36:45 PM

just saw it

will see again

Morgan Freeman ownz

6/15/2005 6:55:26 PM

i saw it last night at least i stayed awake.

6/15/2005 7:00:17 PM

I thought it was damn good. I only had a few minor complaints:

Batmobile was too pointy.
Batman's voice was a little too raspy.

Other than that, it was excellent. I liked how it explained how he designed his suit and how much Alfred helped him. It seemed a lot more realistic then the previous movies. I also like how he didn't rely too much on gadgets, mainly all he had were baterangs and grappling hooks. btw, is it me or did they mispronounce Ra's Al-Ghul's name the entire time? When I used to watch the animated series, it was pronounced "Raysh Algool" whereas in the film it was "Raz Algool."

[Edited on June 15, 2005 at 7:45 PM. Reason : ]

6/15/2005 7:20:23 PM

I think I'll go to the 9:50 showing at Mission Valley.

6/15/2005 7:26:38 PM

i thought it was very good

a solid 9 out of 10

6/15/2005 8:12:28 PM

awwwww, come with me to the 9:05 at crossroads.

6/15/2005 8:35:38 PM

I hate Crossroads.

6/15/2005 8:45:26 PM

awesome awesome movie.

[Edited on June 15, 2005 at 9:59 PM. Reason : im batman]

6/15/2005 9:58:47 PM

just saw it at crossroads


awesome as hell. i want to see it again already.

6/15/2005 10:35:06 PM

if the microwave-weapon thing rendered water into an areosol form... and humans are 98% water... why was nothing happening to the people?

did I miss something?

otherwise, damn good batman

6/15/2005 11:04:06 PM

I think the microwave weapon was supposed to be directional, seemed that way when they first revved it up on the carge ship. But then they made it more of an omnidirectional emission as it rode on the train. Just another physics faux pas, excusible since it is a comic universe.

BTW. I thought the new tank batmobile was a little ridiculous in the previews, but after seeing it I was thorougly wooed by its awesomeness.

6/16/2005 12:25:43 AM

i wanna see the movie

gordon looks just like he did in year one

as for the batmobile, i don't understand all the hate...it looks like a "young version" of the dark night returns batmobile

i mean good lord..has anyone seen the original batmobile? thing was atrocious



the one in this movie makes way more sense than either the "classic one" from the tv show or the non functional one from the burton years

6/16/2005 12:31:31 AM

INCREDIBLE MOVIE

6/16/2005 12:44:35 AM

^^Well keep in mind that back when Batman was first thought up (40s or 50s?) that was the style for cars. I am sure that car looked awesome back then.

6/16/2005 1:04:30 AM

I'll find out tomorrow.

6/16/2005 1:07:41 AM

^^

aha

even back then though, can you imagine how much weight the head and the fin would have cause that machine

i think "batmobile as a swift urban tank" makes more sense than "batmobile roadster"

specillay with gunfire at a stoplight

6/16/2005 1:20:59 AM

Pretty sweet.

6/16/2005 1:29:33 AM

First off, I think the whole "ninja" thing was done quite well. I read a review that had problems with that.

Quote :

"gordon looks just like he did in year one"

I really liked that he did look like he did in Year One and his character was kinda jovial.

I wanted to see some more of the "Detective" side of the Worlds Greatest Detective but it didn't really show through. When Lucius Fox was talking some chemistry to him I was disappointed that they made Batman sounds so uneducated.

Also, back to Year One. I was kind of hoping they'd show Batman more as a rookie just like they did in Year One where he still made mistakes and wasnt fully confident in himself.

I thought it was a great, solid movie. Definately the best of the Batman films, but on a different level for me than the first Batman. I didn't walk out of the theatre going "Damn, I love that movie! Thats teh bestest movie evar!"

Is it just me or did they make his nose abnormally large and pointy on his cowl?

6/16/2005 1:32:34 AM

TOO FUCKING COOL!

6/16/2005 1:36:16 AM

sounds like i'm gonna like this movie

6/16/2005 1:54:32 AM

It was shocking how good this movie is. And my biggest issue with the film was solved by the end.

Gordon was great, Scarecrow was great, Ra's Al Ghul was fucking great, Katie Holmes is looking fucked up, but whatever. Alfred was great.

6/16/2005 2:21:17 AM

holy toledo what a movie

6/16/2005 3:12:29 AM

Am I the only person in the world who has the courage to say this movie was mediocre at best and was a shitty Batman movie?

6/16/2005 8:24:46 AM

^ Elaborate?

6/16/2005 8:28:33 AM

Oh, man, where do I begin? I'll post a longer explanation at work later, I guess, but I have time to touch on these parts now:

GhettoCucaracha: Man...that movie kinda sucked.
My Boy: Seriously?
My Boy: This one was supposed to kick ass I thought
GhettoCucaracha: Yeah. Fuckin' letdown.
My Boy: I guess the answer is to just go back to letting Adam West be Batman
GhettoCucaracha: I mean, I was under the impression this movie was supposed to be based on Year One.
My Boy: like quick sequence of the Waynes getting gunned down, training montage, then the next 80 minutes is Batman kicking ass?
GhettoCucaracha: Yeah. Like it would roughly follow that storyline, too. No supervillains, just Batman taking down some street-level criminals and having to deal with the cops being out to get him, etc.
GhettoCucaracha: The main plot being the forging of his relationship with Gordon.
My Boy: and it's not that?
GhettoCucaracha: Yeah, it's not that at all. Fucking Ra's al-Ghul. Or like...not even, more like Ra's al-Ghul's lieutenant and a poorly done Scarecrow. In some crazy, over-the-top "we're going to destroy Gotham" shit. And they reduced Carmine Falcone to a fuckin' joke, a throwaway character.
GhettoCucaracha: Gordon's not even shit. He's a wimp and used for fucking comic relief all through the climactic scenes.
GhettoCucaracha: And the closest we get to Batman being a detective? When he first shows up as Batman, he hands an assistant D.A. (made-up character who was his childhood friend and ostensible love interest) some pictures and shit. No explanation of where he got 'em or why they're significant. He just says they're "leverage."
GhettoCucaracha: The main thrust of the film is apparently the importance of mastering your fear, but that theme is all clouded like an octopus in its own ink.
GhettoCucaracha: I just hate that most of my complaints are spoilers!

6/16/2005 8:32:28 AM

wow

i'd like to hear what movie you DO like, just out of curiosity...

6/16/2005 9:04:20 AM

He liked Lord of the Rings a lot.

Any movie you walk into with expectations is going to suck. I thought ninja summer camp was a stupid idea and the Ra's dude was this reject Tibetan monk (and why wasn't he walking around topless with black stretch pants???) and the guy with the right facial hair to be Ra's was some no account ninja. And then they had the young Tibet Ra's with no Lazarus Pit explanations and it only took four gas cans to ignite that huge manor. What the heck? Was it made out of that stuff they make baby pajamas out of ?!

[Edited on June 16, 2005 at 9:16 AM. Reason : wtf are ninjas doing in china... ?]

6/16/2005 9:14:46 AM

there was a good review on All Things Considered last night. You can listen to it here - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4705034

It was good in the sense that 1) the reviewer thought the movie was good, and 2) the review itself is nicely done. He says something like "Christopher Nolan restores style to a franchise that began with a lot of style, and a little silliness, and has become a lot of silliness, with little style." that's the truth....

6/16/2005 9:18:12 AM

I guess that's mostly right, but Gordon shouldn't be funny (Alfred and POW MINT BANG SMIFF should make it funny!)

And I hate how movies have become a product of our time instead of substance in itself/for itself. Or maybe I just hate Today a lot right now. The fights were so fast I couldn't tell what was going on (and there should've been more SNEW WHAP KERPANG) and there was so much of it that reeked more of shitty-action-movie-that-bores-me-to-tears than Batman. :q They should've just called it Batman 2005 instead of Batman Begins.

Because we needed another origin story.

That completely leaves out Batman's detectiveness.

6/16/2005 9:34:22 AM

^^^,^^^^^


you people scare me. i go to to movies to enjoy them, not to pick every frame apart and critique it to death. i just want it to be entertaining, and i defnitely got that from this movie. very few could achieve the type of realism you seek. maybe you should just follow each other around with a camera for a few days and make that into a movie, because who could dispute the realism then?

[Edited on June 16, 2005 at 9:37 AM. Reason : ^]

6/16/2005 9:37:13 AM

I agree with Frosh and Sonia, maybe not to their degrees, but they make some valid points.

As for Gordon being funny in this film, it was ok by me, not too over-the-top. In Year One I found him kind of humorous.

6/16/2005 9:48:46 AM

for the most part i liked the movie. i really liked what they did with scarecrow, i thought his character was awesome.

the beginning was too drawn out, and like it was mentioned above, a couple of fight scenes were crap. the two fight scenes i liked were ones where batman kind of swooped around the place ganking ppl, like the scenes at the docks and the basement of Arkham Asylum. the straight up fighting at the end w/Raz Al Ghul and the prison fight scene were way too choppy, and you couldnt tell who was kicking who's ass, probably b/c they didnt spend any time training the actors to actually fight.

All in all, quality entertainment @ the theatres, nothing superb, but then again I kept my expectations low going into the movie, so maybe that's why i was pleased w/it.

6/16/2005 9:55:42 AM

If I scare you, it should be for different reasons entirely.

To give you some context, we're both English grads so critiquing it is how we appreciate it. To reassure you, FroshKiller indulges in all sorts of mindless entertainment. But as you can see from his photo gallery, he's married to Batgirl and movies that denigrate her franchise should be put down like the insults to her honor that they are.

As a person who has a pulse, who was awake, and was enjoying her cognitive reasoning abilities during this movie, I was offended by the inconsistencies that detracted from the work as a whole. The love interest seemed hastily thrown in, I found the comic relief poorly handled, and Qui-Gon Ducard as the main bad dude was senseless.

Despite my misgivings I was still entertained with the movie and would rather see this than Blade III again. However, as a person with ambitions beyond the immediate and the mundane, I don't find it unreasonable to have high expectations for a series I grew up on. To use a crass metaphor, I have no problem with you being satisfied with average sex, rolling over, and falling asleep. But there's no reason for you to get upset with people who have more refined (or picky, if you like ) tastes who express them. No one's attacking your liking of the movie or the way you choose to enjoy movies or what you want out of the movies you choose to watch. But just because it's out there doesn't mean people ought to be content with it. If people always chose to rest on their laurels and never tried to achieve greater things for themselves we'd be mindless automatons who'd make tons of money for the movie industry. ;p

6/16/2005 10:00:40 AM

^ It's not that you I disagree at all. I agree with what you both said and I've grown up on Batman as well. The inconsistancies are all there. I'm probably the only person that didn't think X-Men was great because I had such a hard time with the storyline and their development of the characters (shoulda just named it "Wolverine and the Rest of the Mutants).

6/16/2005 10:08:59 AM

I guess I should've put carats to indicate I was responding to ncWOLFsu. :3

6/16/2005 10:11:51 AM

^ Haha, I'm still new to this "internet" thing. I can't read either.

6/16/2005 10:14:08 AM

will be better

6/16/2005 10:27:09 AM

Quote :

"an assistant D.A. (made-up character)"

Aren't they all made-up characters?

6/16/2005 10:36:44 AM