Movie Crush Monday: Little C and Batman Begins
Happy Monday readers. My post NYC life has been a whirlwind of long shifts and hordes of customers and I. am. exhausted. But I've got a large coffee and I'm going to rally because today we get to talk about Liam Neeson as a bad guy, which is my favorite kind of Liam Neeson. Today we discuss Batman Begins.
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All the props to Christopher Nolan in the world. He took a superhero that is mainly defined by his ability to brood and turned him in to a fully formed three dimensional hero. I specifically am not crediting David S Goyer (who helped write the script) with any of this because he turned around and did Man of Steel and the TV version of Constantine so clearly the cohesion of story and clarity of vision belonged to Nolan on this one. And for a director to take over a much loved hero who had suffered through a run of, shall we say, less than stellar movies and not only make him cool again, but make him iconic in a way he hadn't been since the Burton era... it was a masterful feat. Well played, sir. Well played.
The casting in this film also gets all my love. I've mentioned my fondness for a villainous Neeson, but Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow and Michael Cane as Alfred were genius calls. I am willing to overlook Katie Holmes because while she doesn't stand up to the rest of the cast (in fairness, that was a tall order) I didn't have a huge issue with her portrayal of reporter and sort of love interest Rachel Dawes. And then there's Christian Bale. Most of his filmography before this consisted of really good dramatic indie films or sort of pulpy action flicks. Don't get me wrong, I watched Reign of Fire approximately 18,000 times but I would never have been able to tell you from any of the movies that he did before this that he would have made a great Batman. And now we as a society have enough Batmen to divide them into two piles. The Bales, and the Clooneys.
I feel mixed feeling about this movies legacy. On one hand it revived a character we all loved and proved that if you have the right superhero (i.e. one that is essentially a regular guy with lots of cool toys and a vengence complex) you can make a gritty and realistic action movie about them. On the other hand, WB has walked away from this movie with the idea that ALL SUPERHERO MOVIES MUST BE JUST LIKE THIS. And they are just now starting to see the error of that judgement call. This is still probably my favorite Batman movie (don't @ me, Dark Knight Rises fans. I love that one too). And since it's just a little creepy and tis the night before Halloween, I think it's time for a rewatch.
Happy Watching
Little C
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I feel mixed feeling about this movies legacy. On one hand it revived a character we all loved and proved that if you have the right superhero (i.e. one that is essentially a regular guy with lots of cool toys and a vengence complex) you can make a gritty and realistic action movie about them. On the other hand, WB has walked away from this movie with the idea that ALL SUPERHERO MOVIES MUST BE JUST LIKE THIS. And they are just now starting to see the error of that judgement call. This is still probably my favorite Batman movie (don't @ me, Dark Knight Rises fans. I love that one too). And since it's just a little creepy and tis the night before Halloween, I think it's time for a rewatch.
Happy Watching
Little C
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