Batman Begins- Redefining a Character
Batman Begins is an important movie in the CBM genre and especially for DC who were the ones to start the first CBM craze with the Superman and Batman movies and then killed the entire genre for a few years with Batman and Robin, a campy mess of a film made to sell toys and damaged Batman's reputation among the average moviegoer especially as a serious franchise,so how would Warner bros reintroduce Batman to the audiences?
Their first idea was Batman unchained a sequel to Batman and Robin which featured the Scarecrow as the main villain played by Nicholas cage and Harley Quinn has a side villain who was avenging her father, the joker. However, when Batman and Robin got bad reviews and was the lowest grossing film in the series they scrapped the idea although Schumacher wanted to do a dark Batman: year one film Darren Aronofsky was hired for the project instead but in 2002 Warner Bros cancelled it in favour of a Batman v Superman film.
In 2003 Warner Bros hired Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer to make a script for Batman begins with a darker and more realistic tone to it. The film opened on June 15, 2005, in the US and grossed over 48 million in its opening weekend and 374 million worldwide
The film manly focus on Batman's origins beyond the death of his parents one great aspect is Bruce's life on the streets and stealing for his needs like the many crooks he has to fight do because one of the greatest strengths of Batman rogue gallery is how they have similar origins but went down different paths Mr freeze,catwomen, the joker, bane, the penguin and hush have either lost parents and loved ones which led on their paths in a different way to Batman but in the case of penguin and hush they were both rich kids who unlike Bruce were greadey and snobey and hush even killed his own parents for theie fourtune,it was nice to see this in the film and again we will see this again with bane later on.
One criticism people have with this film is the quick cut fight scenes however I believe that this is to signify the "fear" behind Batman which is a core theme of the film the way the goons see him is as this demon who beats people up fast, as this unstoppable force of nature just imagine you being a criminal and then this big guy who weres a black suit and kicks everyone's ass shows up how would you perceive it? as a clear thing or as a quick thing that you can't perceive well, after all, this is the first time anything of this Calibre showed up in this world. In the final battle with Ra's, we see the cuts get a bit longer as he is not afraid of the batman.
One part I really like about the film that also ties into the theme of fear is Bruce's fear of bats thanks to the incident at the well and how that leads to his parents death and then when he avenges his parents he chooses the bat bringing it full circle and Even more so in dark night rises where has to rise out of the "well" and leave Batman behind but that's a whole other topic for another day. This theme of fear is also a good reason why the scarecrow is the villain for obvious reasons who like Bruce is also using fear to his advantage also tying into my point about the connection between Batman and his enemies.
Liam Neeson is the MVP in this film he's such a great villain strengthen by the fact that we get to know him before he turns out to be evil which adds development to him as a character He's personally up there with DK Joker, Loki, Magneto, Thanos and Bane as my favourite CBM villains and I interested how marvel uses the same tactic with Mordo in future films. Also, Michel cane is a close second with Alfred before this usually being portrayed as "just the butler" but here we get to see the Alfred that has to deal with raising Bruce and acts as a father to him and adds a new dimension to the character which we get to see more of in the other films.
While Christen Bale's Batman voice is a bit weird he also plays a good job of a Bruce Wayne who hides an identity by acting as Batman and "Bruce Wayne" cause the "Wayne" he portrays is much like a stereotypical billionaire playboy rather than himself so in a way he as two secret identities, a protector of Gotham and a cocky arrogant snob further shown in lines like "Well, a guy who dresses like a bat clearly has issues".
So in conclusion batman begins is a great film with great acting, Writing and overall an amazing film and a hallmark in The CBM genre.
Now here's where I put my notes about these editorials, constructive criticism is needed and here's a list of films I plan to do next or in the future leave suggestions below.
. The Incredible Hulk
. X-Men: Apocalypse
. BVS
. Captain America: civil war
. Logan
. Deadpool
. Last Jedi
. TMNT 2012 series
. Avengers: infinity war once it's out on DVD