Hello! Before I start my actual article let me preface a little bit. I love movies, and I love comic books! Whenever I see a movie with an average plot or scripts that have missed opportunities I always cringe and think that I could do better. Now I know that sounds a little pretentious but I hate the fact that movies take nearly 2 years to make and wind up just "settling" for a script. Now what I will be doing with a BUNCH of movies is re-writing certain points in scripts; including and excluding certain plots/ideas/characters to make for an overall better story. Instead of giving you an actual script, I'm giving you a detailed summary. I know that its not 100% totally original fan-fiction but I borrow ideas from multiple sources mixed with many of my own to make for a good revised script outline.
The movie this article will focus on is Batman Begins. Now don't get me wrong, I understand there are a lot of people on this site who believe there are no shades of grey when it comes to liking Nolan, you're either a Nolanite or you hate him. I thought Batman Begins was an excellent movie with brilliant ideas, but with that being said there are a few things I would change. What I don't get is that why Nolan would just make up a love interest for Bruce (Rachel Dawes) when there is one that would fit well into the story: Talia Al Ghul. Including her (at least including in my way, I personally think) would create a much more dynamic character, bring her more into the story, and make her MUCH more important to Bruce's life. The only thing I haven't totally tackled was the name difference. If I were to outright say here name was Talia Al Ghul, when watching the movie everyone would (obviously) realize she is Ra's daughter. And if I were to just completely change her name to say Rachel Dawes as a pseudonym I feel like people would be cheated and think "Real original!" but thats the best way I have it: Have Talia's name be either Talia or Rachel Dawes and hide her last name until the end. As well as the inclusion of Talia, the last thing I would change would be the ending battle. Although this might seem shallow to some after all the hubbub I just made about script and story, Scarecrow needed his due in an ending fight/battle instead of being just hit with a taser and running off. Plus, my way would keep in check with the theme of "all creature feel fear".
So almost all of the beginning of the movie would play the same except for after Bruce's parents died. Before Earl tells Bruce about how the Empire will be there when he gets back, he has a 5 second conversation with another head of Wayne Enterprises that due to this recent tragedy they will have to cancel their deals with "Daimon Corp." Daimon, pronounced Die-mon is Greek for Demon. When Bruce is up in the mansion alone with Alfred waving goodbye to Rachel, he sees her father pulling her to get in a car, but we only see his back. The shot wouldn't be incriminating enough to see most of his body or even be thought of as a major plot point, until later. Also, in the beginning flashback where Bruce comes back for his parents hearing, their conversation will mention that Rachels parents died shortly after due to illness. She lived with her aunt in Europe for a little bit then came back to Gotham for her career as a DA. The next small change would be when Rachel is attacked by Falcones men in the train. Batman is watching her, but notices she can take care of herself. She fights one guy with martial arts and Batman/Bruce is bewildered at how she knows it. Rachel finds Batman and they have a small fight together, which would be interesting to see Batman more defensive then offensive because he's not trying to hurt her. Think the Daredevil vs Elektra scene in Daredevil, except not campy, corny or flirtatious and serious. Batman then he gives her the evidence against Falcone/Judge Feydon and flees. The rest of the movie would play out how it normally has until the end. If we wanted to stress Rachels martial arts more, she could attack two thugs holding her back at Arkham until Crane gasses her.
Fast forward to the end battle. Rachel is in the city when it is gassed and Batman has just told Gordon to find the Batmobile and their plan to destroy the train system. Rachel sees the kid being surrounded by inmates and instead of using the gun to protect herself, her martial arts moves kicks in and she kicks butt. Batman gets the kid to safety and realizes just how well of a fighter Rachel is. After fighting off a couple of inmates the two make their way to the train station where Ra's is loading the microwave emitter onto the train. At first he sees Batman and the two quarrel about theatricality and his suit until Ra's sees Rachel and is overwhelmed and tells Batman that Rachel is his daughter, actually named Talia. A short flashback/montage scene would commence of Ra's explaining to Batman how its possible without exactly giving away to Talia that Bruce is Batman.
Ra's explains, that years ago, when he tried economics to bring Gotham down, he had a company that was pretending to partner with Wayne Enterprises, Daimon Corp. (The clips here show Ra's at Thomas and Martha Wayne's funeral, and Ra's shoving Talia in the car, now with the camera centered on his face). After their deaths Ra's and Talia moved back to Asia and Ra's taught her the ways of the League of Shadows waiting for Gotham to collapse. Ra's says that she visited Gotham every now and then to tell him how it was doing while he focused on plotting on other cities. (These clips would show her taking trains to Gotham and also visiting Bruce as he came home from boarding schools and the two hung out. When she had to return to her father Talia tells Ra's of Bruce's anger and pain which sparks Ras interest in Bruce.) As Talia matured she told Ra's the League of Shadows was not what she wanted. Normally Ra's would strike down those who disobeyed but he had a mixed decision because it was his daughter and Ra's let her go to pursue her own life. Little did he know, she was becoming a DA to try to undo all the wrongs her father had done. Ra's tells Batman she was the reason he sought him out in the first place, in that prison. Talia is extremely confused, still not knowing Bruce is Batman but Batman tries to take it all in.
Ra's says Bruce was his greatest student, and possibly a perfect suitor for Talia and it should be both of them standing by his side while Gotham crumbles. Batman and Talia refuse and Ra's sends his ninjas to push them back into the madness of the gassed streets. They defeat the ninjas until they realize they are surrounded by crazed inmates. Ra's makes his way onto the train with the microwave emitter and Scarecrow comes out of the shadows on his horse with a noose around his neck and the gas making his knife look like a scythe. His presence here enhances what he said to Talia, "I respect the minds power over the body". All the inmates fear him because they have been conditioned to fear him after many years. Scarecrows asks Batman what he's afraid of as he sends all of his inmates to attack Batman and Talia. At first they are swarmed but after a cool fight scene they begin to thin out the crows. Crane begins to have a panic attack and rides away on his horse. Batman then realizes something. All creatures feel fear, Scarecrow fears a lack of control which he is losing now. He leaves Talia to defend herself which he knows she can and he goes after Crane, who is having such an intense panic attack, the gas around him increasing his fears that he twitches and Batman beats him up easily, and ties him up. He returns to see Talia almost get hurt, swoops her up and keeps her safe on a building. He is about to go after Ra's until she asks him his name, and that he could die. He says "It's not who I am underneath but what I do that defines me" signifying he is Bruce before jumping off. Talia then has a new admiration for Bruce. The rest of the Ra's fight scene would be the same. After, when Talia and Bruce talk about how he is Batman she will add in saying how she doesn't want to fight anymore, and it adds on to the reason she can't be with Bruce if he continues to fight as Batman, so maybe one day if Gotham doesn't need Batman, they could be together.
So that's it! Please tell me what you think! I plan on doing this with many other movies like The Dark Knight, the Spider-Man and X-Men movies and much more!