Back in 2005, writer/director Chris Nolan brought us back to Gotham City and more importantly….to the Batman. He took the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman in a completely different direction from previous films (the last one being Batman & Robin in ’97) by starting fresh at the beginning. And what results is one of the most interesting and influential origin stories ever told.

Oscar-winner Christian Bale stars as the titular hero alongside Oscar-winner Michael Caine, Oscar-nominee Liam Neeson, Oscar-winner Gary Oldman, Oscar-winner Morgan Freeman, Oscar-nominee Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, Rutger Hauer, and…..Katie Holmes...So yes it’s a STACKED cast with some unique choices as we delve into Batman’s famous rogues' gallery as he takes on Scarecrow AND Ras Al Gul. This episode completes our "Living for the Batman" Series before the release of the newest Batman movie (The Batman) comes out in a few weeks.

Host: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

https://livingforthecinema.com/

#livingforthecinema #moviereviews #livingforthebatmanseries #ChristopherNolan #GothamCity #ChristianBale #GaryOldman #MorganFreeman #LiamNeeson #MichaelCaine #TomWIlkinson #CillianMurphy #RutgerHauer #KatieHolmes #RasAlGul #Scarecrow #BatmanBegins #JamesNewtonHoward #HansZimmer #brucewayne

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“Living for the Batman” Series: Amidst an ever-expanding world of cinematic superheroes, the character of Batman remains one of the most iconic. The first comic book version of the Batman/Bruce Wayne persona was first created for the page by Bill Finger and Bob Kane in 1940 and since the late 1960s, this character has been represented at the movies in various live-action and animated incarnations by at least seven different actors. Once a month over the next four months, I will be revisiting one movie featuring a different actor playing the Caped Crusader leading up to the U.S. release of The Batman on March 4…..this time starring Robert Pattinson in the title role. (Audio Clip)

BATMAN BEGINS - 2005

Directed by Christopher Nolan (Audio clip)

Starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson, Linus Roche, Tom Wilkinson, and Ken Wantanabe

Genre: Superhero Origin Story

What is it about origin stories that can often make them the most fun? It's probably the introduction and/or reintroduction to seemingly familiar characters who you get to see presented in an interesting new way. It took a few years after the early years of the IP Era of Blockbusters (pretty much since late 2001 - within a six-month period....Harry Potter, LOTR, and Spiderman) but around the mid-'00s, Hollywood had a sort of renaissance for origin stories…..NOT including X-Men Origins: Wolverine. :o

From 2005 through around 2011, you had Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Iron Man, Star Trek '09, X-Men First Class, and....of course, Casino Royale, often nicknamed "Bond Begins." ;) The directors of these films weren't just cashing in on nostalgia or familiarity - what all of these films had in common was that they gave audiences the chance to revisit already beloved characters and/or properties and see the beginnings of these stories often in pretty unexpectedly inventive ways!

There's the unexpected thrill of seeing Caesar speak aloud in 'Rise....the fist-pump moment of watching Magneto going full-on Nazi hunter at that Argentinian bar in 'First Class....or THE moment when Kirk's father sacrifices himself to save his ship JUST as his son is being born in 'Trek - these are seemingly gimme moments designed to elicit fan service but they do more than just that, they take the story in an exciting new direction regardless of who's inhabiting it.

Well for me, Batman Begins - which came out amidst this crop - is the granddaddy of ALL origin stories because pretty much from roughly the 62-minute mark on forward...Chris Nolan (and Christian Bale) delivers blistering SERIES of such moments which often sneak up on you, never overwhelm the story, and just seemingly build upon each other. And we’ll get to some of those a bit later….

The first hour leading up to the official reveal of The Batman is pretty strong in and of itself as we see glances of Bruce Wayne's younger years INCLUDING the obligatory Murder Alley sequence of Bruce watching his parents get murdered - just having recently rewatched the two other big-screen versions of this - in Batman '89 and Batman V Superman - I prefer this one as there is more actual setup for it with some warm moments between Bruce and his father (nicely played by Linus Roche) beforehand, we just feel the loss more. We also get to know Michael Caine's Alfred during this introductory portion...along with the gravitas and intelligence he brings to this character, it was really spot-on casting! (Audio clip) There there is Liam Neeson's Ducard as he trains Bruce in the ways of the League of Shadows...Neeson predictably excels in the role of mysterious mentor. As does Morgan Freeman bringing a droll wit to all of his scenes as Lucious Fox, Gotham's answer to Q-Branch. ;) (Audio clip) Each of these actors truly elevates their scenes including some dialogue they are given which can be quite….on-the-nose….

And about that dialogue....not gonna lie that during that introductory half-hour, it gets a BIT rough at points. :o It's fun watching Bruce train and it's nice to see so many engaging characters like Alfred or Jim Gordon introduced but....it feels at times that they're almost talking to the audience as much as each other, it's just VERY expository along the lines of the following: (Audio clip)

And David Goyer's screenplay has gems like that sprinkled throughout - gratefully with seasoned pros like Neeson, Freeman, or Oldman in the cast you at least have the right type of actors to pull them off. As I said, this IS an origin story at the end of the day and one of its biggest strengths comes from watching our main protagonist and the "escalation" of the threat he has to face. Thanks to Goyer and Nolan, it's also structured in a canny way which allows for multiple villains but never in a way that feels excessive - it avoids the "too many villains" trappings of so many other superhero movies including the two previous Batman movies from the '90''s.

It does this by allowing us to spend some time with various members of Batman's famous "Rogue's Gallery" - Carmine Falcone, Mr. Zsasz, Ra's Al Ghul - but as a chain of villainy that our protagonist works his way up throughout the story, my personal favorite is Dr. Jonathan Krane played by Cillian Murphy, also known as...Scarecrow. I just LOVE the creepy, pointed manner with which he utters every line of dialogue - four years before Inglorious Basterds, Murphy already had those Christoph Waltz inflections down. :) (Audio clip)

And that villainous plot that he's a key part of to "spread fear" around Gotham, using a fear toxin? Well...under the surface, it IS kind of silly but none more so that the eventual villain plots we've seen in the best comic book movie origin stories from Iron Man to Wonder Woman to the very first Superman movie in '78. It works in the context of the slightly heightened world introduced by Nolan and....it provides a great opportunity for us to see some bad guys' POV of "The Bat" at his most terrifying, eyes glowing, black goo coming out of his mouth...

Regarding that climax, I quite like it even though I can see some of the criticisms lobbed at this movie for the action being shot too tightly at times - I would gather that the lack of mobility allowed by this bat-suit (to be rectified in the sequel) was part of the reason for that while from a story standpoint, it still tracks. THIS version of Batman is trained to be a ninja, to be a scary visage meant to scare criminals - his fighting style is to creep, punch, get in, get out....done!

This of course takes me to this film's final moments which likely cement its fate not only as a great origin story but in my opinion, The Greatest Superhero Movie Ever. ;) (Better than The Dark Knight sorry) Most folks just remember that quick image of the Joker card which is subtle and probably THE textbook example for how to tease a sequel without stopping a movie in its tracks. (Both Feige and Snyder should have taken notes here.)

What I love even more is that gratifying final exchange between Bruce/Batman and Gordon which epitomizes what makes a "superhero" like Batman still so special after so many decades.... (Audio clip)

Then black screen, the first thunk of this Bat-theme, then title card all caps, BATMAN BEGINS"....perfection! ;)

BEST BAT BIT (This series has so many elements which carry over through various incarnations of the Caped Crusader – theme music, Batmobile, villain, Alfred, and even visual gags involving the bat-symbol – and this award goes to the one that stands out the most for this particular entry in Batman film cannon):

This is an easy one – in Batman Begins, we are introduced to what I would consider THE best cinematic version of the Batmobile, The Tumbler! (Audio Clip) Part Humvee, part Lamborghini, it is just an ingenious way to represent this key part of Batman lore. And it's functional no less...and it IS genuinely thrilling to see this bad-ass vehicle maraud its way around Gotham, including Lower Wacker Drive as hear the rousing strings of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's score percolate on the soundtrack. Talk about a fist-pump or a trailer moment...

Best Needle-drops (best song cue or score used throughout the runtime of the film):

And speaking of that rousing score, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard collaborated on a brand new sound for this character which wasn’t as theatrical as the one Danny Elfman had done previously but still pretty great. The actual Bat-theme is pretty good though not as memorable as the one Elfman did for the first two Batman movies. However, one particular piece of music which I would hold up against ANY piece of score for ANY superhero would be the high tempo theme played during our official introduction to the Tumbler in this movie which I just referred to. The aim of this scene is quite simple: Batman NEEDS to get Rachel back to the Batcave ASAP as she has been heavily dosed by the Scarecrow with his fear toxin…now a rational person MIGHT ask if this version of the Batmobile is as secure as it appears to be and if Bruce Wayne/Batman has already received this inoculation from Lucius Fox, WHY couldn’t he just bring a dose with him to keep in the Tumbler….but never mind. Because then we wouldn’t have this awesome scene of him frantically driving her through Gotham, evading the police….THAT’S why!

As for the music, it’s a fierce combination of accelerated strings and horns which is about as edge-of-your-seat exciting as anything you’re likely to hear in an action picture – it almost sounds like a musical freight train in the background desperately trying to keep up with the action shown on screen. And as it turns out besides Zimmer and Howard, there was one up-and-coming musician who also worked on this piece of music who eventually would go on to become a big-time composer in his own right….Raman Djawadi. A couple of years later, he would compose the score for the first Iron Man movie, a pretty good score. And a few years after that? He would compose the theme music for a little show called “Game of Thrones.” (Audio clip)

Back to Batman Begins, the particular track we hear over the Tumbler-caused mayhem is called, “Molossus” which means….a genus of mastiff bats, yeah that makes sense. (Audio clip)

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Like I said previously, one of the reasons I consider Batman Begins to be THE ultimate origin story is that does such a good job of delivering those big-time origin moments and how well they are integrated into the story. And it starts with that first moment around the 62 minute mark when we hear Bale utter for the first time, wearing cape and cowl as he pulls Tom Wilkinson's Carmine Falcone out of his limo, "I'm BATMAN!" just as we hear the first notes Hans Zimmer's rousing new Bat-theme. (Audio clip)

Then just a couple of minutes later, we see the inadvertent debut of the Bat-signal as Lt. Gordon (Gary Oldman in a nicely understated performance) and a few other cops discover Falcone strapped (alive) across a spotlight....resulting in an image of light which KINDA resembles a bat in the sky. :) THEN....as the music swells up, we see a stark silhouette of the Batman standing atop the pyre of a skyscraper overlooking Chicago....er Gotham at night. (Well much of the setting was actually filmed in Chicago with some nifty CGI enhancements) Nolan (and DP Wally Pfister) just LOVES the iconography of this character but even better, he spent an hour building up this character to EARN these moments.

And believe it or not, those aren’t even MY personal favorites…nope THAT would be a bit later as Batman is now inside Arkham Asylum about to rescue his beloved Rachel who has just been dosed by the Scarecrow….speaking of which, the way Arkham Asylum is shot is pretty novel. It looks grim and intimidating but everything is also given a sepia tone to give it almost a classic feel. Well regardless, Arkham is now SURROUNDED by Gotham PD and Oldman’s Gordon is brave enough to go inside and try to talk to this walking bat one-on-one to see what’s the deal. They speak briefly as Batman updates him on the situation but in the background…..there’s some strange noise afoot…. everyone starts to hear it…..it sounds like a swarm of some kind…..when asked what the sound is, Batman simply responds “Back-up.” And that back-up turns out to be….you guessed it….a swarm of bats here to distract the cops and help get Batman out with Rachel. Just a spectacular crowd-pleasing moment as we watch our hero maneuver his way out surrounded by bats…..and beautifully shot no less as at the key moment as he’s running through a hallway surrounded by bats, we see the Batman center-frame in all of his glory. To anyone out there who keeps insisting that Nolan doesn’t know how to direct action, I will direct you to THIS moment! (Audio clip)

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Pretty much all of the cast is spot-on with one glaring exception - yup the obvious one - Katie Holmes playing Rachel, who is not only Bruce's childhood love but also the Assistant District Attorney. For several years after first seeing this, I had thought that Holmes was just giving a bad performance as she just comes off as VERY earnest and I never bought her as an Assistant DA....she just looks and sounds way too young. But here's the thing: I don't think it's her fault....she's doing what she can with some pretty on-the-nose dialogue and she was simply miscast plain and simple. Holmes had given enough good performances in some very good movies in the years leading up to this...Wonder Boys, Go....but was she was playing younger, less mature characters barely in their '20's. Having her play a brassy ADA barking orders over the phone just always felt off as she felt more like a young girl playing dress-up - this character required an actress several years older with some real heft to her and in retrospect, Maggie Gyllenhaal was probably a better choice. (Audio clip)

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

I’m tempted to choose Chris Nolan for helping to take the comic book movie genre to heights it just had not reached before but at the end of the day, his predilection for on-the-nose dialogue still weighs this movie down slightly. DP Wally Pfister also deserves a special shout-out for just how epic and cinematic this movie looks – this Gotham-by-way-of-Chicago looks both lived-in and majestic. But really for me, the MVP at the end of the day HAS to be Christian Bale – he is playing THREE distinct characters in this movie and he’s playing them well. There’s Bruce Wayne in private, Bruce Wayne’s public persona, and of course….The Batman. And as much as I like the next two films in this trilogy, I think his Bat-growl works best in this movie as it rarely feels over-the-top and you can tell that he’s also kind of workshopping it which is part of the fun. Among the seven actors who have played this character on-screen, Bale is the best. (Audio clip)

Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Among all feature films of the comic book/superhero genre, I would personally rank Batman Begins A number one – it’s exciting, funny, thoughtful, and even inspiring at points. As of this recording, The Batman is coming out in just a few weeks and while I’m suitably hyped to see it, it’s really going to have its work cut out for it if it’s going to top THIS particular cinematic telling of the Caped Crusader.

Streaming on Netflix and HBO Max

And that ends another NOCTURNAL review

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