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[Bozack]

Like a total nerd, I went to see Batman Begins at the midnight showing, and was extremely impressed. In my mind, probably the best, and definitely the most serious, entry into the Batman series.
But when I wake up, later on today, I'm going to go straight to the comic book store. What do regular people think? Has anyone else seen it yet?

[miles]

Like a total nerd, I went to see Batman Begins at the midnight showing, and was extremely impressed. In my mind, probably the best, and definitely the most serious, entry into the Batman series.
But when I wake up, later on today, I'm going to go straight to the comic book store. What do regular people think? Has anyone else seen it yet?

Friday night, with my SO, as she meets my dad for the first time.  How nerdy!

Tell us what comics you get!  I have never been into comics until recently, and am looking for good Batman.  I have Dark Knight Returns and Year One already.

[robot_roll_call]

Midnight showing, only because my friend needed someone to go with. I mean I like Batman and all, but I don't MIDNIGHT SHOWING like him, if you follow. It didn't help that the trailers lead me to believe it would be Generic Action Flick: Guest Starring Batman. But I was very pleased to be proven wrong.

I think it was a damn good movie, up until the last half hour or so, when it just became kind of an average superhero movie. I was dreading going through the origin stuff yet another time, but I found it to be the most engaging part of the movie. And that first fight as Batman at the docks? That's how you do it!

But like I said, I thought the climax was kind of weak, or at least not as great as the rest of the movie. I think the movie suffered a little by not having a strong villain presence. But it seems like so far we can either have a movie with interesting villains and a boring Batman, or an excellent Batman and boring villains. I am excited for the next film though because it will most likely feature The Joker, and if they can make him interesting ( not a hard thing to do) and keep Batman interesting, we will be in for one hell of a movie.

[mudokon]

It was all right. I think I actually would have liked it a lot more if he never put on the costume.

[CortJstr]

I just saw it with my SO and two of her coworkers. The coworkers both agreed that it was the worst movie they'd seen this year, and one said worst ever (in her defence she hadn't seen Batman & Robin).

I know talking in a deeper voice is true to the comic but it came across as really corny. Much like Star Wars they gave the actors lines that just can't be said well. And I thought that Alias had the worst fight editing ever but I was wrong. I couldn't tell who the hell was hitting who or even how many people were involved.

That said they actually managed to make Scarecrow interesting and most of the purposely corny lines came across well (can you drive stick?).

[andalucia]

I saw it in a megaplex in Ottawa with a friend this weekend.  We even got the Batman special:  A Batman bucket of batman popcorn, with a gigantic batman soda, and a batman chocolate bar... just like Batman himself eats!!

I mean, I know it wouldn't be an action movie if there weren't terrible dialogue and a deus in every machina, but geez.  The big-eyed orphan?  The comical grammatical error in the last scene?  Maybe I don't watch enough of this kind of movie, but also I had a lot of trouble with the kablam! kablam! quick cut!  style, and was somewhat baffled and tended to lose track of what these brave bat-people were doing and why.

I left with an appreciation for my city's public transit infrastructure and a renewed desire to steer clear of hallucinogens.  I felt for what's-her-face because it is scary to trip out in a car even when Batman is not driving it.  

Two thumbs up!

[Pedro Picasso]

Most believable Batman ever.  I almost believed that the presented confluence of events could occur in a world not too far from our own.  One in which bullets made sparks upon hitting things.

The emotional buildup from child, to loser college age kid, to badass, to Batman was just about spot on.  I liked how they clicked in the last part of the Batman persona with the closing chat with the love interest.

Oh and way to discreetly handle the tacked on love interest guys.  She hardly bothered me at all.  By the previews, I was afraid it was going to be yet another Batman: The Love Story.  For the love of Pete people, Batman is not a love story.  It is a story of personal derangement and unbending will.  At no point does rescuing your girlfriend really enter into it.  I'm glad they kept that part low key in this film.

Great to see Scarecrow even if he wasn't quite up to 'supervillain' snuff.  Gary Oldman's Gordon was spot on.  Caine wasn't my favorite Alfred, but he did his thing and it was pleasant.  Morgan Freeman was wonderful.  Rutger Hauer came in closer to his Buffy the Vampire Slayer performance than Blade Runner, but I like seeing the guy's face.

The Batmobile seemed like a Hummer ad to me, but the obligitory car chase scene wasn't half the movie.  (Tim Burton's Batmobile just can't be beat.  Damn that thing was cool.)

The fight scenes were too dark for me to tell what the hell was going on, but I didn't really go in to watch people punch eachother.  Upon exiting our local non-franchised theatre, the usher -- who was not a teenager -- told me that all principals and director signed a three movie deal based on three strong treatments.  So if you liked this movie, you get a Joker one next, and a Two-Face after that.  Hopefully they'll leave the romantic subplots out entirely.

And by the way, if you want to see the best Batman ever put to screen, check out the original Batman: The Animated Series.  At its worst it was a good kids' cartoon.  At its best it was a thought provoking, character driven, artfully directed bit of afternoon entertainment.  Batman Beyond seemed pretty good too, but I never saw much of it.

_______________________
Is.

[robot_roll_call]

Batman Beyond seemed pretty good too, but I never saw much of it.

Batman Beyond was awesome, especially the movie Return of the Joker. It has a number of flashbacks detailing the time that the Joker captured, tortured, and disfigured Robin, leading the original Batman to take care of the Joker once and for all. Some portions were pretty disturbing for a kid's show.

As for that new Batman cartoon? Total bullshit. They made the Joker look like a member of the Insane Clown Posse and the Riddler look like Marylin Manson.

[jough]

You can pretty much count on a love interest next time, especially since one WB executive said that the reason the new movie didn't open as strongly as they thought it should have is because of Katie Holmes's poor performance.  He went on to say that next time they'd find an actress who could actually act.

I'd post a link, but you need to subscribe to Variety to see it.  But if you do, it was one of the top stories today.

[St_Zartan]

A subscription to Variety? That come free with your Cravat of the Month Club membership?

[jough]

I did some production work a few years ago and just GET these things in the mail whether I want them or not.

I even get things like "THIS IS YOUR LAST ISSUE - FILL OUT OUR INDUSTRY INSIDER SURVEY SO YOUR ISSUES DON'T STOP" and I just throw them away, but sure enough the magazines/newspapers keep coming anyway.  I was finally able to shake my free subscription to the Wall Street Journal (I started making an extra trash run every week just to dump these things) but I still get Video Business, Video Store Magazine, Variety, eWeek, PC Magazine, Post, GQ, FHM, Loft (a new one that seems to be aimed at gay design majors), and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.  Oh yeah, TWICE (This Week In Consumer Electronics).  God, so many.

I actually do read a few of them regularly, though.

[Pedro Picasso]

I actually do read a few of them regularly, though.

Well, a man's gotta take a crap sometime.

________________
Slavery.

[pmcd9]

I actually do read a few of them regularly, though.

Well, a man's gotta take a crap sometime.

Magazines really don't make very good toilet paper.

~Paul

[jough]

Dude, that's why I keep them in a little wicker basket in the bathroom (for reading, not wiping).

Also, sometimes I give them away to people (before they see the inside of the bathroom).

[editor]

Dude, that's why I keep them in a little wicker basket in the bathroom (for reading, not wiping).

Also, sometimes I give them away to people (before they see the inside of the bathroom).

I also have a wicker basket for the same purpose.  My wicker basket is white.  What color is yours?

Anywho, I saw the movie on Sunday with a friend who had already seen it.  She loved it and so did I.  I was just glad to see that they got rid of the nipples on the costume.  

Pedro Picasso is right, btw.  The Animated Series was the best adaptation of Batman and the straight-to-video movie releases (such as Mask of the Phantasm) based on the cartoon series are great little films on their own.