They left the door open on the villains, without making it feel as though we *have * to have them back. I like that.
Just got back from seeing it, and loved it! Much better than Burton’s vision. Katie Holmes can’t act, but her nipples can. 
Great humor at just the right moments, a literate script, believable tech. What’s not to love?
I thought the fight scenes were great…no wire-work, no “Let’s get the stubtmen some work”…just flashes and shadows. Just enough nodding to the fanboys(ie me) to keep them quiet, but with a plot and story to work for the rest of the movie-going crowd (ie my wife).
If you watch closely, you can see the sillhouette of Ra’s al Ghul jumping free of the monorail as it runs off the tracks.
But he never got out of THE COCK-A-DOODIE CAR!
I saw the 7:00 showing tonight after work and quite enjoyed it.
Behind X2, it’s my favorite superhero movie, which says a lot considering my hatred of the Batman character.
Say what now? I missed that. I wouldn’t be surprised, however. Ra’s is damn near unkillable, just like Batman himself.
I thought the story failed to present us with any emotional value whatsoever (yeah, yeah, my parents died and I’m angry now… YOU GETTING THIS?), and the lack of real physics, Batman flinching while in a gun-proof suit when attacked with a sword, etc. all just bothered me. And I would rather that Nolan had imbued some sense of his style on the movie–it seemed fairly standard. And regardless that Ra’s may have been able to save himself–it was entirely out of character for this film (in Burton’s, Bats was killing guys left and right.)
Not a bad film, but I feel highly let down from the A- rating on Yahoo, and particularly in comparison to Frank Miller’s Year One. Perfectly fine popcorn flick, but still not Batman.
Excellent, excellent film.
By far the best Batman film. (Even counting the superb but often overlooked “Mask of the Phantasm”). I’m not sure I liked it as much as the Spider-Man and X-Men films, but it’s up there. Good to see DC (my comic provider of choice) get some decent representation. And even get their new logo on the big screen!
Bale, Caine, Oldman, Neeson, Hayer and um… Scarecrow were amazing in their roles. Holmes… wasn’t nearly as distracting as I had feared. 
I was skeptical that they’d be able to cram all that plot, characters, and actors into the film, but by gum, they did it!
Things I Especially Loved:
They explained the purpose of those thingies Batman has off the sides of his gloves! Those always bugged me in the comics, and I loved seeing them actually explained here.
More than anything else I’ve seen, comics included, we get a sense of who the Waynes (well, Thomas) were, how they shaped Bruce in more ways than just dying, and why it’s such a tragedy that they died.
The action scenes. I may well be in the minority, but I liked the way they were shot. They looked more like a horror film than an action film. You get the sense of how scary Batman is to anyone who doesn’t also qualify for ninja status (shut up, ninjas are cool).
One villain explictly survived, the other can be assumed to survive under the “no body, no death” rule. No waste.
They didn’t say Ra’s was immortal. But they didn’t actually say he wasn’t either, and made some hints that he may have been. This pleases the fanboys while not sacrificing the gritty level of realism this film had.
Rare missteps:
Katie Holmes. Too young. Not good enough. The character was okay. She wasn’t.
Batman rules-lawyering his way out of his “I don’t kill” stance.
The suit was cool. The cowl didn’t do it for me. It amde the head too fat and the ears were too close together.
I don’t necessarily want a return of Burton’s putting the “Goth” in “Gotham”, but the city seemed a little… bland to me. The train was cool. I would have liked to see more archetecture like that.
These are very minor complaints. Especially since I’m a big Batman fanboy. It was nealy perfect.
What’s this? (I’m working my way through the Batman flicks right now.)
It’s animated, and thus overlooked, despite having had a feature release. (Sub-Zero and Mystery of the Batwoman were direct-to-video) IMHO, it was the best before now.
Is it the same as the so-called Animated Series?
So-called? What?
Anyway, yes, it’s in the same style and, so far as I remember, uses the same voice talent. I don’t know who wrote or directed it although I’m sure you could find it on IMDb.
I stated it wrong…I meant that I wasn’t sure if that was actually the name of it. You know, was it *exactly *
Batman: The Animated Series
or some other name. But yes, I did find it in imdb. And it’s next on my list, after I finish watching Batman Forever this evening.
Yeah, after Batman: The Animated Series ran for a few seasons, the same creators (led by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm) released the full-length feature film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm to theaters, featuring the same animation style and all the same voice actors. It’s another retelling of Batman’s origin, with the best love interest Bruce Wayne has ever had. It really is a terrific movie, and stands alongside Batman Begins as the best adaptation ever.
I just got back from the theratre. All in all an successful film, although I didn’t really buy Katie Holmes in any of it - I liked the kid that played her as a six year old better. To me, the kids looked about 2 years apart in age, but Katie Holmes doesn’t look like a 28-year old to me. I also didn’t like the Batmobile. To me, the Batmobile should be sleek, sexy and futuristic, not something that reminds me of an armadillo with a motor. I really liked Christian Bale (I’ve liked him since Empire of the Sun), Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Not so thrilled with Liam Neeson and Rutger Hauer. I don’t know much about butler-speak, but it seems that young Bruce should be “Master Bruce”, but an adult Bruce should be “Mr. Wayne”, not “Master Wayne”.
Can anyone tell me what Katie Holmes says to Bruce at the end? I could hear the dialogue. And you know - that’s the telling part - I think of Christian Bale as Bruse Wayne, but I think of Katie Holmes as Katie Holmes.
StG
She says that the Bruce she knew never returned from his travels, but that maybe someday he might. Then she smiled, showed how perky her nipples were, and left.
I, on the other hand, really dug the proto-Batmobile. It got sleeker later.
The movie is fine with me – it doesn’t sink into abyssal depth, but is not one of the greatest movies out there. The problem is that it seems to use the template established by Spiderman 1 and fit it to Batman…the plot structure is almost the same! The formula is:
- Establish reason why hero becomes a superhero
- Establish how hero becomes a superhero
- Have the hero trash a minor villian.
- Have the hero meet the real villian and get trashing from the bad guy.
- Hero finds a way to deal with the bad guy
- The obiligatory plot twist
- Set-up for sequel.
Here you are – seven steps to your own superhero movie script!
Watch closely - you see him jump away from the whole mess just as the car crashes into the gap. It’s very brief, only in sillhouette, and you don’t really see where he lands, but you do see him jump clear of the whole mess.
I’m fairly certain Spiderman 1 did not pioneer those steps.
According to Neeson, it was a real lake in Iceland–and the ice was moving.