[OT]Spiderman 1 was largely a brighter remake of Raimi’s earlier Darkman…so that would indeed be true right there.[/OT]
My overall impression is negative; here’s why:
First, the Positive
Liam is just very damn good, and the character is very well-written. Until just before he is about to destroy Gotham, where his reasoning goes OTT. Up until that point, you could really sympathize with his particular version of justice; it’s wrong but wrong in a sophisticated way, and the clash between good (Batman) and nearly good (Ra’s) was thrilling. Then it devolves into cartoonism.
Although I did not care for how the character was written, Michael Caine’s performance very much impressed me. He took a step back out of the star position and really got into the character. Bravo.
I loved Cillian Murphy’s performance. Gary Oldman was fantastic, too, and totally got into the character (as always).
I like the look and feel of the movie until Wayne become Batman. It is gritty and realistic.
I liked the scene where he gets taken down by Scarecrow. I liked the scene where he bathes in the hotel. I liked the scene where he dismisses his guests. Some other stuff is OK, too.
I liked the Falcone character: too bad he gets punked so quickly; could have had a good plot there.
I liked the hallucination scenes, and the first one was definitely the best (Falcone).
I liked the plot twist.
More than anything, though, Katie Holmes was excellent. Hah, made you look. She sucked.
But now we have the Negative
Stupid Concepts
The microwave emitter was just flat-out retarded. If it was causing water to vaporize like that, it wouldn’t be blowing the tops off manholes, it would send the whole city up like a nuclear bomb (all that water vaporizing at once? It would blow up every city street, every water main in every buiding, etc. It would be worse than a small nuke as far as destruction is concerned). How many joules of energy is that thing supposed to produce? It would have to make as much energy as a large power plant. How is it vaporizing water without boiling it? As others have noted, why isn’t it blowing up people? The idea that “once it gets to the center of the city, it’s all going to blow” is just such ad-hoc blockbuster bullshit writing. It’s OK for big, dumb movies, but it doesn’t fit the realistic tone this movie was originally going for.
Julius Fox is just a convenient “Q,” isn’t he? Oh, sure, I can make that for you; just wait five minutes. It’s also lame that Wayne Enterprises has such a division. If you were to go to Boeing or any other major arms supplier, they would not have so much shit lying around that anyone could fool with. That is, they wouldn’t have so much to begin with, and you sure wouldn’t be able to fool with what they did have.
The concept of Bruce managing to buy up a majority position in Wayne Enterprises in such a short time is beyond even comic-book-level lame. First, if he were using various funds, trusts, charities, etc., and he didn’t own the shares, he wouldn’t have the majority of shares himself. But even if somehow the shares were possessed by him, he would have to file with the SEC, and his actions would be public knowledge (IOW, you can’t secretly take control of a US company–it’s illegal). Let’s suppose however, that the shares were owned by the orgs and he was simply doing a proxy fight. Well, that wouldn’t be secret either, would it? Lame, stupid, lame. Cartoonish, movie-style lame.
I know, I know: It’s an adaptation of a comic book and thus all this things are fair game? But which is it? Is the movie gritty and realistic, or is it cartoonish and fanciful. I don’t think it succeeds at being either, and it fails in the worst way, since the first half is mostly of the gritty tone, and the second of the cartoonish tone.
I also didn’t buy into the “face your fears” BS, for several reasons. Overall, it just seems old hat, but, really, bats are not very scary to begin with. What Wayne was suffering from amounts to a phobia: he had a bad experience with bats as a kid and now doesn’t like them. But there is also the fact that one does not encounter bats much in everyday life, so that phobia doesn’t really matter. (When we lived in Osaka, there were a lot of bats–a lot. For most of the year they would fly outside our apartment in large numbers, close, and all night long. Sometimes they would fly within a few feet of your head. But they weren’t scary! Also, bats make no noise.) The whole Ra’s/Ducard forcing Bruce to face his fears and fight the ninjas in a weird little dance was, frankly, stupid.
What was with Batman calling bats to help him? Is he the frickin’ Aquaman of bats?
The cape that Batman uses would not work as a hangglider.
Unimpressive Acting
I’m not a Bale fan. I don’t think he’s bad, I don’t think he’s great. I can understand why others like him, I just don’t. I don’t like how his upper lip always covers his teeth.
He was not a bad batman; in fact, he is probably the best of the bunch. But that’s only because they have all been poor (Keaton was decent but I still think miscast; he just doesn’t seem like a fighter. And am I the only one who thinks the first movie totally sucks? The only one I have enjoyed is Batman Returns, which had a lot of style and wit.).
I’m not a Morgan Freeman fan. I do not think he is believable as a dramatic actor. I think he was fine on the “Electric Company” and could have been good in comedic roles.
Katie Holmes sucks in every dimension. She is not hot.
Sucky Action
The fight scenes in this movie were a shame. Everyone else has explained why, I need say no more.
I categorically reject the idea that sensei and deshi will practice sword-fighting with sharpened swords (or even unsharpened metal swords, or even with shinai but no protective wear). The slightest accident means you’re dead. It does not even make sense in Comic Book Land.
At first they show Batman flailing to jump to another building and nearly getting killed. So far, so good; we can build up from that. But then he is swooping and flying all over the place with complete freedom. Stupid. Not so much in concept, but because the action just doesn’t look realistic (hangglider cape won’t work)!
In Conclusion
Despite all the bad I have noted above, I would give the movie a B- grade: it’s a decent popcorner. Liam’s performance alone makes the film watchable, and Cillian Murphy and the freakout scenes are nice, too.
But this isn’t a great, or particularly good superhero flick. I think the first Spiderman pic is the greatest: a truly satisfying movie with big characters, a completely believable romance, and great vibe. It’s the standard to meet or beat.
I thought that Alfred called him Master Bruce throughout. In the animated series he does. My local Comic Book Guy speculates that this is because Bruce Wayne will always be a kid to Alfred. I like it.
I generally prefer superheroes with, you know, superpowers (i.e. the Flash, Green Lantern), but this movie helped me to understand why Batman has been going strong for 70-some years now. Wow! Great stuff! I have to agree with what someone said earlier about the camera work being more like that of a horror movie that action and I think it was a good choice. Katie Holmes was great eye candy and got her job done without being too distracting (for distracting see the female lead in Temple of Doom).
Just got back from the theater. I enjoyed it immensely. The fight scenes were…yeah, kinda fuzzy, but I imagine that’s what it would be like to fight Batman, who is super stealthy and all.
Katie Holmes. Too young for the role, definitely. She’s 26 now and looks it (it’s easy for me to remember this, because she and I are the same age). If she was supposedly working for the DA seven years ago, when Bruce Wayne left Gotham, she would have been nineteen at the time. Absurd. Her acting was mostly inoffensive, but when she said “Bruce?” up on that bridge, I wanted to throttle her. At least look startled, woman! The other actors, were, I thought, excellent. Morgan Freeman was great. Christian Bale was hot. There should be more movies where hot guys swordfight.
Location. Kinda distracting because…I live in Chicago. I kept trying to figure out what bridge they were standing at, what real building they had grafted a new name on to, etc. Gotham’s license plates closely resemble Illinois plates, too, heh.
Anyway, I may be biased because I loooooove comic book movies and I adore Batman especially, but I really enjoyed it, am thinking of going again (and I go to the movies like, twice a year!), and will certainly buy the DVD.
Hmmm. My review of your review is mixed…
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heh. Aquaman of bats. heh. Yeah, that is a little iffy.
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Batman glides in the comic book. It is physically imposible. The movie simply copied that. The movie cannot be faulted for the sins of the base material.
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You are obviously clinically insane. Go back to Arkham Asylum. No matter what one thinks about her attraction to Tom Cruise, she is most certainly hot.
Wolfian - I’m pretty sure Alfred calls the adult Bruce “Master Wayne”. Perhaps someone else can confirm that. Master Bruce would make more sense.
And Katie Holmes wants the Bruce back that went away 7 years before? The Bruce she repudiated for wanting to kill the man that murdered his parents? Face it - Katie stopped knowing Bruce when she about 6. And when she was six, the Bruce she knew didn’t seem to be that great a kid, flouting his wealth and the fact that he was bigger and stronger than a little servant’s kid.
StG
Given the other highly unlikely pieces of technology Batman has access to, a device that attracts bats isn’t any more unlikely, which is what he used to call them. There wasn’t any ‘affinity with leather-winged animals’ going on or anything.
Spiderman 1 followed the Superman 1 formula. Hell, Spiderman 2 aped Superman 2.
Might be–I don’t remember Superman with anything resembling clarity (as I last saw it when I was yay 3 feet tall.) But really all that would necessarily mean is that Darkman 1 was based on the Superman 1 formula as well.
Nor did I claimed anywhere that Spiderman 1 pioneered it, just for clairification. I used it because it is the only (good) example I know.
I don’t think it was that much of a stretch given your previous statement:
Despite this, you’ve since made it clear that that’s not what you meant. What confuses me though is your assertion that “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!”
Why should the similar plot structure be held against Batman and not Spiderman, when you conceed that Spiderman did not “pioneer” the very plot structure you reference?
Loved the movie while acknowledging its shortcomings:
- Bale is the best Batman I’ve seen. Both troubled and convincingly rich-boy.
- Katie Holmes? feh. Beautiful (IMHO) and perky (!), but way too young-seeming. About the only the she had going for her was a sense of earnestness - she seemed like she wanted to do good, which moved the plot along
- Cillian Murphy (pronounced “Killian”?). Wow - amazing. I agree with watsonwil - they should’ve saved him for Joker.
- Action scenes - loved some of the mysterious bits, but much of it was simply too up-close, as other posters have noted. Need to follow the Fred Astaire Rule: Film physical action by showing the whole body.
- Plot holes - yeah, quite a few, especially with the microwave emitter.
But compared to SW:ROTS, please - much much better and much more satisfying as a standalone movie.
Just saw the movie this weekend. I really enjoyed it a lot, way more than the Burton one. I loved how the movie felt like a real city and didn’t seem to be just a bunch of sets like the Burton movie did. The 1989 flick felt too claustrophobic.
I have to disagree with all of those complaining about the fight scenes. I felt they were presented from the attackee’s point of view and I liked it. Imagine you are the one fighting the Batman. Just a few shadows and some quick punches is all you are going to see and then you are down for the count.
I kind of liked the rationale for having a workable cave underneath Wayne Manor.
Has the whole “underground” railroad thing ever been used before?
Kind of shows the Wayne family as the guardians of Gotham LONG before Thomas built a train (heh) and Bruce dressed in S&M clothes.
I don’t know why I put quotes around the word “underground” and not “railroad.”
I was in an “air quotes” kinda mood…
Seriously. Did the continuity guy stand there saying “Chris, we can’t use that take, Katie’s nipples weren’t pointy enough?” Maybe they had her walk in front of the air conditioner right before all the long shots in that last scene.
I thought it was pretty good. I said to my wife as we were leaving the theatre that they tried to do three movies, and two of them were pretty good. The early stuff with Ras was boring. And ninja training is the only thing Bruce needed to become Batman? Dumb. I did like the Year One approach of showing Bruce before he saved himself by becoming The Bat. In general the acting was journeyman competent – Bale was mostly one note unless he was doing the Bruce Wayne smirk, and I thought the kid that played young Bruce had a couple very stagy moments, as well as some good ones. But once the film returned to Gotham it started getting good. Caine was good, the direction was good in the action scenes, Murphy was very good as Dr. Crane, and while Ras’s plot was a little too much out of the Adam West Batman series, it made for a great action sequence. I also dug how, in the end, Batman had to rely on others. It’s not how I would have written it, but it was an interesting turn. I look forward to the next one if it’s made by the same people. But I hope it isn’t as long next time.
–Cliffy
She did this throughout the movie, and once I noticed it, it became an actual distraction. She must have gotten a clause in her contract that said “Ms. Holmes’ nipples shall appear erect in each scene to distract from her bad acting and to drive home the point that she is a sexy young actress.”
Seriously, it was cute the first time I noticed it – I thought “Huh, editors must have slipped up. Oh well, it’s a nice treat.” And then it happened again, and again, and again and I began to wonder what they had done to the poor girl to elicit such a performance, and if prosthetics were involved. Pencil erasers and spirit gum? Baby marshmallows? Maybe they went all-natural, and had ice-cube bearing fluffers off-screen?
Okay, so I liked the movie, but Katie Holmes actually lowered my enjoyment of it. She is pretty, and she’s got a nice body, but she is an airhead and not a terribly great actress… and opposite Messrs. Bale, Oldman, Freeman, and Caine, she was well out of her depth (and apparently the water is quite cold). For everyone who would pay money to see her read the phonebook, let’s get them to make that movie, so as to keep her mediocre acting out of my damn Batman film.
I’ll give it a B-.
The first part, where young Bruce finds himself, was really good. It was structurally complex and well-written. But most importantly, Christian Bale was on screen all the time. Bale saved this movie from the shitpile. He’s the best Batman ever (sorry Micheal Keaton)*, and any time he was on screen either as Bruce Wayne or Batman I was totally on board. I’ve always dug Ras al Gul, and Liam Neeson’s performance was flawless. Cillian Murphy’s Dr. Crane was very good, as well. Michael Caine is an incredible actor, but he never became Alfred–he was always Michael Caine.
So, I was liking the movie pretty good, and the Katie Holms showed up. Why does she have a carrer again? She can’t act, and not even her sustained nipple arousal could make her attractive. Bruce Wayne is supposed to be attracted to strong women. She was weak as dishwater.
The extended A-Team-style “Busy Hands” sequence when Bruce Wayne returned to Gotham and geared up held my attention OK, but except for “Drunken Billionaire Burns House Down”, the third act was abysmal. The lack of rhythm was exaserbated by incoherent fight scenes (a pet peeve of mine). The diabolical plan was stupid and overly complex; why not just fly a damned crop duster around Gotham spraying the Fear Factor? Don’t tell me the bad guys couldn’t have acquired a fleet of them and used them to great effect before any attempt could have been made to intercept them. The Joker’s nerve gas balloons in Tim Burton’s Batman was much more sound! And seriously, when Holms, having been sprayed with the Super Double Fear Factor, is a passenger in the Batmobile on a high-speed chase, she should have been screaming her fucking lungs out. That makes a good opportunity for humor, as an inexperienced Bats tries to concentrate on the road and keep her from clawing his eyes out, jumping from the car, or randomly pushing buttons in her delierium. As it was, the attempts at humor fell totally flat.
Nolan’s strengths as a director are his work with actors and his understanding of structure. Only the strong beginning and Bale pulled it up from a grade of C, in my estimation. I say keep Bale and get somebody else to direct the next one.
*Shout out to Adam West, whose classic portrayal of Batman is exempted from these discussions.
Well, since Sept. 11th the FAA has really cracked down on ninjas in flight schools.
(I’m goin’ to hell for that one.)
–Cliffy
Was I the only one to perceive a frisson of something or other between Alfred and Lucius in that scene? I’m not in the habit of drawing slashes, but I thought I saw something there.