Nevermind the bullsh*t, here is batman... - Batman Begins Reviews

As a filmmaker and someone who read and collected comics as a child, I am often quite skeptical when I sit down in the theater to watch the latest attempt by Hollywood to bring a comic book to the screen. Sam Raimi, normally a great director, bored me to death with the Spider-Man movies. Bryan Singer, also usually a decent director, used the X-Men movies to make some kind of statement about alienation when he should have just stuck to the story. And Daredevil...Ugggh! My favorite comic book hero of all, played by a beer-bellied non-actor. Elektra, played by a skinny, anorexic waif. Worst of all, Bullseye, played by a dude who looks about as threatening as a dead fly. I refused to even watch it. Did I mention the disasters known as "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin"? For these movies, Joel Shumacher should have been executed. Nipples and roller-skates aside, the worst sin committed by these wastes of celluloid was taking the franchise back to the campy 1960's television series. In 1986, Batman was redefined by the great comic book writer Frank Miller. The psychosis of a man dressed in a bat suit was fully explored. The adult nature of the character Batman was revealed. From that point on, the Adam West incarnation should have been permanently put to rest. Tim Burton made admirable gestures and someday I look forward to seeing the four-hour director's cut of "Batman Returns," the best of the franchise to this point. To this point... Last night I sat down to watch "Batman Begins," having heard the rave reviews and looking forward to ANYTHING different from the last two Batman movies. Holy great f*ckin' movie, Batman! This movie succeeds on so many levels, at this point in Hollywood's weekly parade of mediocrity, this movie might very well be of Oscar caliber. The script is magnificent (And I am an egomaniacal screenwriter who does not like to admit there are any other good writers in Hollywood...) The direction is brilliant. So good, in fact, that I never had time to notice that Katie Holmes, despite being a beautiful young woman, is a terrible actress. The script stuffs her mouth with complex comic book dialogue that she delivers quickly and then gets out of the way so that the action may continue. It works. Christian Bale manages to make both sides of Bruce Wayne's personality interesting, which only Michael Keaton BARELY accomplished (That's no slam on Mr. Keaton, whose interpretation of Batman beats the hell out of the two guys that followed.) The great performance of this movie, however, belongs to Liam Neeson. He had me convinced that being a murderous vigilante is the only way to make the world better. The last character to sway my opinion so thoroughly was Travis Bickle ("Taxi Driver")! There are a few problems I personally have with the film, but they are problems that only reflect what I would have done differently as a filmmaker. I will not dwell on them here because I would prefer to strongly encourage everyone to go out and see this movie. It is far superior to the Star Wars movie and so far the previews for "War of the Worlds" haven't impressed me in any way. I believe THIS is the summer movie that will remind those of us old enough to remember what it was like back in the early 80s when every summer there were one or two films that knocked our collective socks off. This is the definition of a summer blockbuster. It's thoughtful and entertaining. According to the late great Stanley Kubrick, one can't ask for much more from a film.