Another Movie Review from Me: Batman Begins

I should probably read up on the proper way to write a movie review. I love movies. I love to watch them. I love to talk about them. But I tend to feel like a dolt when I get on line and try to tell you sweet readers why you should or shouldn't watch a certain movie. However, it hasn't been stopping me. Maybe I'll come up with my own special movie reviewing angle. I'll have to think about it. For now, here's another crappy review by me.

Batman Begins. I liked it very, very, very, very, very much.

Ha, just kidding. I did like it. Not sure I liked it that much. I'm also not THAT bad of a reviewer. Kevin has been ordering obscure, bizarre foreign films from Netflix. I picked this one. I'm glad I did.

The mood of the film was somewhat dark, but it fits with the characters and the story. I love Christian Bale. He made an excellent Batman, in my opinion. As the title says, in this film we get to see how Batman became Batman. I think that's a pretty tall order, but I felt they lived up to the franchise. It was interesting, large in scope, and well done. Liam Neeson as his mentor was a bit type cast (ahem...Star Wars). Katie Holmes was, well Katie Holmes. She was definitely cute, but I have a hard time not thinking of her as Tom Cruise's wife. Oh well. She did a fine job with the role, even if she was slightly unbelievable as a D.A. Gary Oldman was gold, as usual. I loved him as Gordon. Morgan Freeman, ditto. Michael Caine was proper without being cold and warm without being overly sentimental. He was like a good wink. An actor I had never heard of played the Scarecrow, and he was great. Cillian Murphy, I believe was his name. He was very creepy.

The scene where Bruce Wayne and Rachel are supposed to be teenagers came off as false for both Kevin and me. They very distractingly just tried to use the actors' hair to make them appear younger. Sorry, I think Christian Bale is hawt, but he is definitely not 17. Maybe because he is hot, he cannot play 17. And Katie Holmes, well, maybe she just does look 17 and the weird hair made her look 12. I couldn't concentrate on the scene due to the ridiculousness of it. They maybe should have had teenage actors. I don't know.

Overall, the effects were great, and it had a good pace. Some of the car chase type stuff went on a little long for me, but it would probably be ok for most. The action was crazy fast-paced, but I kept up with it for the most part. The humans were belieavable and likeable, unless they weren't supposed to be. I find it interesting that the villain also had a valid point for his villainy. That's a relatively new and fascinating angle in movies--good and bad aren't so cut and dried. We can understand what is "bad". It's more real. I like it. The sets were fabulously gothic and yet somehow somewhat modern.

Thumbs up. It would be worth having to put my kid back to sleep a few times and sneaking away back downstairs. That's how I have to rate things. "Is this worth taking the chance that he will wake up when I sneak away, and I'll have to start all over again?" Batman Begins was.

~t