Just saw Batman Begins…

I would like to watch it again before I see Dark Knight. As I cannot be bothered to buy it however, this could be problematic.

I don’t find the conclusion silly, it’s just a little perfunctory – the kind of climax everybody does. Which is only a shame because for 90 minutes the film had been rich, intelligent, smartly performed and cleverly structured. The finale was just ‘fine’…hurt slightly because Nolan is still figuring out how to shoot and cut action.

If Dark Knight improves on the last-act and action-cutting problems, and maintains its character and story work, it’ll be a strong contender for best of the summer.

> the bit with the Scarecrow on the horse?remind me again why that was in there?

I think you’re totally wrong about this. It’s exactly the kind of insane imagery that belongs in this universe. ‘The lunatics have taken over’. The horror/hallucination version was a powerful image, too. There are police horses, there are nutters…works for me.

But yeah, the final act smacks of a reassurance to the studio. As, for that matter, does the Batpod this time. But I’ll still take those concessions over the first two X-Men flicks and their Cerebro-based guff. And I’d take either of those flicks, which are at least TRYING to be interesting within the framework, over a dozen Elektras.

Andrew:
I don?t find the conclusion silly, it?s just a little perfunctory – the kind of climax everybody does. Which is only a shame because for 90 minutes the film had been rich, intelligent, smartly performed and cleverly structured. The finale was just ?fine??hurt slightly because Nolan is still figuring out how to shoot and cut action.

What really hurts the Bat-Begins finale for me isn’t so much that – it’s the fact that Batman effectively LOSES (all he does is reduce the scale of the disaster, not avert it), but from then on it’s treated as a victory [bar a swift line or two in the very last scene]. Didn’t Gordon get a lungful of the fear-gas steam? Didn’t about a quarter of Gotham (not just the Narrows)? It’s dealt with as if everything after the house fire was pretty much wrapped up cleanly.

In Batman Begins, Batman was a beginner. He was allowed to “only” reduce the scale of the disaster. Hey, that’s quite an achievement for average Joe!

I wish I knew how to quit you.

> and Casino Royale may as well have been called Bond Begins.

Already stole that one, too:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4349218.stm#brosnan

:-)

I hope it’s better than Indy 4. My eyes and ears are still bleeding from seeing it yesterday. Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf are good, yes, but there’s not enough interaction between them, particularly at the end. It surprised me that I wanted to see more of that side of proceedings as opposed to more action and supernatural stuff. Maybe that’s because the plot and script are a piece of shit. Good god, the dialogue in some places… and remind me again why John Hurt, Jim Broadbent and Ray Winstone are in this? All three are wasted.