Batman Begins (June 2005)

[tokyogirl]

ok, so they are in the middle of filming the movie 'batman begins'. they decided that since the last batman sucked so bad they're going to just whipe the slate clean and start from the begining. here's a brief list of some people currently associated with it:

directed by: Christopher Nolan (creater of mememto)
written by: David S. Goyer (who's helped bring us movies like blade and dark city)

cast:
batman: Christian Bale
love intrest rachel dodson: katie holmes
ducard: liam nielson
alfred: Michael Caine
james gordon: gary oldman
dr. jonathan crane/the scarecrow: cillian murphy

other cast members include: morgan freeman and ken wantanabe

[ray gower]

What is with this fad for retro prequels?

Plotline runs:
As a witness to the murder of his parents, a young Bruce Wayne dedicates his life to avenging their deaths. But when an early bid for revenge is foiled, he flees to the East for counsel from the mystifying Ra's Al-Ghul (Watanabe). Fit for a return to the decaying Gotham City, Wayne heads underground with Lucius Fox (Freeman), an old family ally who helps him embrace his new persona: Batman. With a detective's intuition and a millionaire's resources, the master crime-fighter squares off against two of Gotham's biggest threats, unaware that a sinister, knowing enemy plots against him.

Problem is from Batman returns we know it was Penguin that bumped off Wayne's folks. And he disappeared right quick

[little smaug]

A new Batman film? Great.

Making it a prequel? Fair enough.

But contradicting everything that happened in the other films? I don't agree with that.

However, I probably will go and see this, if only because it has 2 of my favourite actors in it.

[ray gower]

Yeah well, good though Micheal Caine is, I think he is going to struggle to meet the standard set by Micheal Gough.

[little smaug]

Very true. I don't think that anyone could make a better Alfred than he did.

I suppose it depends on whether Michael Caine attempts to recreate Gough's portrayal of the character, or whether he manages to show a different side to Alfred.

[immortalem]

Originally posted by ray gower
Yeah well, good though Micheal Caine is, I think he is going to struggle to meet the standard set by Micheal Gough.

I agree. I think this movie will be interesting, hopefully, it will be good.

[Dave]

from scifi wire

Batman Is Psycho And Savior

Christian Bale, who plays the Caped Crusader in the upcoming Batman Begins movie, told SCI FI Wire that his Batman combines elements of two previous roles he's portrayed: Jesus Christ and the American Psycho. "He's very much an American psycho of sorts and, yeah, also certainly has Christ-like symptoms," Bale said in an interview at WonderCon in San Francisco last weekend. "And, yeah, you know, [you see it in] the battle between [his] spirit and ... flesh and, with Bruce Wayne, the battle between the philanthropy his father taught him and was a great example to him for and the need for vengeance, which is incredibly strong." Bale played Jesus in the 1999 telefilm Mary, Mother of Jesus and gained fame as the title character in 2000's theatrical film American Psycho.

Bale said that he views Batman as conflicted. "Because his heart is telling him, frankly, that he wants to kill," he said. "But he cannot do it. He's been taught differently from childhood, and he knows that it is wrong. But, still, it's an overwhelming urge that he's had to pull back, rein in, all the time."

Bale added that this version of the Batman story, the fifth in Warner Brothers' recent franchise, is particularly relevant to these unsettled times. "I don't want to give away too much, but what Scarecrow [Cillian Murphy] is doing, and which Ra's Al Ghul [Ken Watanabe] and everybody [is up to], is very similar to the anthrax scare that people [went through]," he said. "It's very similar to the possibility of chemical, biological warfare, etc., going on. The notion also of the mentor that Bruce Wayne chooses to go and train with being a man with a triple-barreled name [who] lives in caves kind of on the run: You can't help but take a look and say, 'Hmm. There's a lot of relevance to it.' I think also the age-old thing of the ever-widening gap between rich and poor. And the nature of power and corruption. I think all of these things are particularly relevant, yeah. And I think it should be. Because this is American mythology. It should be in keeping with the times. If it's not, it's missing the point." Batman Begins opens June 17.

That's a little deep for what is essentially pulp fiction!

[ray gower]

Now I've seen it I'm inclined to say Micheal Caine is a passable Alfred, though Christian Bale is less good as Batman.

That said, it is probably one of the best of the modern Batman films even if it does blow common canon out of the water. Gone is the quasi modernistic gothic archetecture and ridiculous fantasy to leave something far more real and hard edged. Rather closer to some of the original stories.

There are bugs though.
If it isn't radiation, then a superhero has to have spent years training in some unheard of Tibetan Monastry to learn his skills, why not learn in gutter fights like the rest of us?.
Here they chose the Tibetan Monastry and Ninja's- So common

Then there is the train crash. Anything that takes that many support pillars out of a tower block is surely going to be sharing the same space in the basement as the rest of the tower?