Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman

11/03/2013

Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Superhero Movie of the Year

A beautiful, hand-painted poster for Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins

How did Gotham City's mysterious billionaire Bruce Wayne also become its dark-robed protector and disguised vigilante, the Batman?

My favorite superhero returned in 2005 in the hands of English master filmmaker, co-writer/director Christopher Nolan (Inception (2010)) and in the shape of the impressive, Welsh Christian Bale (Rescue Dawn (2006)). Batman Begins is the first in Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy of modern, darker, less mythical and more realism-adhering Batman films than what is known from earlier entries in the DC Comics franchise started by Bob Kane and Bill Fingers in 1939.
The action, gadgets and new Batmobile (known as the tumbler) are especially awesome. Nolan uses a minimum of CGI, and refused a second unit to keep his vision consistent throughout the film.
The cast is impressive. To pick out a few of the most noteworthy performances, Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later (2002)) looks good and feels completely right as the villain, Dr. Jonathan Crane who becomes the Scarecrow. Tom Wilkinson (Valkyrie (2008)) is pungent as Gotham's gangster overlord, Carmine Falcone. And Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption (1994)) is handy as Lucius Fox, the series' sympathetic Mr. Gadget.
The script by Nolan and David S. Goyer (Blade (1998)) tells much of Batman's origins, and it works well, except for the one, original character created for the series, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes (The Extra Man (2010))), or Miss Moralizing, who is too close to Mary Jane Watson of Spiderman sugar-sweet to fit the quite dark tone of the film.
Generally, however, Batman Begins is too bereft of sex, filth and really colorful villains to compete with the best of the Batman films, which in my opinion remains Tim Burton's Batman Returns (1992), a masterpiece in lavish entertainment, Gothicism, villains and wild eye-candy.
Nolan here launches himself big-time with a solid, dramaturgic construction of the Batman character in one of the most popular films of the 00s, Batman Begins.

Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression

The Dark Knight (2008) - Nolan's best Batman

Batman Returns (1992) - Burton gives us the ultimate, Gothic spin on Gotham City and its sinister characters
Batman (1989) - A huge, glitzy, empty joker
Batman the Movie (1966) or, Batman and Robin: Kapow!!!

Christopher Nolan: 2020 in films - according to Film Excess

Tenet (2020) - Nolan blows smoke up your ass

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2017 in films - according to Film Excess
Dunkirk (2017) - Nolan champions cinema with masterful war movie
Interstellar (2014) - Nolan heads to space in opulent, exciting epic
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Inception (2010) - Nolan's best is a grand piece of action sci-fi, perfectly awesome nonsense

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight (2008) - Nolan's best Batman

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Memento (2000) - Nolan's overrated amnesia mindfuck
Following (1998) - Nolan's ineffectual debut

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 150 mil. $
Box office: 373.6 mil. $
= Even

[Batman Begins premiered 31 May (Tokyo) and runs 140 minutes. Nolan and Goyer were hired for the reboot in 2003. Bale was paid 9 mil. $ for his performance; Liam Neeson (Love Actually (2003)) 2 mil. $; Holmes 1 mil. $. Shooting took place from March - September 2004 in Iceland, England, including in London, Chicago, Illinois and in New York. The film opened #1 to a 48.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and then another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5), grossing 205.3 mil. $, which with later re-releases has grown to 206.8 mil. $ (55.4 % of the total gross). It was the 7th highest-grossing film of the year in North America. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 30 mil. $ (8 %) and Mexico with 12.8 mil. $ (3.4 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: For Best Cinematography (Wally Pfister (Moneyball (2011))), lost to Dion Beebe for Memoirs of a Geisha. It was also nominated for 3 BAFTAs, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #126 on the site's Top 250, sitting between For a Few Dollars More (1965) and Dangal (2016). The film had additionally made 167 mil. $ on domestic home video sales by Summer 2006. Bale's Batman returned in Nolan's second in the trilogy, The Dark Knight (2008). Nolan first returned with The Prestige (2006). Bale first returned in The New World (2005). Batman Begins is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Batman Begins?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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11/03/2013

Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman

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