My hero rides again...

[Le Noir Faineant]

http://www.atasteforthetheatrical.com/

R

[Le Noir Faineant]

Since noone cared to comment: Don't you wonder which one I label as my hero here?

"What doesn't kill us makes us stranger."

[VAN]

I'm a little curious...who is your hero Raf?

[Le Noir Faineant]

WHat woudl you think?

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I'm psyched about this too, but I suspect my hero is the other one.

[VAN]

Joker? I think Jack Nicholson was better as joker.

And from when Joker uses knives? I thought he preferred bombs and staff like that.

[Archedius]

I love the direction Batman has gone in: seems akin to the feel of Batman: The Animated Series from the early 90's. Dark, gritty, brutal- refined. Batman Begins was a glorious movie and The Dark Knight is lookign well on its way. I like the new sick Joker- knives= awesome.
(p.s. Best batman movie was Mask of the Phantasm)

[Le Noir Faineant]

I personally have been a huge Batman fan (tries to overhear the common sigh of relief) ever since I was a child.

I am so happy about the new movies because they are more like Frank Miller's Batman - with decent noir and Gothic elements.

Plus, I didn't like the first Batman movie by Tim Burton - one saw too much Joker, and too few Batman...

[ScS of the Fraternity]

You know, I think they should have gone with Mark Hamils Joker. I think he really made that cartoon role his own, and it would have been ood to see it on the big screen. I liked Jack Nicholson's too, but Hamil's voice and mannerisms seemed so fitting to a murderous clown.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Ah, then we are on the same side. Glad I won't have to throw any batarangs at you, or hit you with a BAM! or POW!

I agree, Hamill's Joker is the best the character has ever been, but I've got high hopes for Ledger after seeing the trailer. Batman Begins was great, at least until the end. (Sorry, Batman doesn't even willingly "let" bad guys die. Not in his moral code.) Can't wait to see more.

[HuManBing]

I watched the Tim Burton Batman movies (i.e. I and II) and also Batman Begins. I confess I'm not much of a canonist and have not followed the DC comics at all.

Batman Begins was a pretty lukewarm movie for me. A lot of the action scenes were too close, too dark, and otherwise completely incoherent. The use of Ken Watanabe for Raz Ghul was a waste. They used him very similarly to Chow Yun Fat in Pirates/Caribbean3 - it seems like Hollywood directors can only use Asian stars to chew the frickin scenery and then die in anticlimactic quasi-farcical ways. (A falling roof for Watanabe, collateral shrapnel for CYF.)

Was the character even supposed to be Asian anyway? I thought he was supposed to be Arabic with a name like that.

Nice nod to modern day China, even if it is in the context of an oppressive police state. (A fair enough commentary despite it all.) But again, it's another portrayal of "U.S. kid goes overseas and dominates the locals" even if it is limited to kicking arse in the prison yard. This is even worse with Liam Neeson's character, who manages to buck the racial stereotype of "Asian Fu Manchu" by being... Fu Manchu's white employer.

Casting for Cillian Murphy, Michael Caine, and Gary Oldman was inspired. It's good to see Gary Oldman in a good-guy role for once. Was Dr. Crane supposed to be as fey as Cillian Murphy portrayed him, though?

I vaguely remember there was a female love interest. I can't remember who she was, who portrayed her, or what she did.

I was pretty tired that day and was accompanying my brother to the cinema, so perhaps I wasn't at my most sympathetic. But honestly there were points when I wished the sound effects were a bit lower so I could catch forty winks.

[Le Noir Faineant]

Batman Begins was great, at least until the end. (Sorry, Batman doesn't even willingly "let" bad guys die. Not in his moral code.)

Sure? - Nolan's more Miller's Batman, than anyone else's, and that is a very sinister figure.

Nice nod to modern day China, even if it is in the context of an oppressive police state. (A fair enough commentary despite it all.) But again, it's another portrayal of "U.S. kid goes overseas and dominates the locals" even if it is limited to kicking arse in the prison yard. This is even worse with Liam Neeson's character, who manages to buck the racial stereotype of "Asian Fu Manchu" by being... Fu Manchu's white employer.

Interesting interpretation. Never thought of a possible racist subtext of that scenes.

Now, I have indeed asked me a few times why Rhaz is portrayed as a ninja. - After all, shouldn't he be an Hashashin, with his arabian name?

- Though, in general, I like the ninja background for Batman. At least gives hima notion of believeability, with all the martial tricks he's performing...

[Brandi]

I do wonder why you used some of Miller's cheesiest writing as an example of his Batman, but that's a discussion for another thread.

Anyway, Ledger's looking and sounding pretty promising as the Joker; as much as I like Mark Hamill, I suspect he wouldn't look right in live-action (and I suspect he agrees); what's more, I bet that like Kevin Conroy, he'd like to take a break from a character he's done for over a decade and give some other characters a chance.

[Jester of the FoS]

Ken W was 'wasted' but it was necessary. If they'd cast a no-name the end plot twist would have been a non-event. It would be like hiring Jack Nichelson and generic extra X and trying to convince people GEX would end up as Joker at the end of the movie.
They hired a name knowing it would distract the fanboys.

And Ra's al Ghul is more Arabian, but his true comic origins are mysterious. And playing him as an Arab in BB would be even more distracting with the accidental terrorist conotations. And it's harder to tie into ninjas and showing Batman's ninja background does help make him believable.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

If a rich American guy can come to the Himalayas to learn martial arts, why not a rich Middle Eastern guy? Granted, Liam Neeson's awfully pale for the role, but his version of al Ghul might be ethnic Persian, not Arab. (The "Ra's al Ghul" name is Arabic, but it's also an obvious epithet/alias.)