Thanks for answering my question.

For some reason, it seems to me the recent spate of superhero movies have featured surprisingly good drama punctuated by poorly shot action scenes. For example, I thought Spider-Man 2 was near flawless as a comic adaptation but the CGI'd action scenes were terrible. The action choreography in Batman Begins bothered me a lot, although I understand The Dark Knight is more of a crime drama about ideas than an outright summer blockbuster. I'm a fan of Hong Kong action cinema - in addition to being a fan of comic books AND independent / foreign films (take that!) - so it bugs me when a film that calls for what amounts to a lot of martial arts muddies up the action.

ANYway, maybe I'll catch a matinee of The Dark Knight on Sunday. The main draw for me is Heath Ledger as the Joker - he is creepy as hell in the commercials and reminds me a lot of the violent psychotic conception of the character I liked in "The Killing Joke" and some of the better comics.

"lordporn"

For articulating why you disliked Batman Begins without resorting to insulting people who might like it.

Also, I can see your point. Batman Begins is far from a perfect movie...but I think some of your criticisms about Bale's acting style was actually a conscious decision on their part. Which I guess you are saying.

Just think about it; Bruce Wayne has been gone for like 5 (or is it 7 years), living hand to fist, and then trains with a bunch of crazy ass vigilantes. It would make sense that he might be a little broody and mopey when he gets back, especially since he knows that these same crazy ass vigilantes are going to destroy the city. He's probably really horny too. I mean, a Chinese prison and a psychedelic training camp.

I think the director and Bale made a conscious choice to play the character the way they did; you might not agree with it, but its kind of cool to see that sort of commitment throughout the movie. So he sounds weird when he does his Batman Voice. He's kind of akward and probably feels a little ridiculous in the suit. And he doesn't even have a clue how to be Bruce Wayne, playboy billionare thrill seeking narcissit anymore, since that person never really existed in the first place? Its as if he's creating two alter egos at once; is it any wonder that everyone in the DC Comic world thinks Batman is a little crazy? Or it could be that like I said, to me, Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan can do no wrong.

I respect your opinion, however, Dr. Fresh.

A person who trains with ninjas for five years and then returns to their hometown to inherit a fortune and begin attempting to transform society all on his own is going to be something other than mopey.

Hamlet was mopey. Bruce Wayne is ... empowered. Liberated. His outsized passions create villains in their wake.

Still, fair points all around. It's a big character, and various people have explored various sides of it.

I'm not going to say that Batman Begins is a perfect movie anytime soon. But it was a HELL of a lot more faithful to Bruce Wayne and Batman as written in the comics than any other film to date. Yes it was long, but the pacing was for me quite engaging, the only times I felt it drag was when Katie Holmes was on screen. The fight choreography was manically edited which was frustrating but compared to later fare like Transformers it's almost like watching Bela Tarr. The characterisation wasn't much of a problem for me, it was more the at times truly cringe-worthy dialogue and the attempts to introduce some terrible humour where it simply wasn't needed. Of course, this is all just my opinion and I respect yours, I'm just curious to hear your reasoning. I like to learn! :)

Which films nail Miller's style btw? Surely not Burton's Batman which was a gothic fairyland, nothing Miller ever did looked or felt even remotely like that. Batman as Miller wrote him (before the truly appalling The Dark Knight Strikes Again), was violent and obsessed. I felt the whole makes mistakes thing was pretty well done in Begins, what with the stupid almost getting caught while trying to deliver a message to Gordon and the totally fucking up at the hands of the Scarecrow (a giant pansy who an older Batman would have made mincemeat out of as soon as he was in close quarters).

It's worth noting that Nolan's Batman is NOT Miller's, not Loeb's, O'Neal's, Morrison's, Moore's or anyone else's. It is his personal interpretation. The best he can hope is to try and capture the "zeitgeist" of who and what Batman is, at this I thought he was tremendously successful. He aimed to try and rationalise Batman and drag him cinematically into the hyper-ironic, po-mo 21st Century. I can of course concede this choice is not to everyone's taste's, but personally I found it effective.

Since it seems that your method of reviewing films is to automatically take the opposite position from other critics (regardless of the actual quality of the film, or, you know, logic [see "Daniel Day-Lewis is such a great actor he is actually a bad actor" baloney]), I have devised a way of deciding whether or not to see a film based on your review. If you say it's good, it probably sucks. If you say it's bad, it's probably good.

By the way, your contrarianism is so admirable and not at all childish.

I think it's time to head out to the grad school pasture and make your living teaching film appreciation.

Of course, you'll have to bs the hiring committee into believing you actually know what you're talking about.

Have a good summer.

Dalivus--You refer to my "homoerotic fantasies"--and then you say, "Leave the Meaningful Batman to us!" ooooOOOOOooohhhh! I mean, REALlll--yyyy! Sheesh, I might have once or twice have had some offbeat '60's-era Batman fantasies--but what would you do with a Meaningful one? Discuss Proust?! (Yes that stupid Robin was a pain. But when it comes to a man wearing a bat-hat, a cape and tights...well, "meaningful" is just not as likely to occur to some of us as it would, with...oh, Smiley. And he was NOT homoerotic with Robin; Robin was just a bratty kid brother. Everyone knows Batman is in love with Catwoman!)..

Falhaar--You are absolutely right that campy-Batman has had his day. If they did a movie now based on the series, it would be at best Austin Powers in a batsuit, and at worst "The Love Guru". I'm just expressing my nostalgia for the Batman who didn't have much more pressing problems than restoring the voices of Chad and Jeremy! (I guess he failed--as far as I know, Chad and Jeremy have not been heard from since I was in diapers...)