The Event Of The Summer
I don’t know if you saw Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, but if you didn’t, you want to rent it. Now. Before the sequel, Dark Knight opens on July 18.
Don’t like comic book movies? Read on.
Tim Burton’s movies were excellent, but they were comic book movies for comic book fans — after all, they were Tim Burton movies. He had no intention of escaping the genre; he embraced it, and successfully, unlike most comic book movies (the first X-Men was pretty good, and the second was fine, but the third was just stupid, and Ironman was unexpectedly good — but all the rest have been pathetic, especially the Spiderman and Fantastic Four movies — and I devoured comic books when I was a kid).
Nolan broke free of the genre, and perhaps chose the only comic book hero with which he could have: Batman. In the 2005 movie, he goes back to Batman’s origins. The movie, like the comic, is dark and gritty, and most importantly, real. It’s a movie that non-comic fans can love, beautifully made, with pitch perfect performances, particularly from Christian Bale (as Bruce Wayne/Batman) and Michael Caine as Alfred. Nolan’s flick is an adult’s movie, with complex characterizations, and the first film that truly lets Bale show what an incredibly talented actor he is.
There is nothing of the television show in Nolan’s movie. It is as serious as a film gets, with no camp or humor. Nolan even manages to make bats scary, and I like bats.
If you missed this movie, you missed what was hands down the best movie of 2005, without question. I wouldn’t call it kid friendly; fine for adolescents, a bit dark for younger kids. Because the successors to Burton’s Batman films were so bad, I didn’t bother to see Nolan’s movie in the theater, and I will always regret that. Had I seen it in the theater, at the end I would have stood and applauded.
Me, I couldn’t care less about The Hulk. I didn’t like the comic, and I didn’t like the TV show (anyway, Bill Bixby to me was always My Favorite Martian). But on the day Nolan’s sequel opens, you won’t be able to keep me away from the theater.
Seriously. Even if you never go to the theater, don’t miss this. And don’t miss the chance to see the first movie, if you haven’t.
Patrick Joubert Conlon:
Okay, I’ll put it in my Netflix queue. The boys will be pleased.
June 27, 2008, 9:00 pm