Batman Begins:
I used to hate this as a kid, thinking it was boring and slow, but now, it's fast-paced and exhilirating. The plot follows Bruce Wayne, a young, depressed billionaire, whose parents were gunned down in front of him as a child by mugger Joe Chill. He has been trying to get peace ever since, and has travelled the world, getting caught for smuggling his own products into Asia. He is rescued from a prison by a mysterious man, Henri Ducard, speaking on behalf of Ra's Al Ghul, leader of the League of Shadows. He is trained by the league to overcome fear and to become a protector of the innocent. He destroys their base when he finds out they intend to kill the criminals, which Bruce feels is immoral. Back in Gotham after 7 years, Bruce, with the help of his butler Alfred, uses the symbol of the bat to become Batman, a vigilante hero who protects Gotham from the corrupt. Meanwhile, a outside mastermind orchestrates drug operations involving the Falcone crime family and psychiatrist Jonathan Crane, who moonlights as the fear-inducing Scarecrow. The plot is similar to both Frank Miller's Batman: Year One (where Bruce trains to become Batman and take down the mob, and Jim Gordon tries to take down the corrupt police force from the inside) and The Man Who Falls (where Batman's origin is revealed, including his fear of bats sprouting when, as a child, he fell into a bat cave on the grounds of the mansion, his travels around the world, and meeting a mentor in the form of Ducard). It also took some inspiration from the acclaimed graphic novel The Long Halloween. The cast is incredible. Christian Bale may not be as good as Michael Keaton, but he captures the coolness of Bruce Wayne, and the brooding and angered Batman's personality. That's something Keaton couldn't do, his Batman was amazing, but his Bruce Wayne was too secluded and suspious, Bruce is supposed to be lively, upbeat, that's what drives everyone's attention away from the fact he's Batman. Bale captures that. He doesn't do that god-awful growling lung cancer voice either, that's a plus (he saved that for the sequel). Bale does 3 personalities: Bruce Wayne as a secretive and wise warrior, Batman as a brooding and brutal enforcer/detective, and the fake Bruce: a partying bachelor douchebag. Katie Holmes is okay as Rachel Dawes, an original character who is Bruce's love interest and oldest friend. She looks like a college kid, but she does a good job capturing that strong, modern woman character. Michael Caine is great as the caring Alfred, who also has a good talking-to with Bruce sometimes, showing that he's not afraid to stand up to Bruce or question his methods as Batman. Gary Oldman is great as Sergeant Jim Gordon, he is a middle-aged cop, one of the few good ones in the city. He is making his way up to the commissioner from the comics, and he has a family to keep safe in this dangerous city. Morgan Freeman plays Lucius Fox, the intelligent, funny, and kind Added Sciences head at Wayne Enterprises. He assissts Bruce in getting odd devices for Bruce's night-time escapades. Cillian Murphy is perfect as Scarecrow. He is creepy, intelligent, and calculating. He is always at odds with Rachel, sort of like her nemesis. He developed a weaponized gas from a compound found in flowers near the base of the League of Shadows. Liam Neeson is great as Ra's Al Ghul, and he is the best nemesis for Batman at this stage in his crime-fighting career, being an interesting moral and physical challenge. Ra's also trained Batman, but is still better than him at fighting. Ken Watanabe (later appeared in Nolan's Inception) is in a smaller role as Ra's decoy. Tom Wilkinson plays Carmine Falcone, the head of the Falcone crime family, and leader of the corrupt, and accomplice of Scarecrow. Scarecrow drives Falcone insane when Falcone tries to threaten him and his shadowy master. Rutger Hauer plays William Earle, the somewhat villainous head of the Wayne company. Mark Boone Junior plays Arnold Flass, Gordon's corrupt partner. Not as physically fit as he is in the comics, but still bad news. Colin McFarlane plays Gillian Loeb, commissioner of police. Not corrupt as he is in the comics, but a good commissioner, a decent man. Larry Holden plays Rachel's boss, DA Carl Finch, who is killed for looking too deeply into Falcone's business. Linus Roache and Sara Stewart play Bruce's caring and loving parents Thomas and Martha Wayne, killed by seedy mugger Joe Chill. Chill is played by Richard Brake. Corrupt Judge Faden is played by Gerard Murphy. Tim Booth (lead singer for the British band "James", who are known for their college radio hit "Laid") plays Victor Zsasz, reducing from his major role as a deranged, anti-society psycho-killer in the comics to a borderline cameo role as a murderer who works for the Falcones. Irish actor Jack Gleeson (who now stars on HBO's Game of Thrones) appears here in a minor role as a little boy in the slums of Gotham. The action in the film is little, but good. The final fight on the subway train in the Narrows is thrilling, and the fight with Scarecrow and the police chase in the Tumbler is awesome. The fight scenes are edited badly, but are cool anyway. The special effects are well-done, but the Tumbler is a bit excessive. The special effects for the fear sequences are good, and used sparingly. The music in the film isn't as iconic as in the Burton films, but is still awesome and gets you pumped for the action that follows. Batman Begins is one of the best Batman films out there, and underrated. 5/5 stars.
Notes: (SPOILERS) At the end of the film, the Batsignal is revealed, and a stinger ending takes place: where Gordon hands Batman a Joker playing card, saying a criminal is spreading chaos throughout the city. Batman responds with "I'll look into it." (End of SPOILERS) The opening "Bat symbol" shot is of a swarm of bats crowding around, briefly making the Bat emblem in the sky.
The Dark Knight:
This movie, until now in my opinion, was the definitive Batman film. The plot follows Batman, now Gotham's unofficial hero, in his crusade against crime. Batman has, with the help of Lieutenant Gordon, destroyed most major crime in the city. The remaining criminals, like Sal Maroni, The Chechen, and Gambol, entrust their money to Chinese launderer Lao, who is in business with the Wayne company. Meanwhile, DA Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes begin a romance, and start taking down these mob bosses in court. Batman plans to quit his life, believing Dent to be Gotham's new hero. Unfortunately for both our heroes and mob bosses, a new, anarchy-loving, scarred villain strolls into town. The Joker spreads anarchy and chaos, trying to push Batman over the line of hero or vigilante, and proving that they have more in common than Batman would hope. The Joker also tries to prove even the best people, deep down inside, are nothing more than violent maniacs like him, and he uses Dent as his test subject, and Batman decides that maybe Gotham still needs him around, whether they like it or not. The cast is perfect. Christian Bale is, again, excellent as Batman, who must deal with the fact that Rachel may not love him anymore, and that Batman may need to move on. Aaron Eckhardt (Thank You For Smoking) is excellent as Harvey Dent. He embodies Gotham's "true hero": an elected official, who obeys the law, and puts criminals behind bars. He also is like the "real american hero", and becomes a new ally of Batman. But the Joker has other plans. Speaking of which, Heath Ledger is the definitive Joker. He's funny, intelligent, but also bat-shit crazy. Where Jack Nicholson was creepy, Ledger is pure nightmare fuel. He has a scarred face and a creepy smile. Ledger gained inspiration for the role from Alan Moore's comic The Killing Joke, the film Sid and Nacy, and A Clockwork Orange. To show how he doesn't really care about himself or his appearance, Nolan designed Joker with incredibly greasy and stringy hair, a rotten yellow grin, and makeup that slowly deteriorates. The more the Joker's state degrades, the more we see the insane and twisted mind beneath. This is what many believe killed Ledger. Ledger, being a method actor, wanted to really get into the Joker role. He kept a journal of the Joker's strange and freakish thoughts. He ultimately overdosed on pills to keep him from going insane. He died for the art. I always feel bad for him and his loved ones, but if he didn't immerse himself as far as he did, would this film and performance be nearly as good? I guess we'll never know. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman are all still fantastic as Alfred, Lucius Fox, and Gordon, respectively. Maggie Gyllenhall replaces Holmes as Rachel Dawes, who must deal with her torn feelings about Dent and Bruce Wayne. Colin McFarlane plays Loeb, who is still a good commissioner, but is killed by Joker. Eric Roberts plays Salvatore "Sal" Maroni, leader of the Italian mob, who hires the Joker to kill Batman. Bob Hoskins auditioned for this role. Chin Han plays Lao, the money launderer who is taken by Batman, and who betrays the mob, at a price. Nestor Carbonell plays Mayor Anthony Garcia, who is like Mayor Kroll of the comics: he isn't a fan of Batman, but doesn't try to stop him. Keith Szarabajki is Gerard Stephens, who is similar to Harvey Bullock of the comics. He is a gruff cop, with a good heart, who is loyal to Gordon. Monique Gabriela Curnen plays Ana Ramirez, sort of like Renee Montoya from the comics. She is loyal to Gordon, until the mob and Joker convince her otherwise. Ron Dean plays Michael Wurts, a gruff officer who betrays Gordon to the mob. Anthony Michael Hall (The Breakfast Club) plays Mike Engel of Gotham Tonight, sort of like a less-annoying, male version of Vicki Vale. Nydia Rodriguez Terracina plays Judge Surrillo, who is killed by the Joker for trying the mob in court. Cillian Murphy returns in a cameo as the Scarecrow, who deals drugs with the Chechen, a cameo that was originally supposed to be Philip Seymour Hoffman as Penguin. Joshua Harto plays Coleman Reece, an accountant for Wayne who attempts to blackmail him. Melinda McGraw and Nathan Gamble plays Gordon's wife and son, Barbara and Jimmy. Michael Jai White (who played Spawn in, well, Spawn, and the title character in the parody film Black Dynamite) plays Gambol, a black gang boss who is killed by the Joker. Ritchie Coster plays The Chechen, a drug-dealing Russian mob boss who fancies viscous dogs as his enforcers. Tom "Tiny" Lister, a wrestler, makes a cameo as a prison inmate on a ferry in the film's climax. William Fichtner makes a cameo as a bank teller at a mob-owned bank in the film's action-packed prologue. This brings me to the action. The action exceeds the first film, and is just damn incredible. From the bank robbery at the opening, to the fight with the Scarecrow in the parking garage, to the fight with Joker at the Dent campaign party, to the fight in Hong Kong, to the car chase with the flipping of a semi-truck, to the hosptial explosion and Lamborgini chase, to the final fight at the Prewitt building. The new vehicle of the film is the Batpod, a motorcycle that is an add-on feature of the Tumbler, destroyed in this film. The music score is great. The Joker's theme is insane. Compiled from bits and pieces of chaotic sounds and a violin playing, the Joker's theme is a low humming noise that gets louder and more urgent, foreshadowing the chaos and bloodshed to come in that scene. The Dark Knight is an amazing film, a feat in the comic book movie medium, and the best film of 2008, besides Iron Man. 5/5 stars.
Note: Fun fact, Ledger based part of his performance on Sid Viscous from the film Sid and Nancy, which Gary Oldman starred in, and Oldman plays Gordon in this film. The opening "Bat symbol" shot is a blue inferno spreading apart, briefly making the Bat emblem.
The Dark Knight Rises:
This is the definitive Batman film now! The plot follows the middle-aged and eccentric Bruce Wayne, hiding in his mansion 8 years after the Joker's reign of terror, having to put on the cape and cowl once more when Bane, a super-strong and intelligent terrorist, takes over Gotham and transforms in into a hell hole. Batman is captured by Bane and thrown in "the Pit" (a reference to the Lazarus Pit), a prison in the Middle East, which only one person has escaped: Bane himself. Now Batman must heal, and face the man who has taken his city and torn it apart. With the help of Detective Blake and the seductive and complex Selina Kyle, he plans to take down Bane and his army of thugs and psychopaths. This plot is similar to the two major storylines of the 90's: Knightfall (in which Bane breaks Batman's back and releases hundreds of psychos on the streets) and No Man's Land (where, after a massive earthquake, Gotham is shut off from the rest of the world and ruled by gangs and criminals.) It also has many similarities with Frank Miller's acclaimed 1986 graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, where a middle-aged Batman must return to a much darker Gotham City after being in retirement for a decade. The cast is fantastic. Christian Bale portrays a much more depressed, secluded, and dark Bruce Wayne. This is truly a broken man, who must rise up when his city needs him most. He plays 3 new characters: the broken Bruce Wayne, the cold and calculating Batman (who is mostly mute when in the costume for the first time in 8 years), and the fake Bruce, the middle-aged bachelor. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are great as always as Alfred and Lucius, who must deal with Bruce's depression and obsession with the "glory days". Gary Oldman plays a much older and depressed Commissioner Gordon, whose wife left him after the events of the previous film. He attempts to hold Gotham together in this time of overwhelming crisis. Marion Cotillard (Leo DiCaprio's wife in Inception) plays Miranda Tate, a lovely, wealthy woman who wants to help Bruce recover and help his company rise up from near bankruptcy. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Detective Blake, a good cop and one who knows Bruce is Batman, and the only one who believes in Bruce. He is a bad-ass, Robin-like sidekick character, and is similar to Lieutenant Kitch of the comics. Tom Hardy is a very serious threat as Bane. In the first film, Ra's Al Ghul presented Batman with a moral challenge, in the second, Joker presented Batman and Dent with a mental challenge, Bane presents as physcial challenge. But don't think he's all brawn, he is true to the comics, being extremely intelligent and the mastermind of the Gotham takeover. Bane is a brutal and unforgiving mastermind, killing henchmen and accomplices when they even slightly upset him. They also re-dubbed most of his dialogue so you can understand him. Not as good as the Joker, but he's a cold, calculating, and brutal killer, calm even in the worst circumstances. Anne Hathaway is a surpisingly good Catwoman, being smart, funny, and bad-ass. She is a thief, but does it to help her, and her friend Holly Robinson, played by Juno Temple, stay out of the streets. She falls in love with Bruce, and Bruce recruits her in his fight against Bane. Cillian Murphy appears in another cameo, as Crane is the judge in Bane's criminal-operated court. Liam Neeson reprises his role as Ra's Al Ghul in a dream sequence, and Josh Pence plays a younger version of him in a flashback. Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Pacific Heights) plays Deputy Commissioner Peter Foley. Fun fact: Modine's character in Full Metal Jacket is nicknamed "Joker". Alon Abutbul plays Dr. Pivel, an Indian scientist who develops a weapon for Bane while held captive. Nestor Carbonell returns as Mayor Garcia, much older now. Ben Menddelsohn plays John Daggett, Bane's accomplice and Wayne's rival. Burn Gorman (of British sci-fi comedy show Torchwood, a spin-off of Doctor Who) plays Philip Stryver, Daggett's treacherous assistant. Tom Conti plays an older prisoner who helps Bruce escape the Pit. The action in the film isn't as frequent as in Dark Knight, but it's good. Dexter star Desmond Harrington appears as a cop, and Reno 911 and Memento actor Thomas Lennon appears as a doctor. Members of the Pittsburgh Steelers appear as the Gotham football team. Batman's new vehicle "The Bat", similar to the Batwing, has some good flight scenes. The opening plane raid, the fight in the sewers, the chase at the bank, and the final fight in the city streets are fantastic. Also, Wayne Manor has been rebuilt since it's destruction about 10 years before this film, and we get to see the high-tech Batcave we've been waiting for. The music is good, with Bane's theme being threatening and awesome, with the chants of "This is Gotham!" accompanied with loud thumps and music. The Dark Knight Rises also has a lot more similarities and storyline connections to Batman Begins rather than The Dark Knight. Overall, this Batman film tops all in my opinion, even the previous film, and it's the best of this trilogy. 5/5 stars.
Notes: The "Bat-symbol" shot is of cracking ice, that briefly cracks in the shape of the Bat symbol.
Rush Limbaugh is an idiot by the way, thinking Bane is a stab at Mitt Romney, who worked at a company called "BAIN Capital", doesn't he know Bane was around in comics before Romney was even a big politcian? (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS!!!!)
(SPOILERS!!!) The ending is that Batman is believed to be dead, but isn't, and is seeing the world with Catwoman, and that the Wayne Manor grounds are turned into a boys' orphanage. Also, Blake's first name is revealed to be "Robin" (I thought he was similar to Robin half-way through the film) and he discovers the Batcave. Seeing this ending got me and my brother giddy as school girls. Also, despite Nolan and Cotillard's claims that Tate is not Talia Al Ghul, she is. A difference between film and comics is that in the comics and games, Talia loved Bruce, in this movie, she hates his guts. That's all. (SPOILERS!)
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