BATMAN BEGINS -
A+
Finally a film with vision,
care, dedication, and admiration of the character! This is the best
of all of them..combined! The actors were fabolous as this film was
filled with a stellar cast. What's there to do when a franchise has
literally been dead for 8 long years? Ressurect it. Start with the
basics. Bring back the essentials. That is precisely what Director
Christopher Nolan and Scriptwriter David Goyer did, as they remained
true to the character. They did not reinvent Batman, but
reintroduced the fans to something they have not seen before. His
origin. This film was spectacular from beginning to end. It left no
questions since the storyline was done remarkably well. I was
thrilled to see Christian Bale take the role of Batman because of
his tremendous performance in "American Psycho". He was
simply excellent as both Wayne and Batman. The creative control in
charge definitely mixed some things up. The batsuit was simple, yet
awesome! I loved everything about this movie. This film's serious
tone brought back respect and dignity to the franchise. It is a
completely separate film from the other four movies and because of
it's great story, amazing special effects, and flawless character
performances. Batman Begins paves the way for sequels! I was
surprised by the performances from Freeman, Holmes, Neeson, Caine,
and Bale. They all took their roles seriously and delivered great
acting which made me believe again. The action and fight scenes were
incredible too! Several times my jaw dropped and I was on the edge
of my seat watching this. To top matters off, the creative team used
two classic villains, The Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul. Adding to that
were some crime lords, such as Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) who
was sinister and mob-like. This story was just terrific all the way
around. Simply put, Bale is the new and best Batman ever! This movie
has sequel written all over it (especially with the hints they
dropped at the end). Overall, go see this movie and then buy it when
it is released on DVD because it will blow you away minute by
minute.
BATMAN - A
When this film came out in
theaters it was considered to be a smash hit which brought in over
$400 million worldwide. If this were to be released today, this
movie would have been okay. Keaton was highly underrated for the
role, but delivered a quite impressive performance. I always liked
Michael Keaton from "Beetlejuice" so I felt he did really
well as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Although he lacked the physical
stature for the role, his characteristics of the Dark Knight were
great. As Bruce, he showed that he was facing personal demons
stemming from his parents' death and as Batman, he was intimidating,
entertaining, and respectable. My favorite scene was in the
beginning when Batman nabs the thugs, holds one over a ledge and
says in a deep voice, "I'm Batman". That gave me the chills! The
action throughout this movie was pretty cool, too. The Batmobile was
another great aspect I enjoyed. I liked the armor it had and how it
was equipped with rockets, too. The Bat cave was really neat and so
were his batsuits. Alfred (Michael Gough) did a good job as the
trusty butler, but it was The Joker (Jack Nicholson) who stole the
show. Nicholson took the character and ran with it. Some of my
favorite lines were his, and they were quite comical too. Wasn't Kim
Basinger (Vicky Vale) hot? I thought so. Overall, this
film was interesting and highly entertaining for the time it came
out. It gave fans something to cheer for because they had puked over
the "POW-KAP-BAM!" Adam West television series with the whole
cartoon atmosphere. Ick. The 1989 Batman is highly entertaining and
will go down in history as one of the better superhero movies.
BATMAN RETURNS -
B
If anything is harder to duplicate than a human embryo, it is
sequels. With a great cast including Danny DeVito, Michelle
Pfeiffer, and Michael Keaton and Michael Gough, both reprising their
roles from the previous film, Batman Returns proved itself worthy of
following a tough act. The good news was it had interesting and
simple characters to use: the Penguin and Catwoman. DeVito as the
Penguin was disgustingly entertaining at times, but I felt he tried
too hard. Michelle Pfeiffer however was the best damn Catwoman I've
ever seen (She would so kick Halle Berry's ass!)! Sexy and dangerous
are a great combination. Keaton once again delivered good action
scenes and dialogue but the plotline seemed rushed. Christopher
Walken, a secondary villain had a less than stellar performance as
Max Shreck. I loved watching this because it had more than one true
villain and it was a test for Batman. The two things I also didn't
like were those mechanical penguins...I laughed hysterically and
wanted to die. Another was the fact that Catwoman was both
anti-heroes. This film was remarkable though despite some flaws, it
deserves to be regarded as a rare good sequel.
BATMAN FOREVER -
B -
Without Keaton, Val Kilmer
took over the role. The change in the Batsuit closely resembles the
suit now worn by Christian Bale in Batman Begins. While
Kilmer had the physical features to be scary as the Dark Knight, he
was too pretty-boy as Bruce Wayne. The plot was cool though and
filled with lots of action. Harvey Dent turns into Two Face and
blames Batman for the disfigurement. Edward Nygma gets fired from
Wayne Enterprises and after being jealous of Bruce Wayne, he turns
into the psychotic Riddler! Dick Grayson witnesses the death of his
parents by Two-Face, teams up with Batsy and becomes Robin The Boy
Wonder. There was a lot to like about this movie, starting with the
villains. Jim Carrey did a fantastic job as the deranged Riddler.
Highly entertaining. Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face....what can I say?
He did look the part especially with the make up job, that was
pretty neat. His acting though was something disappointing. Maybe
it's just another misrepresentation of the character but the comic
book Two-Face was very psychotic. For those of you who think there
is only one true Batman, (the Dark Knight character which prowls the
rooftops and is out to install fear) perhaps you might need to take
a seat. Kilmer's portrayal was much friendlier and he displayed a
relaxed composure as Bruce Wayne. It wasn't the greatest, but who is
to say that there is only one type of Batman representation? Even
creator Bob Kane stated Kilmer was the best in his opinion. Without
Burton at the helm, Joel Schumacher installed the Robin character
who was never very popular in the comics and television shows. In my
opinion, Chris O' Donnell was Robin. I always felt Batman
never needed a sidekick, but Chris added some comic relief to help
ease the flowing tension of the plot. Nicole Kidman....scorchin'!
Summing up this film leaves fans to question whether or not this was
a flop or a success. I say success, it was not perfect, but it had
it's moments.
BATMAN AND ROBIN -
F
Schumacher... what have you
done? Perhaps the cheesiest of all four films, there isn't anything
good to say about this disaster. Ice skates, rubber nipples, the Bat
credit card, Bane as a nincompoop, rubber lips, that retched Batman
suit... oh the horror goes on... can't forget the acting either!
(Pukes) Batgirl, Robin, George Clooney and Ah-nuld were the final
nails in the coffin for this one. Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) was one
of the best comic book villains that was wasted as a character. Mr.
Freeze was totally lame. Can't blame Arnold for that can we Joel?
George Clooney's chin... my God... does it ever go away? Robin is
back again, now with a girlfriend, Batgirl, who is Barbara Wilson,
not Barbara Gordon (Commissioner Gordon's daughter, now that would
make sense now wouldn't it?) This whole film was a big fluke. The
only respectable thing about this movie was Michael Gough (Alfred)
and Pat Hingle (Gordon) whom were actually dedicated enough to
reprise their roles for the fourth consecutive time! Amazing,
considering if they had read the script a second time, they would
have said, "Hell no! This is Crap!" But it did not happen. Clooney
actually apologized to the fans for single handedly ruining the
franchise. It's a damn shame too, this movie could have been really
good. It had potential to be the best. That is what you get when you
have a lame director with no creative vision whatsoever. *Yawn* I
believe I first wanted to walk out of the theater after the whole
surfing through the Earth's atmosphere scenel And yes that was just
mind boggling. And its not saying that Alicia Silverstone could act
to begin with, but after this movie it had killed her career. Sad
isn't it?
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