Just saw Batman Begins. Cool. Dark.
It plays around with the origin story in some interesting ways. Nothing too odd.
If everyone is using cell phones, why the heck do the cops need a batsignal?
And of course, what's the political message? People who try to save the world by giving alms get killed. Unbridled greed in corporations is bad. Batman has to fight both evil and people who want to completely destroy evil, not caring if good people get killed along the way.
It somewhat bothered me that the doomsday plan is based on a machine that just wouldn't work. Yup, a general broadcast microwave machine that boils water in pipes 100 ft away, underground, but does nothing to people standing next to it. Right.
Also, for those geeks out there, there's this essay at Soundacious [H/T: Geek Philosophy]
Oh, and this Batman isn't a geek, a nerd, or a dork. He's the crazy quiet kid whom everyone ignores until he threatens the school bullies with a gun.
Update: Hmm. The Galveston Daily News has a pretty good article on the Dark Knight.
Update 2: double hmm. Scott Kurtz has some comments, some spoiler free and some not. My reactions to his spoilered comments in extended entry.
1) The whole kill/ don't kill thing is weird, not just in the battle with the League of Shadows. I can see not wanting to lead an army of ninjas into your hometown. But, at the end, the best way he can stop Ra's plan is to have Gordon drive the batmobile and derail the monorail? Why not just do something to break the machine? Plus, I'm not going to kill you, but I'm going to leave you to die instead is an extremely fine line.
2) I don't read the comics, I don't have as much trouble with the League of Shadow's plan to destroy the largest, most decadent cities in the world. It's a stupid goal, but I can accept it.
3) Everyone being connected: Gordon I can deal with [Wayne remembers him from childhood, investigates him, discovers he's an honest, lowlevel cop, decides to use him as the police contact; there might be other honest cops, but no particular reason to choose another over Gordon], the kid is a bit much.
4) Yeah, ok, revealing your secret id when you don't have to is a no-no.
5) Fights: having most of the action take place offcamera didn't really bother me. But there were times when I was thinking "Why isn't he using a gun?" He's fighting 10 or so people at a time, they're shooting at him, time is of the essence, why isn't he shooting them, or at least using a gas grenade or something?
Posted by Owlish at June 17, 2005 06:52 PM