Batman Begins

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The accents were good. I had seen all of these actors in their real accents so many times that my ear was finely tuned to any trace of Cillians rather refined Irish accent, or Tom Wilkinsons nice soft gentle British voice, but I didn't hear anything at all. They're such pros.
(Lord alone knows what accent Liam was coming out with though - I couldn't decide if it was meant to be English or not and then decided he was going for "unidentifiable" on purpose.)

The hallucinogenic bits creeped the hell out of me - I enjoyed that immensely. I couldn't even look straight at the Scarecrow mask. And I was mightily impressed by Bale. ( I did think his assumed "growly" voice when he was masked up was a bit gigglesome, though)

After seeing Kingdom of Heaven not so long ago, is it just me or is Liam getting more impressive looking as he gets older? I mean, he's a massive creature! And as wide as he is tall. And that great big crazy nose! The man just oooooozes POWER.

And I found myself *heart*ing Gary Oldman. The performance was just so un-showy, but very strong and effective and utterly genuine.

However, I found the training sequences went on FAR too long. "You must face your fear" repeated X 100......OK, we get it!!!!

And Michael Caines gleaming dentures always seem slightly alarming to me (though I liked his sweet relationship with Bruce).

*Controversial!*
And Morgan Freeman just seems to play Morgan Freeman all the time and that pisses me off no end. I can't remember the time I saw him play any other type of man.

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mallebabbe said:

How cool would Angelina Jolie be as Catwoman?

She'd be awesome!

Good Call! She's settled down somewhat, but she can still project that sexy/dangerous vibe that can attract/scare the living daylights of her "prey" quite well.

I don't know how I would feel about this - I'm a bit over Sexy!Scary!Angelina at this point. I have no clue which actress I would pick, but I just wouldn't find AJ to be a compelling choice. She's just too . . . obvious, somehow? If that makes any sense.

Then again, she would be a definite step-up from Crazy Katie!

[spider]

I think Brittany Murphy would make an awesome Catwoman. She does that scary OTT giggly thing so well and she kind of gives off outsider vibes. Now Angelina would have made a heck of a DA: much better than Katie Holmes. The whole walking away from Bruce scene would have been way more believable if it had been her. No way would someone as mousy as Katie Homes walk away from a billionaire just because he's a little weird and thinks he needs to save the world. Oh wait.

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spider said:

I think Brittany Murphy would make an awesome Catwoman. She does that scary OTT giggly thing so well and she kind of gives off outsider vibes.

Hm. Actually, I think Brittany Murphy would be a good fit as Harley Quinn, rather than Catwoman - and the giggly thing you mentioned would defiintely work better with that character, too, IMO.

[kostgard]

And I found myself *heart*ing Gary Oldman. The performance was just so un-showy, but very strong and effective and utterly genuine.

I completely agree - I had NO idea that Oldman was playing Gordon until someone here mentioned it. I knew the actor seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place him for the life of me. There was nothing showy or "Look! I'm Gary Oldman!" about the performance. He is an actor who can truly disappear into a role and in this age where people seem to be famous for being famous, I truly appreciate that.

And I do agree - Morgan Freeman usually plays Morgan Freeman. But I like Morgan Freeman, so it is okay by me. I also reserve the right to get all hypocritical about it when I complain about the same thing with other actors (like Tom Cruise always plays Tom Cruise - but I don't like Tiny TC, so it doesn't go over as well with me).

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I'm just not down with Angelina Jolie so I hope she doesn't see her way into one of the films as Catwoman or anyone else. Actually, I kinda wish they'd forsake the villains they've already put on film, and try out some newer ones. However, I'm not familiar with the comic books so maybe the rest of the villains are dull, and that's why they wanna focus on the same ones.

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whatthedeuce said:

I'm just not down with Angelina Jolie so I hope she doesn't see her way into one of the films as Catwoman or anyone else. Actually, I kinda wish they'd forsake the villains they've already put on film, and try out some newer ones. However, I'm not familiar with the comic books so maybe the rest of the villains are dull, and that's why they wanna focus on the same ones.

Actually, Batman's got probably the coolest roster of villains of all the comic book superheroes, although (comic nerd alert) they've been dicking around with the cooler ones recently.

I'd just be satisfied with de-campified versions of the ones Joel Schumacher got his hands on - Two Face in particular is a potentially fantastic villain.

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Well, if he has a whole ton of cool villains, I hope they utilize new ones in the upcoming installments instead of revisiting all the same ones we've already seen.

[slashgirl]

Amazing doesn't even begin to describe Batman Begins, which is not only one of the best movies of the summer, it's one of the best films of the year, IMO! Looks like the reports of the demise of the Batman franchise were premature. Christian Bale's hands down, the best big-screen Bruce Wayne/Batman since Michael Keaton. CB's got the looks & the talent, both of which he used to great advantage in this movie. Whether he's in rags, a tux or shirtless, he's sexy-but when he's in the Batsuit, WOW! He's hotter than GA asphault!


Acting-wise, CB's perfect as a good, if deeply wounded, man who refuses to tolerate corruption, whether it's in his personal life, his business or his town. As for the rest of the cast, with one obvious exception, they were all excellent. Liam Neeson was great as Henri Ducard aka Ras al Ghul. In Star Wars terms, I expected Qui gon Jinn, but eventually got Emperor Palpatine. As Alfred, Michael Caine was superb, dentures or not. His Alfred was smart, kind, tough, funny & loyal. That goes double for Morgan Freeman's Lucious Fox. Then again, I'd expect nothing less from the guy who's responsible for most of Batman's "wonderful toys."

And Morgan Freeman just seems to play Morgan Freeman all the time and that pisses me off no end. I can't remember the time I saw him play any other type of man.

And he still manages to be infinitely better at acting than CrazyKatieHolmes. Given a choice, I'd much rather see Morgan Freeman playing a version of himself than CKH playing one of herself, especially with all this TomKat shit, which ruins everything it touches, including the LA Batman Begins premiere, but I digress. As for MF playing the same part over & over again, he got his first Oscar nomination for Street Smart, in which he played a murderous pimp. If *that's* not versatility, then I don't know what is.

In the past, Gary Oldman's played so many freaks, weirdos & psychos, like Lee Harvey Oswald, Sid Vicious & Sirius Black, it didn't seem like he could be equally convincing as a "normal," decent human being like the future Comissioner Gordon, but he pulled it off, plus he brought the hoyay in his scenes with Batman, just like Alfred & Lucious did with each other. Re Cillian Murphy, he brought the pretty & the creepy in equal amounts as Dr. Jonathan "Scarecrow" Crane.

Re the weakest link, it was-suprise, suprise-CKH. Her character Rachel was a boring, sanctimonious bitch. Her slapping Bruce pissed me off. I didn't condone Bruce's bringing a gun to the hearing of his parents' killer, either, but I didn't blame him for wanting him dead. BTW, Rachel, I think that Bruce might've known his father a little better than you did. When Scarecrow sprayed her with fear gas, I loved it. I thought, "How do *you* like being hit in the face when you didn't deserve it? Sucks, huh?".

If this movie's any indication, then the sequel should be even better, especially since CKH won't be in it. ;D

ETA: Witchie: Since some people still haven't seen Batman Begins yet, you might want to spoiler-tag that question about Henri from your previous post.

[thingamajig]

I finally got to see this last night. Loved it, aside from Katie Blah.

I didn't even recognize Gary Oldman until his third time on screen.

I thought, "Whoa, I didn't know Tom Skerrit was in this mov--wait, he sounds like Gary Oldman. Holy crap, that is Gary Oldman." I had forgotten that he was in this. I didn't recognize Rutger Hauer at first either, but that was just because he looked so damn old. Plus, how often do you see Rutger Hauer playing a businessman?

I wish we'd gotten more of Scarecrow b/c that mask was seriously scary.

It reminded me a lot of Jasmine's true face on Angel. *shudder*

My two nitpicks were 1) why wasn't the batcave hip-deep in guano when Bruce found it? and 2)[[ If the microwave emitter vaporizes water, it should kill everyone near it, since people (and animals) have a hell of a lot of water in our bodies]]. But other than those nits and Katie's acting, I thought it was a great movie.