I wholeheartedly agree with
grrrscary about the new Batman movie: they finally got it right (I went to see it last night with
sarahcarotte.
I wasn't too sure about Christian Bale at first (another shortish
Batman made me nervous), but he definitely got the whole Bruce
Wayne/Batman intensity right. And I would've kept the actor who played
Alfred in the other films (<a
href="http://www.space-debris.com/bat_gough.jpg">Michael
Gough</a>). Casting Michael Caine in the butler's spit-shine
shoes was a bit of overkill.
I also agree with
grrrscary
about the action scenes being too quick, although having Bats be
nothing but a hard-hitting shadow in his first few fight scenes had the
right effect. But I would've added an extra 10-15 minutes to the
training scenes at the beginning.
In fact, I would've made the whole movie about his training, ending
with his first Batty appearance in Gotham. He studied with dozens of
masters in various disciplines, so you could have a great film just
about that. But if Books are not Movies, then Comic Books really ain't
Movies. There's no simple formula to follow when trying transform the
printed word to image and sound.
All in all, I'm perfectly willing to forget the first four Batman movies (except for the garish
Batman Forever:
there are some fine cinematic tributes executed in that film) and
embrace Batman Begins. Finally, somebody understands the whole Batman
concept (Adam West is NOT to be consulted!).