Friday, July 10, 2015

Batman Begins


RATING: A+

It seems like at one time, superhero films really didn't have much of a personal conflict or a particularly deep storyline. Essentially, it was defeat the bad guy and that's that. That's not to say that we haven't had some good superhero films from ages past, but it wasn't really until the X-Men and Spider-Man films that we actually got some conflict besides dealing with the villains. In some cases, you have to keep in mind the conflict of keeping your secret identity. This was something that the Spider-Man trilogy was the first to take advantage of (since the X-Men don't have "secret identities")--in the sense of showing the conflicts that come with having to keep such a secret. 

Another story element that the X-Men series failed to use at first and that the Spider-Man series used first was exploring how much mental weight the hero has on his shoulders--and *how* that ultimately leads to him becoming the hero that he is. The inner demons/dark side wasn't really explored for that character until his third film, though, and thus we were still sort of waiting on that element. 

Batman Begins is probably the first film to utilize all of these superhero story elements to full use. Realistically, it has to be realized that Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) had a pretty traumatic childhood, and if you want to make an origin story about him, you have to show how that affects him throughout  his life and how such events eventually lead to him becoming the Batman. 

Bruce Wayne is a more haunted character than any other superhero we had seen at the time. The effect of his parents' death on him leads to him seeking justice for criminals in general, and at first, he's not particularly interested in making a path for himself or protecting Gotham. He's more interested in taking his rage and justice out on criminals overseas. Until he meets Ra's al Ghul, and is trained by his assistant Henri Ducard, who helps to focus his anger and guilt so that he can use it properly in his battle for justice, and gives him renewed purpose. Only problem is... Bruce's and Ra's al Ghul's ideas of justice are separate things. 

Thus Batman begins his vigilante protector of Gotham life in the firestarter that is Batman Begins, and the beginning of the greatest trilogy of all time. Batman Begins is loaded with it all, besides the story elements--thrilling action and fight sequences, great acting (Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman), and a fantastic soundtrack made by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. 

Batman Begins, and its two sequels, are impossible to not recommend. They are worth checking out whether you're a comic-book-hero fan or not, as they are just great movies. Batman Begins is also probably the best origin-story film of all time, as it gets the spirit of such a thing down in almost every respect. Of course, it gets almost everything else down in every other respect too. Batman Begins is just a fantastic film, and there are few who will disagree. 

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