Without question I have The Dark Knight as #1, but I think Batman Begins is outstanding. It completely re-shaped and revamped the way Batman should be portrayed onscreen.
Last night I saw a few minutes of Batman Forever (the Kilmer one) and that lineup is tremendous in terms of star power and how it SHOULD have been, and instead it was a neon colored, comedic orgy. It was ridiculous. I suppose it tried to mirror the old 60's TV show or something and have it be a little campy and what not, but it just came off as God awful. Jim Carrey stuck a triangle on his head and stood their while green (???? fog?) floated towards his brain. WTF?
Nolan erased all that with Begins. And I am not joking, I was DONE with Batman after the Clooney one, I didn't even bother, I didn't even read one word about Begins. It came and went, I didn't give a damn. Then Prime came and got me and told me flat out, we're going to see this, you have to see it, trust me. And I went, and was blown away. Bale was great, the imagery was great, Liam Neeson who was wasted as **** in The Phantom Menace, was more Jedi in this role than he was in Star Wars
was tremendous in teaching Bruce the ways of the force, oops, sorry, wrong franchise, in teaching Bruce the League of Shadows. The way they introduced becoming more, a symbol, and showing the bigger world that was out there for Batman and Gotham. The Joker card at the end was absolutely brilliant, the revamping of the Batmobile, Nolan made it "look" like this could happen in real life. His schemes were crazy of course, but realistic in that a villain could introduce a toxin to a city water supply and affect all of it's citizens with hallucinations. It played SO much better than the crap Burton and Shumacher pulled.
Rachel Dawes was a bit of a weak spot, I can't imagine if they could have truly nailed her role, it would have been a real nice boost. I almost wish they used Hathaway for that role early and tried with a better actress as opposed to a cuter Dawson's Creek chick that can't act for ****.
I haven't had time yet, but at some point in my life, I'm usin a rainy day to sit and watch the whole trilogy start to finish on Blu Ray and literally do nothin else that day. The Dark Knight trilogy and the Captain America trilogy are the two best so far and to me, both kinda rep their studios perfectly, TDK is grim and dark and shadows, and CA is the bright and bold and more colorful "Comic book" vibe. Opposite ends of the spectrum but equally great.
