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Author Topic: Batman Begins David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 06-20-2005 12:21 PM                        One of the reasons I "only" gave it 3.75 stars (like anyone cares!) is because I felt the fight scenes consisted of too many closeups and quick-cuts. I know the filmmakers probably have plenty of good reasons for doing it that way, but as a viewer it's kind of hard to follow what's going on and who's doing what to who. IMAX must make it worse due to the size of the image. There were also a couple of times when something major happened, like an explosion or a crash, and there was no accompanying sound effect. Did anyone besides me notice that some of the dialog sounded kind of "piped in", like bad ADR or something? It was only in a few early scenes. It just didn't sound right.  |  IP: Logged Dwayne Caldwell Master Film Handler Posts: 323 From: Rockwall, TX, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 06-21-2005 01:34 AM                     Personally, I think this was the best comic book adaptation I've ever seen. I wasn't a big fan of Burton's Batman. In fact, until this one came out, I thought the best Batman movie was the animated one. I do have to agree with the fight sequences being a little too incoherent. That and the Batman voice. But those were about the only qualms I had with the film. SPOILERS AHEAD. I have noticed though that most people find that Katie Holmes' slap unexpected. Most people let out a short laugh. Personally, I found the slap to be perfectly acceptable. It wasn't done out of malice, she didn't do it to make herself feel better, and I don't think she's a prissy bitch because of it. That slap was a slap of disappointment, pure and simple. I seem to recall a similar instance in Spiderman that people found uncalled for. The scene I refer to is the one in which Peter and Uncle Ben were talking for the last time. Many felt Peter's pushiness was out of place. That he was too antagonistic towards Ben. True, it was rather an abupt change of character, but I also felt it was necessary. Peter was picked on all his life. He was weak. Do people really think that a person endowed with powers like that is going to think about anyone but themselves? That they won't abuse it? Had Ben not died at the hands of the very robber Peter let escape, Peter may very well have abused his power and gone down the path the Green Goblin took. That moment defined Peter. It was an important crossroad in his life. Now take a look at Bruce. His outlet of private justice (i.e. revenge) denied, he wouldn't walk away from all that inner torture. Assuming he didn't decide to walk into Falcone's place and kill him because he's the only identifiable target left for his revenge - Falcone is creating dozens of Joe Chills, remember? - he may well have gone down the path Ra's Al Ghul did. Al Ghul lost someone too. So Bruce may very well have cut off that murderer's head. But Rachel slaps him. Why? Because she believes in justice. She believes Bruce is a good man. His parents stood for what was right. And the only way he could think to right their injustice was by gunning down their murderer. In essence, Bruce is admitting attempted murder. But more than that, he's showing her he's a coward. That he was willing to sacrifice that which distinguishes him from someone like Chill. So this was a wake up call. In fact, her final words to him before he leaves the country probably hurt him more than the slap (or rather slaps.) But that slap and those words stuck in his mind. He would not be an executioner. And because of that, he kept his compassion. That moment in the car (seems like all the important hero crossroads take place in a car) was pivotal in Wayne's evolution as a crime fighter. I'm sure people get that. It's really not that hard when you think about it. Okay, I'm done ranting. Anyway, this movie just proves to me that Nolan has talent. I'm glad somebody finally got it right. [ 06-21-2005, 08:33 PM: Message edited by: Dwayne Caldwell ]  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 06-21-2005 05:15 PM                     For all you Bat fans like myself who are itching for the next installment. Its been announced that they will go on with the sequel. No release date yet, but Cain, Freeman and Oldman have all signed on for two more films. Only person from the principle not to resign yet is Katie Holms. HMMM...personally not a good sign, that was one of the major downfalls of the original. I think they need to bring her back and have the Joker kill her. Giving Batman more of a hatred for the Joker.  |  IP: Logged William Hooper Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1879 From: Mobile, AL USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-21-2005 11:36 PM                        quote: The only problem was the bad reel 3, about 12 places where the film was mis-colored and after each one of course it dropped out of digital. If the "mis-colored" sections were cyan-blue in color, I suspect safelight fogging, which could also affect the sound. Shouldn't this be in the Cyan Tracks thread?  |  IP: Logged John Pytlak Film God Posts: 9987 From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922 Registered: Jan 2000 posted 06-22-2005 09:30 AM                        quote: William Hooper Shouldn't this be in the Cyan Tracks thread? Was just commenting on a specific (and likely isolated) problem mentioned on a print being reviewed in THIS thread. Safelight fogging could affect ANY track, and is not related to the use of cyan dye tracks.  |  IP: Logged Dan Suomi Film Handler Posts: 53 From: Aurora/Oswego, IL Registered: Jul 2004 posted 06-22-2005 04:21 PM                        It's okay Katie Holms is dumb anyway. I'd rather see Viki Vale any day of the week before Katie Holms's character.  |  IP: Logged Darryl Spicer Film God Posts: 3250 From: Lexington, KY, USA Registered: Dec 2000 posted 07-08-2005 09:06 PM                    OK, saw this one today at the Showcase Cinemas Stony brook 20 Imax theatre in Louisville, KY. This is actually the second time I saw it the first being in standard 35. The picture quality of the Imax film was excellent nice and sharp and dirt and scratch free. I could not even tell that there were splices in the film. The color looked very good too. Sound was excellent and probably from a DTS source I am assuming. The only problem I had is that there were some noticeably strange shadows going around the picture that looked like layers of shadows going about two or three feet into the picture that were effecting the light output around the edges. The picture filled the entire screen surface except for a couple of times during certain scenes you could see a black line at the bottom. overall I give the movie and Imax experience *** out of four stars.  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 07-09-2005 10:09 AM                        .~* SPOILERS *~. I refrain from reading these review forums until i've seen the movie, so I'm just now hearing that this will be a trillogy. I saw batman last night and loved it. But I was a little thrown when the flash-back to the Wayne murders didn't include the line, "hey kid, have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moon light?" that was central to the Keaton film. It kind of pissed me off that they overlooked that part for consistency. After hearing that this will be a trillogy though, it will probably make more sense when the entire series gets fleshed out. I loved the tumbler. I don't know what it is, but the sound of large tires spinning sideways always sounds great.  |  IP: Logged Kurt Zupin Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 989 From: Maricopa, Arizona Registered: Oct 2004 posted 07-09-2005 10:02 PM                     Adam, Tim Burton put in to his film that the Joker aka Jake Napier killed Bruce's parents, to give more of a tie between Batman and the Joker. Joe Chill killed them in the comic, hence the reason you did not hear the line. Many people swear Joker killed his parents, all because of Burton. And also this film has nothing to do with the other 4. Its a stand alone film, acting as if the other ones don't exist. Its not a prequel its a Restart of the Series. SO NO ROBIN!!! yes  |  IP: Logged Dennis Udovich Film Handler Posts: 71 From: Sheboygan, WI, USA Registered: Dec 2001 posted 07-10-2005 01:28 PM                        I am not into comic book movies at all! Just never cared for them. Well, finally, my staff persuaded me to see Batman Begins. All I can say is, "This is the best picture I have seen this year!" It had a great story, explaining Bruce Wayne's childhood and his growing up and becoming Batman. I can't wait to see the sequel.  |  IP: Logged Adam Wilbert Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 590 From: Bellingham, WA, USA Registered: Mar 2002 posted 07-10-2005 03:34 PM                        Thanks for the info Kurt. .~* More Spoilers *~. At the end of Begins, Gordon says that "someone" with an eye for theatrics was a double murderer. I thought he was referring to Joe Chill because of Burton's self-made connection, and the double murder of Bruce's parents. I'm sure others are in the same boat as me, with our only knowledge of Batman coming from the previous crappy films (and possibly the old fox animated series ) This film needed a tag line, "forget what you've seen before" This not being a film I was even looking forward to, I'll be excited when the next one comes out.  |  IP: Logged Andy Summers Master Film Handler Posts: 397 From: Bournemouth Dorset United kingdom Registered: Jun 2005 posted 07-13-2005 11:44 AM                 Batman Begins, Just bloody loud and bright in dts that didn’t make the slightest difference yeah sure your not going to hear the splice from reel 1 to reel 2 wow big deal, the major problem hear is the flawed sound system at the Odeon Westover Road Bournemouth, in there screen #1 Altec A4 behind the screen can you believe that, they just sound too bright and the bass distortion makes my skin crawl, its been like this for a while now. Back in 1999 Star Wars episode 1 will be playing in Dolby SR-D only with no Dolby surround-EX adaptor low numbers man, and the very first film noticed this naff quality was “The Matrix” I thought the bass drivers where going to bottom out. The surrounds are the JBL 8330 16x in all, in the worse set-up I have ever seen and heard and the feel from them is just pants. So around 4 weeks ago I saw “Batman Begins” I spoke to a young projectionist there he said we have just installed DTS, wow what else is new, when I asked him what amp are there in the booth, he’s reply was I don’t know, he really knows his stuff and very little history about this field, no names mentioned to protect there secrets. As for the amplification QSC 6x in all as for the model number for the life of me I can remember, also there running the Dolby CP-500 Also screen one as no sub bass in the installation which explains the bass distortion the LFE as been down mix into the main left and rights cheep cinema, and smelling too, the carpet stack to my shoes man that’s just plainly disgusting, you really need to ware a white suit as the carpet must have a billon upon billions of little bugs within it and I swear the carpet is walking well crawling more a les towards the nearest exit door to catch a breath of summer air fragrance, if you all get my meaning. Conclusion, it was just the worst film presentation I have seen this year so far, I’ll stay far away from that stinking cinema until they clean the sound system up with new JBL behind the screen, and for god sakes clean the carpet….  |  IP: Logged Steve Scott Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1300 From: Minneapolis, MN Registered: Sep 2000 posted 01-17-2006 02:44 PM                     I finally watched this on DVD over the weekend. I prefer Christopher Nolan's approach to the Batman saga over Joel Schumacher's; it's far grittier and more real. I still don't think he can hold a candle to Tim Burton, though. Nolan works on a simple staging basis that sort of cancels out the fanfare and regal essences that surround the bat, but since most of this film revolved around a more troubled Bruce Wayne, I guess it's appropriate. So Katie Holmes isn't Bruce's sister? That was unclear to me until he planted one on her. Michael Caine doesn't seem to be Alfred either. His performance made him seem more like himself. That & how the Joker was supposed to be Bruce's parents' killer... The timeline is screwed up, okay. The scenes dealing with the formulation of Batman were compelling, and the action sequences looked very appropriate, but I miss Burton's visual wit, too much of this film played like Daredevil. If you don't like to be surprised over what's going to happen in a given scene, don't worry, there's plenty of scene setups in the dialouge. Basic, just really basic. Balls-out sound as I remember it from my first week at my new theatre. The only really pushy mix that was out this year, but not really flawed.  |  IP: Logged

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