Batman Begins
Batman and I go way back. My first celebrity crush was on Adam West, when I was in first grade. I watched Batman every day, even if I’d seen the episode before. I remember lying to my mother that they only re-ran episodes once to try to get out of a trip to the store. I missed whatever episode that was (Batman and Robin trapped in a beehive, perhaps?) but I did get a few comics that day. Then my comic reading and Batman appreciation went dormant for many years, emerging much later when a boyfriend handed me the two graphic novel standards–Watchmen by Alan Moore and The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. I was back into Batman, and back into comics, and have not abandoned either in the fifteen (!) years since. Soon after those initial graphic novels, I read Batman Year One, also by Frank Miller, and I liked it even more than I did Dark Knight Returns. (This view, I know, borders on heresy in the geek-dom.) It was a dark story, very much of its time in the 80’s, that emphasized the all-too-human aspects of the characters Batman, James Gordon, and to a lesser extent, Catwoman.
Therefore it was with some trepidation that I saw that a Batman origin movie was coming to the screen. I’d seen all four Batman movies, liking each one less, and actually feeling ashamed at having seen the last one. I had to be reminded who it was who played Batman in it–that was how forgettable George Clooney was in the role. Part of the problem of a Batman movie is the casting of Batman. Most actors can play either rich playboy Bruce Wayne or Batman, but not both. But when the reviews started to come in that Batman Begins was good and Christian Bale was well cast, I began to hope. And when a friend offered to watch Drake so that my husband G. Grod and I could actually go out and see a movie together, we knew immediately what we wanted to see.
Batman Begins was movie #29 in my 50 movie challenge for the year. And it was great fun. It was dark and atmospheric with good special effects. Everyone there played it straight, even the villains–there was no overacting or kitsch factor. There were a few throwaway one-liners to please the groundlings, but overall, it was extremely well done. This is not a movie of Batman Year One. The director and Frank Miller have been reminding people of that in recent interviews. It is, however, a well-done work on the origin of the man behind and within the mask. And because of that, I think it’s a fitting homage to one of my favorite graphic novels.
June 21st, 2005 at 8:15 pm
Here’s a list of the 25 best Batman graphic novels.
http://comics.ign.com/articles/624/624619p1.html?
I haven’t read all of them, but to tell you the truth I don’t think The Cult or The Killing Joke were that great.
Oddly, I didn’t realize Killing Joke was Moore.
Loved Arkham Asylum, though. Didn’t realize that it was Morrison.
Maybe I should have started paying attention to the authors earlier in my comic book career.
Anyway, you aren’t as heretical as you think.
July 29th, 2005 at 12:29 am
I re-read Year One after seeing Batman Begins and to my mind Year One has aged better than Dark Knight Returns. Although Year One doesn’t pack the same punch that a righteous Batman-kicking-Superman’s-ass sequence does, as a Batman story Year One just works better.
BTW, have read most of the books on the top-25 list. Gotta say I wasn’t too crazy about Arkham Asylum and The Cult. Loved Hush and Gotham by Gaslight. Having re-read The Long Haloween and Dark Victory, thought they owed more to The Godfather movies than to Batman. Killing Joke was one of the first Batman stories I read after rediscovering comic books so despite its flaws, it’s still one of my favorites. As for Blind Justice, the story is interesting, but the atrocious art just makes it difficult to read.