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Batman Begins (2005) More at IMDbPro »

Getting into the film, 28 October 2008
Author: ruiresende84 (ruiresende84@gmail.com) from Porto, Portugal

Nolan and Bale are two of the director - actor whom i follow with more interest nowadays. Right now they make a good pair, and besides the two renewed Batman films (of which i'v only seen this one), they made the very good Prestige. This, on its own, makes me interested in this project.

It was ambitious, serious, and not totally flawed what was made here. Apparently Nolan really wanted to be part of this, and approached Warner Bro. to get the job. He knew he could bring something to the the superhero film, and probably Batman suited best what he likes to do. It's a self-made superhero, he's not created by accident, and in the process of the creation of his mask (which is Batman or Wayne?) there is a quest for an inner self, unlike say, IronMan, who plays science with his body. So, in Nolan's vision, we need an actor that can act, and we need several cinematic and design devices that work. We have all of them sketched here, though not totally successful. Taking IMDb top 250 films, which as i write puts Dark Knight in 4th place, he probably solved the problems there. But than again, Shawshank Redemption is in number 1.

city: The conception of this has a lot to do with the city itself. There is clearly the intention to create something detached from previous films - "realistic", in Nolan's words. So this is modeled after Chicago, something we can recognize, and has a dark cloth falling over it, of decadence, social bankruptcy, corruption. The places are well explored, and used for the cinematic trick i'll talk about.

A complaint: Gotham City used to be The world, in Batman. We didn't even feel that there was a world outside it, it was self sufficient, and balanced, as a closed world where all is born. I'm sorry it couldn't be kept like that.

cinema: Besides the Hollywoodian sequences of Wayne training, Wayne learning, Wayne building costumes, and finding places, there is something great, on the cinematic side. The main plot is played around fighting a "league of Shadows" which tries to spread an hallucinogenic gas for the city. That poison makes people see everything become their worst fears. They loose sense of reality, and start to fraction they're own vision, and misunderstand/exaggerate what they see. The editing and pace of the film are built in accordance, so in the more active bits, we feel the film as the people of Gotham probably feel what they see. We become active viewers, and that's great. It was only felt in some pieces, and that's the flaw. Most of the time is spent on building the Bat's world, and Wayne's inner self. I wish we could have more, but i'd choose some of the sequences of this film to watch many more times. Christian Bale is in this ride, he knows what's happening, and allows it to happen. Great work. This is what cinema is bringing new now and for a while. Making us part of the game.

My opinion: 4/5

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