Friday Night Movie -- BATMAN BEGINS and FNM Extra -- BATMAN AND ROBIN

After the excessive and bat-nippled monster of death called Batman and Robin, it made sense to go back to the dark roots of the Caped Crusader. This road was lined with a few bumps and failed tries, among them a movie version of comic writer Frank Miller's acclaimed Batman: Year One, to be scripted by Miller and filmed by Pi director Darren Aronofsky. Then around 2004, a bizarre story came online regarding a new Batman movie, to be directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, The Prestige). At the time, no one was sure what the film was going to be about, but eventually Batman Begins was to be about the early days of the costumed hero.

Instead of skimming over the details between young Bruce Wayne losing his parents and his appearance as Batman, the movie instead opens with the billionaire (played by Christian Bale, channeling a bit of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho) spending his days in a foreign prison. There he meets the mysterious Ducard (Liam Neeson), who offer shim a chance to learn from a secret society how to fight criminals. After a falling out with the society's head honcho Ra's al Ghul (Ken Watanabe), Wayne heads back to his home of Gotham city and decides to deal with the criminal element using his newfound skills.

One of the best parts of the film is watching Wayne gain his tools to become Batman. Need bullet-proof armor? Hey, there's some experimental armor in my corporation's basement. Problem solved, but need better mobility? Lookie, there's an unused vehicle that can become a Batmobile! And boy, what a nice Batmobile to be bombing around in…

The story itself is a tad complicated, involving Dr. Crane, a.k.a. the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) and an attempt to drive the citizens of Gotham crazy, with of course the protection of the city's underworld, represented by Carmine Falcone (another character taken from another Batman origin tale, "The Long Halloween") played by Tom Wilkinson. While this is going on, it becomes clear to Batman that a larger player is behind this, and who it is brings him face to face with his past…

The look of Gotham city has always been a matter of contention in the Batman movies (I prefer the look of the first Tim Burton made Batman movie), but here Gotham looks like it could be a real place (the movie was filmed in Chicago with some effective CGI extensions, including an overhead train). This is also helped by cinematographer Wally Pfister, (a longtime collaborator with director Nolan) who also received an Oscar nod for this film.

Also, the supporting cast is next to exemplary. Even though Neeson is playing another "teacher/mentor" character (his second that year, besides "Kingdom of Heaven"), that charcter is given some surprising developments that make him a big player in the final act. Plus, there's some good performances from Morgan Freeman as Lucius, Wayne's supplier of those "lovely toys", Gary Oldman as Batman's help in the police Jim Gordon, and even Rutger Hauer as the current chairman of Wayne Enterprises. Also, any movie with Michael Caine (playing Wayne's loyal butler Alfred) is watchable, except maybe Jaws: The Revenge.

Despite a slightly overworked climax, Batman Begins remains the best Batman movie to date. Even with a sequel with the same creative team on the way (hinted to nicely in the final minutes of Begins), it's going to be hard to replicate the creative success of this movie. The Batman films got renewed in grand fashion, and hopefully the trend for the sequel won't be downward, like say…

Friday Night Movie EXTRA – BATMAN AND ROBIN

Batman and Robin has the distinction of being one of the few movies I cannot watch all the way through. Whenever I am forced to watch it, I have to watch it in spurts, if only to keep from clawing my eyeballs out. Everything I despised in the earlier Batman movies gets amplified to 11. Instead of getting a decent movie, you get an effing toy commercial. Instead of a dark brodding superhero, you get a playful dude in a rubber muscle suit…with nipples.

I'm not completely sure whose fault it is that Batman and Robin is as bat-shitty as it is. I could say it's the look of this movie, which wasn't too difficult to sit through in Batman Forever, but here is painful to the eyes. I could say it's the actors, but to be honest, I didn't have an issue with George Clooney being Bruce Wayne, but did with him being Batman in this film. Uma Thurman would have been a good Poison Ivy, but instead was the Poison Ivy of this film. Even the Governator would have been a great Mr. Freeze, unfortunately he was the Mr. Freeze of this film.

The biggest sinner here is the script, which seems to think the 1960's Batman TV show is the holy grail of all things Batman. I happen to enjoy that show in a kitsch way, but have no desire to see it blown up into film form. And of course, everything is overblown here, from the look to the acting. Bigger is not always better, and considering the tepid Matrix and Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, it's a lesson not everyone has caught onto yet. When you get into the Bat-Mastercard, you know that weird odor floating around your local movie theater isn't stale popcorn. It's shit.

I happen to be very forgiving of many things, but Batman and Robin is not one of them. The fact that it took an above-average comic book flick like Batman Begins to redeem the Caped Crusader's celluloid adventures after this ugly demon-seed of a film says volumes.