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Batman Begins Trailer Released
Chris_Jefferson writes "The full-length trailer for Batman Begins has been released. Christian Bale looks great as Bruce Wayne, and hopefully I can recover from exposure to the awful last couple of Batman films, and the equally terrible Catwoman."
American Psycho is one of my favorite movies.
Too bad for that... Apple is probably just trying, like usual, to leverage it's involvement into more users of it's products. Scary, that... when you think of how far convergence and consolidation can take us.
Is a good action movie with Bale, go rent it.
This is the Old batman. Christ, its the same story over and over again. Why not touch upon something like the Dark Knight Returns? Would moral ambiguity confuse the movie-goers?
Good vs. Evil, man becomes bat, blah blah. Burton did this very well back in what? 90?
Why in the world does Apple think that if I want to watch a Batman trailer, that I need iTunes?
This is exactly the sort of thing that Micro$oft would get raked across the coals for, but just because Apple beat them to it, it seems to be A-OK.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I'm sure there are disertations about how superheros reflect the current culture. I'm no authority, but I would predict that this Batman will be angrier, more violent and more sure of that he is right then earlier versions were.
I would bet that, of all the things that might go on with this version Batman, if he is shackled by moral uncertainty the movie won't do so well. People are probably in the mood for a hero who knows what's right and is willing to do terrible things to the bad guys.
As long as it's dark, I will probably like the movie either way. A dark Batman of any kind is far preferrable to the bubblegum variety.
... crusade
Someone else used this word in a speech recently. Who was it?
This town need an enema!
I never understood this "invented character X in story A could kick the crap out of invented character Y in story B" nonsense.
I mean, how about I create a character called UBERBRAWLFIST 3000 and claim that he is so powerful he could take Marv out in one blow?
I think these statements actually mean "I like character X more than character Y."
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
It also means you lack imagination.
And then be labelled as terrorists...
Vigilantes, freedom fighters and terrorists are all the same thing, it just depends on what view point you come from, the boss or the underling.
If I point out that you are incorrect, making me a foe does not make you any more correct.
All I can say is, thank God Robin won't be in it.
I agree that the Batman trailer is superior to the Serenity trailer but I found the Batman trailer similarly tired. Just like the covers of books, movie trailers are rarely designed by their creators. Thus, it's pointless to try to make an informed judgement on either movie until they hit theaters.
Cliché characters, no plot whatsoever, banal tagline dialogues and total lack of ideas, meaning and conflict. There are some visually stunning, stylish, yet intelligent and thought-provocative movies out there. Why settle for this teenage-dream kind of stuff?
Because I like to see more than two movies a year, maybe? Even then, I'd still watch comic book movies. I'm a big fan of martial arts movies, and as much as I love Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, they don't stand anywhere near Jackie Chan in Drunken Master II. Some movies don't try to be works of art, just entertaining, fun stories, and by keeping their pretensions low they often end up connecting to the viewer on a more fundamental level. Anyway, Batman is a wonderful character archetype, especially among geeks, and I love to see how he is portrayed in different media.
It reminds me, I have some friends who spend all their time going over the deep meanings and messages of different musicians. They're go on and on about so-and-so evocatively portraying society through the eyes of whatever, and how this song is about that aspect of the human condition. Personally, I just like stuff that sounds good. Hell, half the music I listen to is in languages I don't even understand. No idea what any of it means, but it's just good music.
Of course, this might be more like my friend who won't listen to any band that gets played on the radio and brings up bands only he's ever heard of to show how hip and cultured he is. The funny thing is that he doesn't actually appreciate music so much as the feeling that he's superior to your regular bourgeoisie. There are a lot of independent film people that seem to think the same way.
Anyway, the point is that I like movies that I like. They might be visually stunning, they might address deep philosophical questions, or they might have a bunch of explosions and people kicking each other in the head. They go for different things, and as long as I approach them on the level that they're presented, there's no reason I can't enjoy both.
[insert witty quote here]
I'm a huge batman fan and, that being said, this movie is really exciting. All of the other Batman movies have disappointed me. The previous writer/director's redefinition of the villains, heros, and backstories is just unacceptable.
In my opinion, all the other movies weren't so much the essential Batman. All the characters in the movies make decisions as if they're PLANNING to lose at the end of the movie.
The Catwoman portrayals have been nothing short of embarrassing. "Hey it's like The Crow, but you know, with a cat, and not so dark. So it's an upbeat Crow. With leather. And high heels!"
From the trailers, this movie looks pretty close to Frank Miller's vision of Batman as The Dark Knight, which is precisely what I want to see. (The animated series was the closest representation).
I'm not saying that Batman can never be changed from Frank Miller's style, but if they're going to do it, it has to be a completely new story, like where they took Batman Beyond. You can't redefine a 30 year old character in an hour and a half movie.
There's really four elements of Batman that I think make the story so exciting. The psychological aspect, the detective story, his physical prowess, and the dark atmosphere.
The other Batman movies failed at all of them. Every clue is so obvious, as long as he's not mildly retarded he can figure them out. His physical prowess was hampered by a giant tank-like suit. The psychological aspect was undercut as the villains weren't so much persistent burdens on his conscience and sanity as they were minor annoyances that surfaced for a week and a half, caused a bit of an uproar, and dropped dead. And it's hard to be portray "dark" while dancing around with neon lights and shiny rubber nipples.
As far as I'm concerned, reardless of how good the actual movie is, the trailer was more entertainment than all the other movies put together. Note: If you love the psychological aspect of it, see the animated movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
I can't comment about some of what you've said, but in regard to cliche characters...
Partly, it's because some of these characters formed the cliche. Batman certainly formed the cliche of the dark, brooding anti-hero.