Batman

I've always loved Batman. My favorite part is I've always imagined myself as a potential Batman (If only I had more money and more motivation). He's just a a regular guy who finally got fed up with all the shenanigans and decided to do something about it. There's the little matter of his parents being killed, but ....Anyway, I've loved some of the previous Batman movies and hated some of them. Let's take it movie by movie:

Batman - the first foray onto the big screen. This movie had a lot of build-up because people had been waiting decades for the chance to see the caped crusader come to life. On initial viewing (more on this later) this movie was fantastic. Keaton was a great Batman and, IMO, a very good Bruce Wayne. The Joker character was played with some "camp" and they took some liberties with Batman's history (Joker killed Bruce Wayne's parents? come on) but it was solid at the time. I hate to say it, but on recent viewings for me I haven't liked it very much. B

Batman Returns - sequel to the first movie and Tim Burton's final fore' in the series. They added Catwoman and The Penguin as villians. I particularly liked Danny DeVito's portrayal of Penguin, he was creepy, vile, and interesting. I also liked the use of real penguins in his penguin army. This movie had the same feel as the first Batman (no surprise because it's the same director) but expanded on the Bruce Wayne as Batman character, I didn't like that people found out who Batman was. It was a little too neat and tidy, but all in all, I actually enjoyed this movie better than the first. I also feel it held up well over the last 15 years. B+

Batman Forever - Joel Schumacher steps in to the directors shoes and Val Kilmer takes over the batsuit in this 2nd sequel. Schumacher decided he wanted to make viewers vomit with his use of psychadelic colors and ridiculous settings. We also see the development of a movie-making theory I've spend the better part of two decades formulating. It is simply called "character creep". What this means, is that in successive sequels the film creators continually try to top themselves by stuffing more and more in to the script. By more, I mean more characters. This movie saw Batman, the introduction of Robin, Two Face, the Riddler, an Italian crime boss (Moroni), yet another new love interest for Bruce, along with various assorted female characters. It's too much, but I guess the director was trying to take our minds off the horrible script and terrible criminal plot to steal peoples thoughts. C-

Batman and Robin - Whew doggies, yet another new Batman and tons more crap flung on the silver screen in hopes it would stick. This movie is simply in the top 5 worst movies ever made. It takes character creep to a whole new stratosphere. We have Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Mr. Freeze (one of the worst roles I've ever seen onscreen, memorable lines include 'everybody chill'), Poison Ivy, Bane (who they completely ruined by making him a walking automaton instead of the prison-raised genius he was in the comics), yet another new love interest, and more assorted girl characters that have no place. They also put nipples on the batsuit. And since when can diamonds power machines that save peoples lives? The whole story is terrible, and I wonder at what point did George Clooney realize he was in a giant turd of a movie? I remember when I realized it was going to be a long day in the theater, about 5 minutes in Batman and Robin clicked there heals and ice skates came out....just terrible in every way. F-

At this point, since Batman and his reputation was obviously destroyed by the Schumacher-bomb that managed to ruin a very profitable franchise, they shut down and retooled. They had to wait for a talented director to come along with just the right motif. Luckily, a kick-butt filmmaker named Christopher Nolan showed up to save the day. His body of work in such a young career is already impressive: Momento, Batman Begins and the Dark Knight, the Prestige, and the smaller films he started out with. Let's start back up:

Batman Begins - the filmmakers decided to restart the franchise, which was a wise decision given that it would have been impossible to continue after the mess left behind by Schumacher. This movie stays much more true to the comics (BTW, why are comic book movie script writers even bothering with new stories? There are literally thousands of great story lines from the last century of comic books that could be turned in to films...but I digress) and features Christian Bale (one of my favorite actors) as Batman and the villain that trained him Ra's Al Ghul. Great origin movie, great training montage, great atmosphere of the film. The only weak points are the Rachel Dawson played by the anti-charismatic Katie Holmes and the stupid scheme planned by the films main bad guy (in fact, it's almost a repeat of the first Batman movie where Joker tried to poison Gotham by sabotaging their consumer products. In this one, they try to poison Gotham with an evaporated water supply and hallucinogens). Great performances by Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman are also a huge plus. Batman Begins almost feels "real" as opposed to a comic book movie, a real tribute to the cast and crew. As a whole, this movie is a great restart to the once proud franchise. A

The Dark Knight - what a fantastic sequel. Everyone is back, with the exception of a recasted Rachel Dawes who is now played by Maggie Gyllenhaal (which is actually my biggest complaint of the movie. Rachel is supposed to be torn between two men: the new AD Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne/Batman. She isn't nearly pretty enough for these two guys to both want her. I'm not sure who you'd put here instead, but Rachel Dawes continues to be a scar on this set of movies). What can be said that hasn't already been said? This movie hits on all cylinders, it is probably as close to perfection as you can get for such a complicated script. The performance by Heath Ledger is nothing short of extraordinary and ranks, for me, up there with Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York as the best onscreen performance of the last 20 years. It's too bad that we won't get to see more from Ledger given his untimely passing. This movie provides an interesting look at Batman because Wayne Manor burned down at the end of the Batman Begins. Due to that, Batman looks like he is renting an apartment, so we get to see a different take on the home life of Bruce Wayne. If you get the chance, I'd recommend seeing this in Imax, a film this good deserves the big screen treatment. A


So those are my thoughts on Batman, stay tuned to 'I am right...." for more of my thoughts on a wide range of topics. College football season is almost upon us, and so are the Olympics, so there should be plenty of sports columns in the coming weeks and months.