Batman Begins, The 2nd time around

I’d like to take a brief moment, and say a few more words about Batman Begins.

What with the new Kong trailer and WOTW opening, I have forgotten to mention that I went to see Batman for the second time this past Friday.

I do indeed have a few concessions to make. First off, in my first review, I wrote:

Another thing I had a bit of a difficult time swallowing was the change in mythology of Bruce Wayne’s parents being killed. I thought the lead up to the scene in the opera house with Bruce getting scared and all that was terrific. But in my mind, I’m so married to the idea that it was Jack Napier, The Joker, who murdered the Waynes in the alleyway. All I can heard is Jack Nicholson saying, “have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight…” (a wonderfully poetic line in my opinion)

I would like to take this opportunity to retract my implication that Jack Napier was always the killer of Bruce Wayne’s parents in the larger Batman mythology. I know I got many of you into an upheaval about it, and I should have properly explained that my source of origin for these events were strictly from Sam Hamm’s screenplay of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. Not from the comic books themselves. I did some extra research, and realized that I was being glib in my statement. The idea had only been imprinted in my memory only in so far as it was a film I watched repeatedly. Nolan's version did nothing to reverse what had been printed in the original comics.

My apologies, I am a fool.

On a more general note, I really just enjoyed the movie more during the second viewing. I was able to mentally separate myself from the Burton films, and while I still hold certain things about those earlier films in incredibly high esteem, I also recognize how tremendous this movie was. The screenplay really was very cleverly plotted overall, and dealt with its themes in a style that was both dramatic and moving. My enjoyment of the various performances only expanded, and even the film score by Howard and Zimmer grew on me. While some of my critiques of the film as stated in my earlier review still stand true, I recognize that my big problem was I kept comparing it to Burton’s, which was a big no no.

I would say this is my favorite film of the summer thus far. Cheers Christopher Nolan. Thou has truly resurrected and re-imagined a comic book legend that has been around for 65 years. Hats off to you.