I feel like I'm always one of those people who rolls their eyes when someone says "Christopher Nolan is such a great filmmaker". Sometimes I feel like I'm being a bit mean. Nolan is an acclaimed director because of his vision for big blockbusters that are shot and film and rely on the spectacle of real sets and performances. Nolan exceeds well at what he tries to do, and its a sort of achievement that no director has accomplished. Personally, I don't love his style - it relies more on impressive setpieces then the language of film. But it mostly works. Yet I find this movies to be exactly what Christopher Nolan should not be directing - a fantasy. Because of his vision, and the conflicting interests with this story, I find Batman Begins to be an overlong, drab and rather than unengaging affair.
Firstly lets start off with the story. I simply don't like this story at all. The stories of each of the movies in the Dark Knight trilogy are very loosely based on Year One, Long Halloween and The Dark Knight Returns respectively. I haven't read Year One, but Long Haloween and Dark Knight Returns I know are fantastic - and very different to their movie counterparts. So I won't blame the scripts fault on the source material. The problem with this movie to me is how quickly the events of this movie occur. In essence, Bruce Wayne changes from a boy, to a ninja, to the batman in relatively short time. So this exciting arc of Bruce Wayne becoming the Batman is lost immediately. In fact a significant problem with this movie is that it really isn't about Batman becoming Batman. It's more like "this is what Batman would do to become a hero". There needs to be a story about him becoming the figure of batman, maybe learning not to murder or become a better vigilante. Yet halfway through this movie he knows what hes doing. The central conflict, that being Batman to become a hero, is kinda mute and as such there isn't much of a thread to hold us onto the story other than "Batman needs to stop bad guy".
And that's another thing - too many antagonists. I feel like no one brings this up, but there are essentially three antagonists in this movie - Carmine Falcone, Scarecrow, and Ra's Al Ghul. And they aren't really teaming up together - each antagonist gets set up, only to be foiled onto the next villain. If there was a constant driving villain as there was in the Dark Knight, this wouldnt be a problem. However Ra's Al Ghul, who is essentially the Big Bad, isn't established as a villain until the very last half hour. By that point the movie has failed to really connext with me with an opposition. So to me there becomes no real arc for batman and no real threat for the entire movie. As such, I don't really have much to connect with this character.
There's also the style of Nolan. One of the criticisms I have with Nolan is that scenes kinda blend together, so that there is rarely "that scene" in a Nolan movie - its more an event that occurs in a movie. In some movies it works, but in this movie because I'm not particularly invested in the characters I don't care. It's a sort of thing you need to do in a fantasy. In real life things don't just suddenly start - in the Dark Knight for example you might have a quick little scene with Joker and Gambol because it brings a level of realism. You're not seeing the Joker comically do something for four minutes as a normal scene. Yet in a fantasy world you need that. You need, for example a four minute scene where the Scarecrow's character is introduced. You need a scene where the city is established (as a fantasy city). When you go into realism it makes sense not to sort of overemphasise or exaggerate the world. Yet Batman Begins is a more fantastical story - it surrounds a group of seemingly magical ninjas, a really poorly designed and unrealistic city and a plot in which fear gas is going to be put into the water. To me this is at conflict with Nolan's vision. It would be like making a realistic version of star wars - you can make this movie dark, but it becomes difficult for me to assume this world as ultra realistic. I can't accept these characters but only as the works of fiction, and thus the movies can't try to trick me.
It's also of note that this movie is just very poorly helmed when compared to Nolan's future work. As an action director I don't think Nolan is actually that great. In this movie the action is a lot of shaky cam and quick cuts to give the illusion (very poor illusion) that action is occurring. Along with that there is no real sort of danger for Batman. He perfectly rides his Batmobile and fights with precision. But this is a learner, I guy who hasn't properly mastered being a hero. An action movie needs the hero to be endangered, especially when there is otherwise no direct threat. Thre is none here, and as such I find this to be boring.
Firstly lets start off with the story. I simply don't like this story at all. The stories of each of the movies in the Dark Knight trilogy are very loosely based on Year One, Long Halloween and The Dark Knight Returns respectively. I haven't read Year One, but Long Haloween and Dark Knight Returns I know are fantastic - and very different to their movie counterparts. So I won't blame the scripts fault on the source material. The problem with this movie to me is how quickly the events of this movie occur. In essence, Bruce Wayne changes from a boy, to a ninja, to the batman in relatively short time. So this exciting arc of Bruce Wayne becoming the Batman is lost immediately. In fact a significant problem with this movie is that it really isn't about Batman becoming Batman. It's more like "this is what Batman would do to become a hero". There needs to be a story about him becoming the figure of batman, maybe learning not to murder or become a better vigilante. Yet halfway through this movie he knows what hes doing. The central conflict, that being Batman to become a hero, is kinda mute and as such there isn't much of a thread to hold us onto the story other than "Batman needs to stop bad guy".
And that's another thing - too many antagonists. I feel like no one brings this up, but there are essentially three antagonists in this movie - Carmine Falcone, Scarecrow, and Ra's Al Ghul. And they aren't really teaming up together - each antagonist gets set up, only to be foiled onto the next villain. If there was a constant driving villain as there was in the Dark Knight, this wouldnt be a problem. However Ra's Al Ghul, who is essentially the Big Bad, isn't established as a villain until the very last half hour. By that point the movie has failed to really connext with me with an opposition. So to me there becomes no real arc for batman and no real threat for the entire movie. As such, I don't really have much to connect with this character.
There's also the style of Nolan. One of the criticisms I have with Nolan is that scenes kinda blend together, so that there is rarely "that scene" in a Nolan movie - its more an event that occurs in a movie. In some movies it works, but in this movie because I'm not particularly invested in the characters I don't care. It's a sort of thing you need to do in a fantasy. In real life things don't just suddenly start - in the Dark Knight for example you might have a quick little scene with Joker and Gambol because it brings a level of realism. You're not seeing the Joker comically do something for four minutes as a normal scene. Yet in a fantasy world you need that. You need, for example a four minute scene where the Scarecrow's character is introduced. You need a scene where the city is established (as a fantasy city). When you go into realism it makes sense not to sort of overemphasise or exaggerate the world. Yet Batman Begins is a more fantastical story - it surrounds a group of seemingly magical ninjas, a really poorly designed and unrealistic city and a plot in which fear gas is going to be put into the water. To me this is at conflict with Nolan's vision. It would be like making a realistic version of star wars - you can make this movie dark, but it becomes difficult for me to assume this world as ultra realistic. I can't accept these characters but only as the works of fiction, and thus the movies can't try to trick me.
It's also of note that this movie is just very poorly helmed when compared to Nolan's future work. As an action director I don't think Nolan is actually that great. In this movie the action is a lot of shaky cam and quick cuts to give the illusion (very poor illusion) that action is occurring. Along with that there is no real sort of danger for Batman. He perfectly rides his Batmobile and fights with precision. But this is a learner, I guy who hasn't properly mastered being a hero. An action movie needs the hero to be endangered, especially when there is otherwise no direct threat. Thre is none here, and as such I find this to be boring.