Batman Rebooted

Just got to watch "Batman Begins" yesterday afternoon and I was pretty much satisfied how this treatment is done with this movie franchise. After the impressive Batman and Batman Returns and the downhill camp of Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, this installment has very much redeemed it from the Schumacher driven wrecks which were the campy movies.

Batman Begins picks itself back by reinventing the development story of how Batman became what the masked vigilante that he is. The slight change in this development is that immortal mastermind Ra's Al Ghul is instrumental in the shaping and training of the idealistic Bruce Wayne into becoming one of his lieutenants for his League of Shadows. The training part of the movie owes much of its concepts from the Japanese Ninjas as to matter of stealth, deception and misdirection. Those aforementioned matters are the hallmarks of the Ninja which is very much the primary weapon in their arsenal besides the ninja-to swords, kunai throwing spikes, shuriken and shaken (pronounced as "shah-ken" and not how James Bond likes his martinis done) throwing stars which has been romanticized in movies, manga and anime. The cool sword-catcher forearm guards are standard gear for League of Shadows warriors that later became integral with Batman's suit construction.

Some scenes where it shows Bruce going through the period of grief and the lessons he learns of fear and the power granted by it with his encounter with Carmine Falcone. For the astute fans of the comics, the movie's scripting is derived from elements from the graphic novels "The Long Halloween" and "Dark Victory" as well as elements from Batman: Year One. The only thing that didn't make the entire thing as a pure Year One story is that Ra's Al Ghul and Scarecrow were involved in with a plot to turn Gotham City into a drug-induced madhouse as part of Ra's Al Ghul's idea of resetting the balance and harmony for the city since the botched plot the League of Shadows did to Gotham City via economic warfare and manipulation.

As a reinvented origin story, we get to see that majority of the starting gear Batman acquired were actually all disused prototypes created by Wayne Enterprises from its many research contracts with military and non-military applications. Batsuit was from a prototype body armor suit using a mix of Kevlar and Nomex. The cape was an ingenious touch using advances in materials tech called memory materials which is currently developed so far with metals and plastics. The Batmobile was something entirely different. Initially outcry when pics of this Batmobile was release, it was decried more as an heavier armored version of a HUMVEE. I would agree it more that it was a fusion of a stealth fighter with a HUMVEE in this case. It is a monster car that is the prototype for the later Batmobiles if things progress further from this reboot movie.

Toy factor out of the way, the baddie department is to be mentioned. The familiar names for comic geeks would be Carmine Falcone, Joe Chill (The pre-chemical accident Joker), Mr. Zsasz, Scarecrow and Ra's Al Ghul. The Scarecrow played by Cillian Murphy is a creepy performance, especially when the fear gas effects get introduced. Of course with Cillian Murphy playing as Dr. Crane, it makes me think of Johnny Depp after watching the trailer for Charlie and The Chocolate Factory trailer prior to Batman Begins. The fear hallucination sequences may not be for the faint of heart and young kids since it can be unsettling and in-your-face as to the intensity of it. Ra's Al Ghul is pretty much an idealistic mastermind with his twisted sense of justice and logic when it comes to the affairs of human civilization.

Given mention of Year One, Batman starts to establish his working relationship with then Sergeant Gordon played by Gary Oldman. A scene similiar from the Year One arc of the Batman comics was shown, though without an armed SWAT team hounding the then capeless and cowlless Batman at that time.

The movie's focussing thread is very much about fear in terms of its power as to being its user and its victim. The movie doesn't deviate much from its intention regarding Batman's origin and the matter of fear being instrumental in shaping Batman as the fearsome icon he is known for.

I could go on and on regarding a number of other things about the movie, but to be concise at this point I would say this: Its a must-see movie.