Batman Begins

Today I went to see Batman Begins. I've been excited about this movie for a while, ever since I heard it was in pre-production. I don't have a huge number of Batman comics, but I loved Dark Knight Returns and also had Batman Year One and a few other graphic novels. I like my superheroes a little bitter and twisted, and Batman was always one of my favourites.

I loved the original Tim Burton movie and then lost interest in the sequels that just seemed to get louder and have more set pieces with less plot and dialogue (thanks Joel Shumacher) - they became a parody of themselves which was a shame since they could have been so much better. So the decision to revive the franchise was a brave one, and it was a wise move to go back to the beginning and start again with the whole thing.

Christopher Nolan is a director I have admired ever since I watched the excellent "Memento" and also the rather good "Insomnia". At first glance maybe he was not the best choice to take on an action blockbuster as Batman, but he has really delivered.

In short, I loved it! Christian Bale made a pretty good Batman/Bruce Wayne and is probably the best of the lot compared to Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton and George Clooney who were all pretty poor Batmen.

The supporting cast was also class - Michael Caine was almost trying to out-michael caine himself with his accent, Gary Oldman was just right as Officer Gordon and Cillian Murphy was pretty menacing as The Scarecrow. I think Morgan Freeman (always class) was the only real American there, the rest are all from this side of the pond putting on fake US accents

So on the whole it was a pretty good film. I always love these Superhero "origin" movies anyway - there's always a scene with the superhero in the basement making his own costume... Which is why I know I will never be a superhero as my needlework skills are awful...

Which of course leads me nicely to Eddie Izzards "transvestites and superheroes" analogy... "Both Super heroes and transvestites, we both have to change before we help people. We have to change clothes before we help people. Except that transvestites don’t actually help people… But apart from that, fantastic similarity."

Gonna try and see War of the Worlds next I think... Which I know I am going to be disappointed by. I love the original book, and also adore the Jeff Wayne musical version (dont laugh)... OK who here has not had to do some form of Movement piece to it at least once during their primary school days... I still get flashbacks to my whole class wheeling ourselves around the school maypole area to "The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said".. it was not a pretty sight I can tell you. I have a feeling they wont be using the music in the new movie, which is a shame. Maybe it's because Tom Cruise can't sing?

Fascinating fact - did you know the town of Woking has a giant statue of a Martian Tripod in it's high street to commemorate the fact that the original book was based in the town? I went to see it last year when I was doing a training session down the road. It's pretty cool and makes a change from statues of old farts nobody has ever heard of. More info here.

Anyway, back on topic....

I also got quite intrigued by the trailer for The Descent, which looks pretty good (from the guy that did Dog Soldiers which I really liked in a cheesy British Horror kind of way) and also some film about clones with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson called The Island. Which could be good, or could be complete pants.

I still get excited by the trailer for The Fantastic Four, and not just because it has Jessica Alba in skintight lycra... ok, partly because of that, but also because I used to love the cartoons of F4 as a kid. Sadly I have heard that the film just didn't live up to its potential and the reviews are pretty poor.