Batman review, Alias fanfic

[selenak]

I saw Batman Begins today and liked it quite a lot. This has to be the first Batman film which is actually more interested in its hero than in its villains (not that those weren't fabulous, too), and Christian Bale as young Bruce Wayne so surpasses Keaton and Clooney combined that it's not even funny. Also, as someone who loved Batman: Year One and Jeff Loeb's The Long Halloween, I was thrilled that the film obviously took them as inspirations.



Starting with the pearls Bruce's mother wears on the fatal night. And Carmine "The Roman" Falcone. And the transition from Gotham as the corrupt city in the hands of traditional gangsters to Gotham as the city of costumed supervillains, as indicated in the final scene, with Gordon even asking the same cause-and-effect question about Batman attracting the later that he poses in The Long Halloween.

Speaking of Jim Gordon, Gary Oldman was great in the part; he so often plays extroverts and/or villain that it's great to see him in rare low-key good guy mode. Heck, everyone, save Katie Holmes, was great, and she wasn't exactly bad, it's more that her part wasn't very interesting, the virtuous love interest. Plus one regrettable leftover from the other Batman films is that Bruce reveals his identity to his love interest every freakin' time, which is just wrong. (The only time I was okay with it somewhat was with Catwoman, but then she was also the only love interest who was a good character in her own right.) But on with the praise: Michael Caine as Alfred was concerned, sarcastic, capable and to be underestimated at one's peril. I guessed the truth about Liam Neeson's character due to the iron rule that if we see the future hero train with someone who keeps beating him all the time, this someone has to be beaten by the hero at the climax of the film, but it was nonetheless a nice play on the mentor rules an action movie audience would associate him with, i.e. the trusted mentor types. And he never went over the top with it, either.

It's probably just a strange coincidence, but it does amuse me that the Alias season 4 finale and and Batman Begins give their villains basically the same plot. Who'd have thought Elena Derevko watches comic movies?

***

New Alias fanfic from yours truly, both responses to challenges.

"In Flight"

"Lessons"

"In Flight" is about Emily and Irina during Truth Takes Time in season 2, no spoilers beyond that, whereas "Lessons", featuring Elena Derevko, has spoilers for the entire four seasons.

Meanwhile, kangeiko has catered to my own personal Bad Wrong fetish and written a greatvignette about Sydney and Sloane, set in early season 3.

Comments

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I liked BB as well, without having much background in the Batman-verse at all. (Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman is still by far my favorite thing in any of the movies, but Christian Bale's upper arms interesting take on the hero goes in the running.

And even though the line was a bit clunky, I was pleased by the "It's not what you are underneath, it's what you do" motif, b/c it fits nicely into the essay I eventually want to write about Darth Vader and Wesley and, um, well, Aristotle.

Did you see Sin City? I couldn't sit through it, but I thought there were some interesting parallels to the way Gotham was shown in the movie (probably not a coincidence, with the Frank Miller connection to SC and the Batman comics).

Also, from a purely superficial and self-centered POV? The Immortal-as-Todd and Bruce Wayne would so hang out, without having a clue to each other's identities.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No, haven't seen Sin City, because it hasn't started here yet, but yes, given it's based on Frank Miller, it wouldn't be a coincidence.

The thought of the Immortal and Bruce Wayne amuses, especially given all the Angel/Batman associations the show made.*g*

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

The Immortal and Bruce would hang out, if only for the blonde-on-one-arm, brunette-on-the-other thing.

I walked out of Sin City, which I NEVER do -- I might have stuck around if there was a prospect of Batman showing up.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

That boring, that gruesome or that misogynistic?

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

or in this case, 3 for 3.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh my. Thanks for the warning!

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

well -- most people I know liked it, but for me it was way too much flash and no substance. Batman Begins -- the superhero movie -- was actually more substantial. But then, I can't really give a fair review of a movie I watched 25 minutes of, either.

[rheanna27.livejournal.com]

Gordon's final conversation with Batman at the end of the movie about 'escalation' was one of my favourite scenes. Bruce Wayne created Batman because he thought the power of a symbol of justice would transcend that of a mere man, and he was right - except that he failed to realise that injustice and evil would be capable of becoming equally symbolic. It strikes me as a rather downbeat conclusion for the story to reach. Bruce at the end of the film is at the start of his career as Batman, and he hasn't yet realised that the fact of his existence is going to create and entrench the evil he wants to eradicate from Gotham.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was an excellent scene as well as an unsual one for a "superhero" movie, and as I said, it harked back for me to the comic The Long Halloween where Gordon and Batman have just such a conversation, though in the middle rather than at the end of the story.