Marvin, I'll try to make this one short so that the rest of the room doesn't start screaming about our Batman talk in the thread

Bottom-line: I don't agree with you in seeing
Batman Begins, or
The Dark Knight as stories that fail to capture the essence of Batman. It's actually there.
ONE of the reasons why it falls short compared to other incarnations of the story is that it fails in portraying a well known and loved character aspect. I agree batman is not simply his prowess. But I would argue that the best batman story would be fool hardy to avoid such things. That would be like a young Sherlock homes movie featuring his struggle to become a "hero" but not featuring his analytical skills.
I actually agree that even in the 'origin' stories you need to capture some basic essence of the character he becomes later on, some fully-realised self that is there. But I also think that this was captured wonderfully in
Begins. The drive, the conflict with defining justice, the need to perfect his skills etc. it's all there. He is traditionally the best 'Batman' when he is confronting Ra's, or when he is fighting with Falcone in his first appearance (still the most Frank Miller scene in Nolan to date). Yes, there are some disturbing flaws but they don't underwhelm what we're seeing: a man who channels his hate, fear, and rage against the world of criminality at large. Out of all the origin stories and adaptations we've seen,
Begins explores the characterisation of Batman the most, in all its complexities. It does dramatise the essence of Batman: his fear, his struggle, the monster within him, his desperation. The "keen mind" is never lost - it's still there, it just takes a more savage progression to get to it. His obsessions with criminals, undercover stuff, trials and errors, etc. The only juvenile/arrogant aspects I saw of his were a) with Rachel, and b) with Fox. He's like a kid. But isn't he supposed to be? We also see Bruce's uncertainty of deciding what he ought to do, the same uncertainty that is such an important part of
Year One. The scenes of Bruce looking at his father's stethoscope, his pure uncanny hatred of the gun, and his bottled-up guilt and rage against an ENTIRE SYSTEM are hallmarks of Batman's origin and of himself, that we see dramatised in
Begins. It also dramatises how for Bruce never had a face to blame for his misery; yes, Chill, but he's still a human being. You can't go all Frank Miller on that. And as a superhero he has to live up to that struggle, knowing that these are corrupt people, but still people nonetheless. I loved that about Begins, and I loved how you saw Batman struggling with that emotionally - trying to understand the true meaning of justice, and constantly, constantly being alone.
As for the prison scene - it works well because it's the starting point. You start off with Bruce Wayne lost in his own 'cave', and then slowly moving out of it. I can go on for pages how powerful that shot of young Bruce falling down the well and then waking up into the prison says about Batman - he's fallen, he's lost, and he's trapped. Later on when he closes the well you get a feeling that he's overcome his fears and that he's emerged from that cave as a fully reborn being - a superhero and agent of justice. Not a vigilante out for personal vendetta, but the night itself.
For a movie that's about such things, it sure enjoys flying though them. I do however appreciate the issue of his objective morality, I admit that was handled fairly well and is a staple of the character. The waste land of "criminality" that is Gotham(like I've been harping) was more tell then show. I never felt that it was any sort of difficult place to live in, in desperate need of a hero. It literally seemed to have comparable corruption to Chicago. Fine for some, not for me.
One thing that I always loved was FM's Gotham City - watching
Year One again reminded me of that world, and to be honest, BB captures that world or neo-noir corruption, grit, and decadence very well, even on a visual and realistic level even. It's far from Burton's gothic and sad Gotham. That waste land is there, and no there were the judges, the cops, the very 'Sin City' like idea that you can die on your way home from work, the jobless, economic gloom, it was all there. Best seen through Gordon. The only gripe I have with BB is that Jim wasn't explored enough. But nevertheless, we get the point.
Daredevil didn't even bother to explain what justice was, Begins, on the other hand, showed us how we see justice - emotionally when he's in that rage, objectively when he's guiding it, and finally tangibly, when we have to confront it and stop those who are putting it in risk. But we can go on forever with this. There's still guided rage - Gotham is still the cesspool of criminals, and we actually SEE it decay. We also see the so-called 'heroes' trying to correct it: ra's, bruce's dad, etc. and failing to. Heck, we can draw this with Krypton in MoS. Batman's rage is always there; initially it seemed it was against himself, now it's against that system of criminals. Heck, that rage is manifested into the crazy, growly Batman from Nolan's world.
I think we're coming from the same place on this. I personally would just prefer it to be stronger. To the point where it's what the audience talks about. I can see you prefer it as it is. That's fine. I'm coming from a world of extremes and perhaps that's my upbringing(I also see the more celebrated takes on the character using this paradigm). I literally see Equillibrium(lack of emotion) and American Psycho(public persona) as the two extreme aspects of the character and Bale is capable of achieving both. There is a middle ground but like in those movies it would be good if bats was the most interesting character in presence and was later talked about after the films done. I blame the subtle direction(again).
I remember watching
Equilibrium and loving Bale's performance exactly because of that. It was very Batman. But that's one dimension of his, the other, you yourself have said, is guided rage. A third would be his skills as a detective. And, to be honest, I think Batman really
is the most interesting character in presence from the two films - we're a lot more mesmerized by the Joker, true, but how can people who have watched the movie as it is ignore the things Bruce goes through? A majority of the audiences have held that view, but it doesn't mean that the majority is right! How can you watch
Inception and think that the movie is all about LADY COBB when the entire story focuses around DOM COB?! Or in the original STAR WARS trilogy, on HAN SOLO or DARTH VADER, when it is Luke's POV that we see the universe?
I agree, the storyteller needs to find the best path to the character and he needs to present that to the audience. Superman is tricky because we've seen a few different formulas, even in live action. The the toned down human approach seems to work wonders for Marvel but I fear DC works best when they present an Greek style approach. Batman's protrayal in Year One vs the early TAS for example. All Star Superman vs the Lois&Clark.
I do think Waid was on the right track with Birthright however.
Yes Goyer is very hit and miss. This is no more present than in his Blade work. And it tends to come down to his filter.
All things going right then I think it will be a success like no other.
Agreed. I should give
Birthright another read, it's been a while now. And I think we can get away with a Tim Burton-esque 'format' to introduce Man of Steel - like he was in the original comics (
Action #1 first, back-story later). But I doubt that's what Goyer is going after. I fear that the guy, after all his experiences, might actually go the route of Stephen King and "stick to the formula that worked". Personally, I'd prefer something else entirely.