Horrorfan said:
...because they think it's overrated. Whats your confusion about that?
There is no confusion. My point is that such quips of calling just about anything and everything that is remotely good as "overrated" are mere mindless hiccups that are often nothing more than insignificant banter with little to no valid criticism to back them up with.
for the record, BB begins :-
it drags terrifically, and has no sense of fun...its up its own ass. I have no problem with dark movies, but this wasn't dark, it just came off as artificial and emotionless
"Fun" is an extremely subjective term. Some people have "fun" listening to Mozart in their car while others can't stand it. Some like to watch smart movies that are intellectually stimulating to have a good time rather than watch trendy production mired with mass-appeal cliches like glorified sex and action.
As for your argument about the film "dragging terrifically", Batman Begins has one of the most dense plots I've ever seen in a summer blockbuster - so much happens during the course of 2 hours and 20 minutes, yet it moves at a very brisk pace. If anything, the argument of the film moving too fast is infinitely more accurate than the film "dragging", because "dragging" implies the film having a very thin, loose and little plot that is stretched to fit into the running time while BB does the exact opposite - instead of "dragging" and "stretching", the plot in BB is actually "compressed" to fit under the 2.5 hour mark.
As for the film being "artificial and emotionless", I'm sure many will disagree on that. But then again, you had more fun watching dumb-crap like Fantastic Four, so who am I to talk?
the acting ranges from good ( michael caine, Cillian Murphy) to decent (Bale, Oldman etc) to bad (katie homes).
I sort of agree with this statement, only that everyone in the film gave a good performance except Katie Holmes, who was not actually "bad" per se, but rather lackluster when compared to the more seasoned acting veterans around her.
How is that in any way suitable grounds for criticism? I think it was obvious from the start that the film is about Bruce Wayne and his journey to become Batman and the villains having a moot role to play, especially when there are 3 of them. It's incredibly shallow to pan on a film based on what it's
not instead of judging it on what it
is.
Gotham seemed like a generic industrial town that could have been anywhere
When Nolan was making the film, he said he wanted Gotham to look like "New York on steroids" and that's exactly what it looked like. Of course, sets like the Narrows, Arkham and the wide shots of the city that pan around Wayne Tower, the monorail etc. nevertheless give Gotham it's own identity. The reason for such a direction was to make Batman stand out in his environment so as to differ the approach taken in the Burton films where Batman felt right at home around the seemingly surreal surroundings.
What most people tend to forget that Gotham is
not a town riddled with Gothic architecture, but rather an urban hellhole more reminiscent of the cities in films like Se7en or Blade Runner. In fact, the very first Batman comics, the 70's O'Neil run as well as the Frank Miller entries - DKR and Year One also use a similiar art direction as well.
Basically, the whole movie was, for me, well made but dull and reserved, with uninteresting characters, choppy action scenes and very few moments I can remember with clarity (the crux of a good movie, for me, is moments I remeber well because they imprinted themsleves on my mind).
Again that is a very subjective statement, while the merits of any assertion about something being "overrated" lies on the objectivity of said criticism - something I conclude your review is fairly lacking in.
Im not a huge fan of the batman comic books though. IMO the only good movie (rocket penguines aside) in the series was Batman returns.
Batman Returns was a complete parody, a caricature full of self-contradictions. Even though it's arguably my favorite of the Burton movies, I still can't over the fact that the film is basically a mockery of itself by trying to be exceptionally dark, but then injects buckets full of campy humor and senseless wackiness. Still the film has it's fair share of good moments that are deserving of appreciation.
