Heroes

Drowsiness overpowers me... I probably shouldn't be writing this, because there's work tomorrow and I need sleep. But after an experience like the one I've just had - if you're me, you gotta write! I just watched two movies at the AMC in the Walden Galleria mall here in Buffalo... started with the fluffy and nice Madagascar (3 of 5 stars, no better than Shark Tale, NOT better than the Incredibles), and moved up to Batman Begins...

My only regret? That Christopher Nolan had to make this film for a more general audience, bearing in mind the market for superhero films - the kiddies who watch with their parents. Somebody write this guy a blank cheque, and let him make the really scary, R-rated Batman Begins that he hints at in this PG-13 masterpiece... this was the first superhero film I've seen that scared me. Really.

But before I do a full review... What is a post on this blog these days without a flashbacky, soppy review of my childhood?

The Batman mythos has been (among other superheroes like Superman and Spiderman and the X Men et al) one of my many 'geek things to follow'. I grew up on a healthy diet of comics - the Indrajaal pantheon with the Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon. DC/ Marvel/ Action comics were rare in Aurangabad back then, so I never really read too much of the superheroes I mentioned before. They were always the stuff of movies and animation.

So, my favorite superhero movies thus far...

Superman (1 & 2)

Richard Donner's "Superman" wowed me (Christopher Reeve + that John Williams theme + Margot Kidder as Lois Lane) and for many many years it was the superhero movie for me. An 'origin story' for those that know the lingo, it set up the blue eyed alien we all grew to love as an icon. I watched it on bad tapes in a bad VCR... around the time I first watched Star Wars. And my complaints now, as a (slightly) more grown up geek with the Superman franchise in no way subtract from my experience of them... I was a kid worshipping a hero... a legend. As for the complaints -

1. Lex Luthor should not be funny, and as the most brilliant criminal mind in the world, should do something with more gravitas than wanting to buy real estate. Gene Hackman was an inspired choice to play him - and was wasted.

2. The producers - Alexander and Ilya Salkind made a mistake. They shouldn't have let go of Donner halfway through Superman 2. Superman 3 sucked hard, and Superman 4 is best forgotten.

3. They should never, ever, ever, have let the franchise die...

Ah well... Bryan Singer is making a Superman movie again. This is the guy that did wonders with the X Men franchise... let's hope he does well. If he does half as well as Nolan did with Batman Begins, he's my hero. Again.

Spiderman (1 & 2)

Spiderman, to me, was always the Saturday afternoon cartoon on DD who spent 5 minutes in every 10 minute show simply swinging from building to building. The theme song from that badly drawn, worse animated (by today's standards) series is a classic that still plays in my head.

But who would've imagined that Sam Raimi, the guy that made Evil Dead, would make two amazing movies that would rock so hard and solidify Spidey's place in my head? Did you know that James Cameron (Titanic, the Sphere, etc.) once tried to make a Spiderman movie? He wrote a scriptment (which I read and didn't really dig) before he gave up on it.

Spiderman 1 is another amazing origin story... right up there with Superman and Batman Begins. Spiderman 2, as an internet reviewer called it, should've been named "The Passion of Peter Parker"... what a movie!

Here was the guy next door superhero. Played to perfection by Toby Maguire. But nuff said... enough accolades have been heaped on these movies recently, so I needn't say more. On then, to Batman...

Batman / Batman Returns

Batman was always something of a non-favorite with me in the graphic novels. Until that is, I saw the original 'Batman' starring Michael Keaton and created by Tim Burton. It was dark, it was morbid. I loved it. Batman Returns was more of the same... dark Burton goodness with lots of dark psychology in play. But because the dark Batman couldn't be liked in my polished cut clean Superman oriented mind , I ignored him. Then there was Adam West's campy Batman series... fun, but not my cuppa.

Then HBO launched in India, and in the days when they were still only running in prime-time instead of 24 hours, they showed all four Batman films repeatedly. And this time, I watched as a serious geek.

The first two films are all right. 'Batman' is an origin story, albeit unsatisfactorily so... 'Returns' is a morbid indulgence. The trouble is, they aren't really about Batman/ Bruce Wayne. Spiderman worked because it showed Peter Parker living a life, and trying to reconcile it with his other life as Spidey. Superman worked because the shy and affable Clark Kent generated such empathy. Especially in Superman 2 when he gives up his power, and has to face the consequences. The Burton films focussed so much on the villians (Joker, Penguin, Catwoman), Bruce Wayne got lost. Too bad.

The Schumacher films - Batman Forever and Batman and Robin - sucked so hard, I am having to clamp my fingers down to avoid typing the F word. Who told this idiot to make Gotham a neon jungle? And why does the Batsuit have nipples? Why is Bane so idiotically used? Why is Harvey 'Two face' Dent more caricature than villian? And why, oh why, why, why, is Batman cracking stupid funnies with Commisioner Gordon and Poison Ivy? Too many complaints to list.

The only saving grace was that Seal sang "Kiss from a rose" on the Batman Forever soundtrack - a damn nice song, and one that rings all kinds of nostalgic bells in my mind for reasons that will probably never be published.

And then, after years of languishing in development hell, finally, David Goyer and Christopher Nolan made the Batman movie that should've been made instead of the original Batman.

Batman Begins

This movie is everything I wanted it to be and more. It is an origin story that puts you in touch with the hero's central dilemma. Through patient exposition, his credo, his equipment, his method, his life, are all set up so credibly, its worthy of applause.

Of course a billionaire will have a super high-tech lab at his disposal... of course a man scarred by his own fear and his parent's death will explore the netherworld he hates before he attempts to destroy it... and of course his car will not be a flashy thing with wings, but a stealth tank that makes the Hummer look like a damn Maruti 800.

This is a movie - a hero - that is mostly about fear. Batman's central weapon is his myth... drawing on a primal fear of darkness and the superstition in the mind of the criminal, he becomes far more than a mortal... he's never clearly seen in the daylight. He's the boogeyman, the Grendel. And yet a man such as this is himself afraid.

This is a cynical man, who knows from personal experience that the system is screwed. But this is also an idealist who believes that you cannot become evil to fight evil. A man that separates justice from revenge, inspite of being a vigilante.

The Scarecrow is scary - and Cillian Murphy plays him eerily. Ra's Al Ghul is a freaking philosopher ninja master to rival Yoda. I loved how this movie fits into my Star Wars affected view of fear as a path to the dark side etc... Liam Neeson owns his role. They rock, but they aren't the point.

This movie is about Bruce Wayne all the way, and Batman is only one of his faces. Yes, he shares screen time with Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine and Murphy and Neeson and Katie Holmes - but this is quite simply, Christian Bale's movie.

It was good to see a serious actor play this seriously deep character (as opposed to, say, George Clooney - with all respects, Batman does not smile smiles that get the ladies swooning!) I'd seen this guy in a movie called Swing Kids (also on HBO a few years ago - very nice movie) and I kept wondering why he wasn't in blockbusters yet. Now I know.

Any movie/ book lover worth his salt will tell you that a great movie or a great book is about captivating characters. Get those down, and the plot and the story arc will follow. Nowhere is this truer than in the superhero genre. And Batman Begins, nails it.

As for the blatant setup for a sequel at the end... can't wait for Batman Continues! And I hope neither Ra's Al Ghul nor the Scarecrow are dead...