Ten minute preview to air during Smallville Wednesday.

[CaptainSkeptic]

A 10 minute prview of Batman Begins will air during Tomorrow's episode of Smallville(a show I do not watch but will make an aexception tomorrow), on WB network.

Just in case any were in the dark about this.

[Pod]

Is this clip thing after or before the show starts? I remember waiting to see some clip and it showed AFTER a one hour show...wat a waste of time that was...this new smallville ep better be good...

[Pod]

From the words of peter griffin: that was so friggin sweet!!!

[Zac]

Wow, that was incredible!!!!!!!

Spoilers (from the clip at least) ahead, be warned!
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Ok, things I liked:
* Batman's voice. Soooooo scary sounding. I wouldn't believe that he's * Bruce Wayne if I didn't already know.
The sound-making-bat-attractor-thing. That clip was awesome! This and the aforementioned voice thing make it understandable that Batman can strike fear into criminals
* Ducard explaining how Bruce should train with Ra's and all that.
* The testing of the Tumbler/Batmobile with Fox.
* Ah heck, I liked just about all of it, who am I kidding?

Ok, things I didn't like:
* Ducard's explainations, however neat, were a bit too straight forward. I mean, it was like he was explaining a step-by-step program. However, this could be because of the way the clips were presented, only getting his main points and not all he was saying.
* Not enough Ra's, Scarecrow or Gordon
* "Does it come in black?" I still hate that line, it's just so cheeseball! I hope it's presented in a different context in the movie.[/list]

[Pod]

* "Does it come in black?" I still hate that line, it's just so cheeseball! I hope it's presented in a different context in the movie.[/list]

I think he was referring to the fact that he can be "invisable" like ducard said. if hes all black he cant be seen in the dark. ya it is a cheeseball sentence when bruce said it but it had to have a meaning. now it be really cheesy if he said something like "do u have it in blue?"....ok that didnt make any sense...well anyways i still dont get the part where Ra's Al Ghul says "gotham must be destroyed". i dont get why he wants to "destroy" it all of a sudden...and where does scarecrow fit into the movie?....just have to wait 4 weeks to find out.

[D.K.HOOD]

Loved the 10 minute preview, but about half way through I started thinking "damn, this is too much information". Hopefully when watching the movie in theaters it won't feel like I've seen it already. Still, the fan in me is siked right now!

[Zac]

I think he was referring to the fact that he can be "invisable" like ducard said. if hes all black he cant be seen in the dark. ya it is a cheeseball sentence when bruce said it but it had to have a meaning. now it be really cheesy if he said something like "do u have it in blue?"....ok that didnt make any sense.

That's exactly what I'm refering to, it's pretty darn stupid if he asks if it comes in black because he wants to use it as the Batmobile. Why doesn't he just say "Hey Lucius, I'm Batman and I want to use this as my means of jetting around town... do I have to steal it and paint it black or do you have one sitting around already that I can just steal?". In the preview it looked like he might have more to say after the "Does it come in black?" line, and hopefully it'll be something like "Because all nice cars come in black." or "Because green and brown just doesn't attract the ladies.". Ya know, something to make us think he was suggesting he wanted it for the batmobile, but then he adds that last part and makes us realize we were wrong.

[imported_Thom]

That's exactly what I'm refering to, it's pretty darn stupid if he asks if it comes in black because he wants to use it as the Batmobile. Why doesn't he just say "Hey Lucius, I'm Batman and I want to use this as my means of jetting around town... do I have to steal it and paint it black or do you have one sitting around already that I can just steal?". In the preview it looked like he might have more to say after the "Does it come in black?" line, and hopefully it'll be something like "Because all nice cars come in black." or "Because green and brown just doesn't attract the ladies.". Ya know, something to make us think he was suggesting he wanted it for the batmobile, but then he adds that last part and makes us realize we were wrong.

I don't think Bruce Wayne is extremely concerned about Lucius finding out that he's Batman. Lucius would probably put two and two together anyhow, as soon as he hears Batman goes grappling around and drives a huge one-off jet tank, regardless of its color. What did he say? "If you don't tell me, I don't have to lie. But I'm not stupid." Something like that, right?

[QuantumFX]

Morgan Freeman had a line that I think sums up his role. It was something to the effect of: "Don't tell me what you have in mind with this equipment so I won't have to lie. But don't assume that I'm stupid." I've got the episode on my HTPC so I'll post the whole quote tomorrow.

[imported_Thom]

Ok, anyhow... My thoughts:

* Bale is awesome. He'll remove any controversy from the question, "Who's been the best Bruce Wayne/Batman?"

* His voice in the suit is a bit strange, but I think I'll like it, it's just different from what I'm used to seeing. (Well, hearing.)

* Gary Oldman IS Jim Gordon! I agree, we haven't seen nearly enough of him. But for the ten seconds we got last night, he was absolutely perfect. SO perfect as to make up for the piss-poor casting of Gordon in Burton's & Schu's flicks.

[DS]

"Does it come in black?" I still hate that line, it's just so cheeseball! I hope it's presented in a different context in the movie.

I LOVE that line! Very funny, equating the future Batmoblie to Bruce Wayne test-driving a cool new sports car that's caught his eye. It's slight levity like that which will help keep the movie enjoyable for those people who AREN'T die-hard, lifelong Batman comics fans. Much like Wayne's later quip: "A guy who dresses like a bat... has got SERIOUS issues," as he twirls his finger around his temple. Good stuff! :)

My favorite part is still the subway scene where Rachel is attacked by Falcone's men, saved by the Batman and then given evidence by him to use against the mobster. Bats beating one guy senseless while Rachel, oblivious to it, fends off the other goon, who runs off after seeing Batman, was classic!

[ToM]

Okay, so I saw the ten minute preview for Batman Begins.

In times past, the opening to any given feature adaptation of a DC comics property would feature among the credits "Based upon the character published by DC Comics" or something akin to that. Now, however, Warner Brothers has created a counterfeit "Marvel" films logo for their DC adaptations. Just as the Marvel Comics icon, we're given a series of dissasociated images pulled from comic pages, a surprised look on a face, a fist, a close up of a character's eyes, each flicker by as they do for a Marvel based film. Then, we're shown this is all contained within the words "DC COMICS."

Holy copy and paste Batman!

This was such an egregious knock off that it elicited a groan from those I was seated with. You know, and me too (and just now thinking about it as a matter of fact). What annoys me most about this is how the rest of the preview works so hard *not* to invoke other superhero pictures, to look as distinct from the recent bumper crop as it could. Just a shame that Warner Brothers starts the effort off on the wrong foot (seeming more derivative)

That said, everything else was a step up. I loved the opening where the cemera pans by the city at night and we suddenly notice that one of the spires on a building is in fact Batman. There he was, in the *real* world, looking the way he always should've on film.

Next we get a human moment between Bruce and Alfred, and it worked. Transitioning from this iconic and powerful image to a small, quiet exchange between a grieving boy and a comforting man threw me a bit, because that's not how these sorts of trailers and teasers normally go. It felt different.

But then we're off to Tibet, and all this dialog that sounds pulled outt'a something called "American Ninja: The Legend Begins"...or worse, Elektra (it *did* sound like all the sort of gibberish we had in that film). Yes, we're dealing with actors who know how to craft the lines they're given, and that makes a difference. But it was already boring me because it's everything we've ever heard before in carbon copied Kung Fu theater.

Next we get Wayne meeting Alfred on the plane. Bale works. He's Bruce Wayne. His lines are corny, but they seem to come right out of a comic book, and he seems to believe the words. He seems to be *thinking* about the words. It all clicks.

Next, a cave filled with bats, Wayne stands amongst them. What's the point? Okay, he's overcome his "fear" or whatever. But it drags on (I'm *sure* this part will play better in the film though given some context).

Oh, then we get the tumbler, and a lecture on the Underground Railroad. I love the *sound* of both these sequences, and the look. Morgan Freeman is very likable here, and the moments between the two men feel genuine, real. Man, this is so unlike all the other Batman adaptations, people really seem to be engaging one another. Even the exposition feels like people shaking hands.

The down side to *everything* up to this point is that *if* this preview is trying to give you a sense of the movie, the impression it leaves (me) with is that this is a film that takes a million years to get anywhere. And we already know where it's going, it's going to The Batman. This just feels like the whole movie is taking too long to get to what we wanted to see in the first place When it starts to dawn on me, "Oh yeah, I forgot, the whole point to this movie is the *getting* to there"....I start to feel bogged down. I start thinking, "Geeze, this is getting to be a too much information."

Thank God we then *get to* Batman! The sequence where he takes out one of Rachel's would be killers is a winner. It looks natural. It feels real. The only problem is Katie Holmes, who I could *never* accept as someone in the line of work her character is in, at least not for another ten years worth of age on her face. She looks like a sophomore college student riding the train to her off-campus dorm.

Batman nicely covers his chest and abdomen hiding his rubbery bodysuit-thank you Nolan! There seems to be a *lot* of the bodysuit being covered in this preview. At one point, where the cape starts to fly away as he walked, Batman steps behind a pillar, hiding from view what his costume looks like. The next time we see him, he's walking towards the camera, seeing him only from the chest up.

Good Lord but have the fans been lied to about this costume, bald faced lies. "Oh, he's very flexible, he can turn his neck..." Look, throughout this preview we keep seeing Bale turning his upper body to look left or right, or even upwards. He's the Michelin-Man, tire, by rubber tire up to his head. Here we've been sold this bill of goods in the start of the teaser about the Ninja depending on "patience and agility", how Wayne went there to learn these things, and *this* "Batman" is entirely incapable of agility if he can't even turn his neck.

The suit is a real problem.

Getting away from the hated rubber monstrosity, I love the look of this movie. This is the way this character should always have been treated on film the color palate he always needed, everything.

Batman using a sonic device to attract a horde of bats was really cool. Of course, this is old hat, we've seen this trick in Batman Returns, but I liked it anyway.

All in all, Batman Begins is looking a lot better than I expected, and this preview could bring a lot of people in who wouldn't otherwise go if they put it with the right film this summer as a trailer of sorts. Batman Begins could make it.

ToM

[Essex]

Good to hear your well-expressed thoughts, Tom. Are you new here?

[D.K.HOOD]

As much as ToM gets razzed on (and sometimes deservedly so) I kinda have to agree with him about the DC title sequence copying Marvel's. I really wish they hadn't done something as similar as Marvel did, plus it seems so unnecessary considering they're owned by Warner Bros. Unless maybe DC is planning something that we don't know about so they can make movies with other studios, but thats a longshot.

As for the suit, I'm coming around to really liking it. When they showed the suit in pieces before Bruce spray paints it I thought "that does look like the real deal". And Bats looks like he can move around pretty good in it, unlike the previous movie versions.

[The Xenos]

Wow, talk about cut and paste. Sounds like the same old stuff. Accusations of copying Marvel and complaits about the suit and a conspiracy behind it.

Well, of course DC's copying Marvel by putting the DC logo before their films and trailers. It's a smart *U#(ing idea. Even if they're owned by Warner and Warner gets all the DC films, it's also a big ads to go cehck out their comics. Lord knows the industry needs big honking signs to promote the comic comparnies themselves.

I missed this preview. From what I'm hearing it jsut seals the deal more. What I wish I saw, who I havn't seen in action yet, is Jim Gordon. The pics were shockeingly dead on and I'm dying to hear and see Oldman in motion.

-Xenos

[Sonic1002]

*Shivers*
Bale is two completely different people from Wayne to Batman. We've seen him as wayne, both play boy and broody. However, when he goes in to the suit, his voice, his demeanor is compeltely changed. His voice... it sent chills down my spine. He sounded like.... an animal.
Oldman.... my god. He IS Gordon. That resemblance.... the demeanor.... he is perfect.

My only complaint about the trailer is not enough Scarecrow or Ra's...

[D.K.HOOD]

Wow, talk about cut and paste. Sounds like the same old stuff. Accusations of copying Marvel and complaits about the suit and a conspiracy behind it.

Well, of course DC's copying Marvel by putting the DC logo before their films and trailers. It's a smart *U#(ing idea. Even if they're owned by Warner and Warner gets all the DC films, it's also a big ads to go cehck out their comics. Lord knows the industry needs big honking signs to promote the comic comparnies themselves.

I missed this preview.
-Xenos

I don't have a problem with a DC logo at the beginning, its the comic images flashing quickly onscreen and then turning into a logo(the screencaps omitted that part). Its not a blatant copy of Marvel, it is similar. They could've easily taken the bat symbol and morphed into a DC logo, or come up with something bizarre-yet-cool like the people at Adult Swim do, but instead they decided to do something roughly the same as Marvel. It just irks me that they didn't come up with something unique to usher in the new DC C2F era.

[ToM]

DK, that's where I'm at with this logo too. If DC wants to have their own logo at the opening of a film, fine, I can understand that. It's worked very well for Marvel, and DC sure need the comic sales as recently Marvel had eight comics in the top ten best sellers list (Batman all the moreso as both he and Superman are taking a sales *plunge* right now).

My problem is with the ostentatious imitation of the Marvel logo that DC propped up before the start of the film. The reason I mentioned how in the past "DC Comics" was given a screen credit, not a *title* credit was to show how they're following the path Marvel cut onscreen, not complian that they'd followed them. Because that right there shows they're imitating something, though not in a poor way. Where it goes south is when they make it interchangeable with that of Marvel.

Now, is it *literally* a carbon copy? Of course not. For one thing it reads "DC Comics" and not "Marvel" and couldn't be a *literal* copy for the sake of that alone. But is it an *adaptation* of the Marvel logo? Positively. I'm sure DK that you have no doubt (as does anybody else here, or anybody who sees this thing) that the fine folks over at WB/DC/whatever, said, "See that Marvel logo? Gives us something pretty much like that, same kinds of images, does the same kind of thing." I mean, this was pretty clearly point and copy.

Now, I would think this would settle once and for all the "question" lingering in the air as to if these DC adaptations are looking at imitating Marvel based materials. If the very first thing they're going to allow you to see when you sit in the theater is a nearly cloned logo of the Marvel icon, they're *wanting* to have their product identified with *successful* Marvel material. If they're willing to descend *that* far into the pit, how unwilling is the studio to be towards imitating the *rest* of the content? And if they're not, given that the very first thing you see is a knock off, they've *primed* the audience to spot *any* and all comparisons, both real or imagined.

But one way or another, this just establishes that WB/DC aren't all that invested in developing their own *distinctive* brand, of being innovative, but rather following along. And they're going to saturate the market leading to the demise of this comics to film trend (at least Batman Begins and Fantastic Four are radically different in look and tone, that'll help for now).
ToM