Batman Begins – What did you like about it?

[Sabbal]

Okay – I rated Batman Begins as 2/5 stars on Flixster. My group of friends voted it 4/5 and the average rating was 4.5/5.

Now, I like Batman as much as the next man/boy, but tell me what you liked about it. Maybe I was just in a crap mood or something, but I feel like I’m in the minority and want to know why.

[DS]

No silly characters cracking "jokes" in a weak attempt to be funny.
No campiness.
Batman was dead-serious, as were his enemies. No showing up for charity events or mall openings!
Bruce Wayne wasn't given the shaft in preference to Batman: both were given their chance to shine.

A strong attempt was made to provide Batman with a solid background story.
Other characters such as Alfred, Lucius Fox and Commissioner Gordon were just as interesting as Bruce Wayne... they weren't just "there." They had their own personalities, backgrounds and were likable in their own right.

Cool and fairly detailed explanations for Batman's arsenal and hideout. Particularly neat was his new ability to glide/fly via his cape made of memory fabric.
Great dramatic ending, promising a battle with the Joker.
Fantastic acting by an all-star cast. No prima-donna behavior with each actor trying to upstage the others with outrageous performances.

The source material wasn't ignored. Elements from the 70s comics (Lucius Fox, Ra's al Ghul), Sam Hamm's "Blind Justice" story (Henri Ducard) and Frank Miller's "Year One" series (Gordon's portrayal, Flass, Loeb, Carmine Falcone and Batman's boot-heel "bat beeper") were freely incorporated into the story.

And finally, a director who knew what he was doing and able to put all of the various pieces together to make a great, dramatic comic film loved by movie critics and audiences alike!

[The Xenos]

Well, not jsut Alfred and Lucius, but we finally got a serious Jim Gordon on screen! Even Burton never did that. THat made me extremely happy.

Now the movie didn't follow the books exactly, but I'd say they did stay true to it. They mixed some things around to fit them all into a movie, an origin movie at that. Ra's was never said to have trained Batman when he was roaming the world, but it's an interesting idea and it did rather keep true to the characters.

Plus they even improved on things like Joe Chill. Burton's Batman seemed too much like a vengence flick with Joker killing his parents. (ugh.) Here, not only do they handle that, they show how it wasn't just one man who killed them, it was crime itself and the criminal world as a whole. Brilliant.

-Xenos

[Muks_C]

I think the biggest thing I liked was that it was grounded in reality, and the world was 'our' world, and not some hyper-neon-gothic-futuristic mess like (particularly) B & R, (and in some elements) Forever, and Returns.

even if the cast and acting had been rubbish (it wasn't) it would have still 'looked' better and been more believable.

[Bigkid]

I think the biggest thing I liked was that it was grounded in reality, and the world was 'our' world, and not some hyper-neon-gothic-futuristic mess like (particularly) B & R, (and in some elements) Forever, and Returns.

even if the cast and acting had been rubbish (it wasn't) it would have still 'looked' better and been more believable.

MR. M!
Couldn't have said it better myself! The term you used, "grounded in reality", fits like a glove. The moment is, for me, when Bruce Wayne is on that plane flying back with Alfred and he explains why he must have a dual identity..... why he must fight crime in the fashion in which he has to choose.....was just such a great way to explain how someone......someone who could have the financial backing to be able to do it in the FIRST place...... COULD conceivably be able to become a masked crimefighter (a superhero, if you will), and the cast of supporting characters AROUND him (The future Commissioner Gordon, for me, was the BEST conceiving of that character that I've ever seen), all of that made it a truly terrific flick for ME!