Namtab

I saw Batman Begins today. Immediate impression: perhaps the first bona fide movie that happens to feature a superhero, rather than a conventional superhero movie. It focuses more on the ideas and training that form Batman, and less on the antics of some campy villain. (In fact, the villains here were anything but campy, though underused.)

The star of the film is its director, Christopher Nolan (of Memento fame). It's one thing for Warner Brothers to hire an indie director for its prized franchise, but quite something else for him to deliver. For once, Batman was being told by a so-called storyteller rather than a so-called visionary, and the difference is favorable. As it turns out, Nolan's Gotham City is both the least slick and the most interesting. Unlike Bryan Singer, another indie director who issued two pretty good X-Men movies and is making Superman Returns for next year, Nolan appears to have no interest in comic books, and it shows. Good for him.


Christian Bale makes a suitable Batman in this context, and this context only. (He'd be deadweight in a Tim Burton or Joel Schumacher production.) If anything, he appears to favor playing the Dark Knight, and comes across as a comically uncomfortable Bruce Wayne. Still, I always felt Bruce Wayne was the more difficult role, so I forgive him.

The rest of the cast is close to exceptional -- I think Tom Wilkinson was miscast, and my sister pointed out that instead of hiring Gary Oldman to play a Sam Shepard-like character, you should just cast Sam Shepard. As for Katie Holmes, her role is not big enough to make you feel like she ruined anything, but I'd like the film more if someone else took her place. (Though I don't know who -- I racked my brain unsuccessfully for any actress under 30 who could play an assistant district attorney. I had the same problem trying to imagine a cinematic Lois Lane.)

Speaking of the state of young actresses today, I also caught a sneak preview of Herbie: Fully Loaded this weekend, and it accomplishes what it sets out to do: harmlessly entertain the family. It has a certain time capsule value in that it shows us the last time Lindsay Lohan looked vaguely normal, before she became anorexic and blonde. Bonus points to Matt Dillon for playing a cheesy villain, which he should really do more often.