Christ Nolan, etc will definitely take their time to make it, unlike all the other franchises out there.
Matrix 2 & 3, Pirates 2 & 3, and even Back to the Future 2 & 3 were made back to back and were hence rushed. X-Men 3 changed directors (from Bryan Singer to Brett "I like to think I can make movies" Ratner), Spiderman 3 was waaay too campy, and Shrek totally lost its identity from a smart parody to spot-that-pop-culture-spoof in the vein of Date Movie etc.
The way the tone changed so dramatically from Batman Begins to Dark Knight can never really be repeated when Batman 3 comes out.
All the action scenes were done for real! - the hospital blow up (that's why Joker's reaction is totally genuine!), the tumbler and batpod chases, the HK building jump, the truck flipping over - and that makes TDK something really special. Batman 3 is definitely going to be good 
Yes! The biggest reason I love the Nolan Batman films is because they take a fantastic concept and apply it into the real world and make it believable (even if it does limit some potential).
The Joker's plan to blow up the boat was extremely twisted and could happen in the real world.James Rolfe (aka "The Angry Videogame Nerd") did a review of all the Batman films up to Dark Knight for Spike TV. Here's what I find funny; when he discusses the old Batman movie serials from the 40s, the 60s Batman TV series and film and the 80s and 90s Batman movies he tells people to look at them as they were intended to be (the 60s Batman as a campy comedic look at Batman, the Burton films as stylized comic book films and the Schumacker films as B-movie comedies) and not to judge them with today's standards. Yet when he gets to "Batman Begins" he bashes it, calls it the most overrated film ever and wonders if Warner Bros. intoxicated the audience with gas in order to get rave reviews.
Here are his issues:
- The fight scenes were badly shot: I can't argue this, but I was able to forgive it because the movie is about story and character development and not about action sequences.
- The Batmobile was ugly: True, but I saw it as more of a tank, and in "The Dark Knight" it proved vital. To me, its more important that the Batmobile is useful to Batman than how cool it is.
- The choice of Ra's Algul and Scarecrow as the main villains: James complains that they were rather uninteresting and that in Scarecrow's case, poorly misused (its his favorite villain and didn't like how he was treated). To me, this was Batman's film. Had they started with the Joker right away the audience's attention would have been divided between Batman and The Joker. In fact, people talk more about The Joker in "Dark Knight" than any of the other characters. Since this film was made in order to re-invigorate Batman as a character having another high profile villain would have disrupted the story.
Not to mention that having Ra's Algul as both Bruce's mentor and Batman's villain was a really good choice and adds tension and development to the story.
Finally, I thought the development of Scarecrow was great. Its true that he didn't appear in costume till the end of the film and that was briefly. But just because he wasn't is costume it didn't mean he wasn't Scarecrow. Its interesting seeing villains as normal men, and see them evolve into the evil masterminds we see in the stories.
- The story: Jame's complain with the story was that it focused too much on Bruce's backstory (saying that this was already done in the first Batman movie) and felt pretentious, forgetting the fact that this is essentially about a man who wears a Bat costume.
What I find ironic is that when dealing with the other Batman films he tells people to look at them as they were intended to be, yet fails to do this with the new Batman films.
To me, the Nolan films are about developing Batman as a human being first, a hero second. In order for Batman to be taken serious as a character after the disastrous "Batman and Robin" Nolan NEEDED to re-start the franchise and focus on Batman the man. Yes, we know that the reason Bruce became Batman was because he saw his parents being killed. But why can't this be its own story? We have been told that this event plays a very significant role in Batman's life. Why can we see how it truly impacted Bruce? Why can't we see what happened after these events happened? Why can't we see how this affected Bruce emotionally?
When I saw the film I was stunned that we see more of Bruce Wayne and less of Batman, and I thought it was a great thing. Many superhero movies focus very little on the character and more on the hero. This can be annoying, especially when they try to impose some emotion into the character (Spider-Man). The Nolan films, however, treat its characters as human beings, especially Batman who is really an emotional disturbed being that might be crazier than the villains he fights.
True, "BB" was a bit pretentious, but has James seen "The Hulk" (the first one)? Now THAT was a movie that was trying too hard to be serious despite its concept (guy turns into big green monster and goes on a rampage). Also, the last Batman film adventure made him look even more ridiculous than the 60s Batman. It was a sour memory that if it wasn't for the great comics and cartoons it would have killed Batman on the spot. So can you blame Nolan for trying to make Batman serious and enjoyable once more? Also, it did get overhyped, but once more, can you blame people for being happy that Batman's return to the screen was not only good, it was great?
Its like you have a kid who does horribly in school. Wouldn't you be extremely happy if your kid went from the worst student ever to honor roll child in less than a year? That's what happened with Batman Begins, it was a great vision of the hero and it worked.
OK, now for the tl:dr version: James is complaining that "Batman Begins" was pretentious, focused too much on Batman's origins, focused on B-list villains, and had poor action sequences. The thing is that he tells people to look at the other Batman films as they were meant to be. So Batman Begins should be seen as a real interpretation of the mythos by focusing on Batman the man, and its one of the many ways the Dark Knight has been envisioned ever since his conception.
Topic: So...the Dark Knight? (Read 84719 times)
