batman

i am a comic fan, i admit it. i read comics, i read lots of them and i am proud of it. i collect comics and have quite a few of them (alight several thousands of the blighters) and i still get excited when i add to the collection. in short i am a comic geek.
for the comics industry the battle over the last 20 years or so has been to bring comics to a wider market, we fanboys maybe dedicated and devoted, but we are a dwindling bunch. at first it was thought that the more adult orientated comics of the indie scene might crack the market open as hip, trendy book reading type people flocked to read crumb, hernandez brothers, bode, pekar, speigelman et al. then it was the turn of creators (some would say visionaries) who took comic cliché and turned them on their heads and created works of enduring art – this was the time when comics weren’t just for kids. it was the time of creators such as alan moore and frank miller. recently the focus has been on manga and using the excitement and buzz that the recent interest in manga has caused to bring kids and women into comic stores and bookshops. to a large extent it has worked, with manga being one of the fastest growing categories in publishing in 2004.
but the perennial way of getting the outside world interested in comics has been to get the characters that appear on the printed page and put them somewhere else such as radio, tv, computer games and on the big screen. there have been some notable successes and failures in all these attempts.
the most recent two attempts to get comics and put them on the big screen have been wonderful events.
sin city (which i might write about at a later time) is a visual treat – both homage and a pastiche of film noir and pulp novels of mickey spillane. not only does it feature a bevy of babes but also has bruce willis. winner is what i say.

batman begins is frankly one of the best movies that has been made form a comic. i confess i was not looking forward to it. the trailers seemed all wrong being more like an ad for a horror movie than a superhero film. all the information i had seen about the movie made me think that they were about to make the same mistakes with the film that they had made on the previous movies. well all i can say is i was wrong they were right.
from start to finish the movie hits the right notes, christian bale is convincing both as batman and as bruce wayne (though his “batman” voice is not as good as michael keaton’s). the origin is handled very well as is the development of the batman. the rest of the cast is just as good. liam neeson is especially good being as he has to be as hard as nails and twice as mean (though why i am surprised by this i don’t know as liam has done a number of action roles in the past). even michael caine gives a fine performance as alfred. the action scenes are good, the fx are good, the soundtrack is good, the humour works well and comes at the right times. it is a well paced film that establishes the character and leaves us, not only wanting more, but knowing what might be coming up next.
sure there are some quibbles, but all these types of films are filled with plot holes and head scratching huh moments.
but this is a great film, well worth seeing. i know i will be off to see it again.

as to whether or not it will make people go and buy comics and start reading them again, i doubt it, but at least with this movie they get an idea of the magic that is in a comic and why people like me keep reading them month after month after month.