So I re-watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight over the past two days and read this thread with a page or two as a buffer zone to avoid potential spoilers. Roughly 24 hours from now I'll be coming out of the theatre but in the meantime I guess I'll chip in on the Begins/TDK discussion with a couple points. My opinion and all that.
- The dialogue is definitely worse in Begins than The Dark Knight but the first film handles Batman as a character better. Gordon, Dent, and the Joker really shine in TDK and I like Nolan's take on the Batman-Joker dynamic. But Begins gives us a real emotional connection between Bruce and Alfred that doesn't transfer over to the second movie as well. Bruce and Fox have this nice understated connection that works but we go from teary-eyed Alfred driving Bruce home in Begins to what feels like a rather nonchalant butler in TDK. The Rises trailers show a more concerned Alfred so I'm looking forward to that.
- I love the sequences in Begins when Batman takes out thugs one at a time like in the Narrows and when Falcone's men are checking on the drug shipment. Bats sneaking up on and knocking out a pissing thug is a great little moment for me whereas in TDK it seems like he runs into most of his fights fists blazing—Ra's would be so disappointed. The costume is better in The Dark Knight, but I feel like Batman himself is better in his origin movie as a stealthy character who prays on fear. But at the same time, I like the action sequences in TDK like in Hong Kong and the final SWAT clash that don't necessarily rely as much on stealth.
- After a really solid first half, parts of Begins' last stretch feel a bit "by-the-numbers" if that makes sense. "Oh no! The love interest is in trouble! Uh-oh! The villain is about to take his weapon to the centre of the city! We have to stop him before he gets there!" The final fight with Ra's and the chaos in the Narrows are wonderful though; I feel like the more "comic booky" aesthetic there has a certain charm that wasn't as powerful in TDK. The IMAX shots of the latter are glorious but the Narrows and the monorail are lovely in the first. But the "sir... our uh... microwave emitter was stolen" scene is terrible and embodies an artificial element of Nolan's more grounded, serious film.
And one other tidbit for each film:
- I believe it was Solo's posts that ruined the "Ra's al Ghul impostor at the party" sequence for me. The lady clearly stays right there while Bruce calls out the fake and Ducard comes over, then heads off with the fake Ra's in the background. This and "no more dead cops" are better than Nolan's comic relief.
- I don't get why Batman left Scarecrow with the wannabe Batmen and just gave them a collective "don't let me find you out here again." They wanted to catch Crane at the end of Begins... The man played an instrumental role in the "destroy the city" plot as well as giving Rachel a would-be lethal dose of his fear gas and lighting Batman himself on fire but Batman doesn't seem to give a damn. Is Scarecrow the drug dealer that much of a joke now? Does Bruce feel it's better to let him mess up the druggies in Gotham than turn him in? Will Bane be leading a bunch of fear-gassed addicts in Rises? I don't even know.
Uh, so this post turned out to be longer than I expected. I guess I'm a little excited... Going to go full blackout tomorrow though, so unless someone spoils me in the next half hour or at the theatre I'm going in with only the trailers.
