Okay, just a quick flyby here. Should be asleep right now.
Before I forget:
Karen, the "Barbara Gordon" in the credits wasn't the little girl. It was Jim's wife. Assuming they stick to comics continuity on this one, anyway. I don't want to spoil things, so I'll just say that the Barbara who becomes Batgirl is Jim's niece, and she's older than the girl you saw.
Anyway...
Just saw the movie tonight. Finally. Really liked it. Could have done with a bit less violence and a slower pace, but there was a lot of story to tell.
Loved seeing Lucius on screen, not sure how I feel about him being in on the secret. I guess it works.
My sister was annoyed at the lack of women in the movie and at the cliche usage of the Mysterious Far East for training and martial arts. I say Bruce training in the Far East is canon, and, more importantly, R'as and the League of Shadows' ties to the Far East are canon. If you're going to have R'as train Bruce as his successor (which is kind of cool), then it has to be there. There was also the rougher, less mysterious East where R'as found Bruce. Can't really disagree about the lack of women, though. They could have put more in. Leslie, for instance, or Montoya, or even Sara Essen, and a few more scattered in the background (Harley working at Archam, some female board members, etc).
Not sure about the Batmobile. It's cool and it makes sense, but darnit, it's not the Batmobile. And just what is a bridging vehicle doing with rockets and all that stuff? Not to mention the position change for the weapons systems.
I do like the explanation of where the stuff all came from, and in that context, the Tumbler makes a lot of sense. So does the gliding, which is kind of surprising.
I agree about the fight scenes. I had the same problem. I had that problem with Attack of the Clones, too. Darkness, not enough distinguishing features, and too many closeups and quick cuts. It's just too hard to keep track of what's happening and who's doing what to whom.
They used Joe Chill!! Woo-hoo!!
They also used Zsasz. Weird, but kind of cool.
Scarecrow makes perfect sense. Acts as a great foil for Batman (using fear, making people think of him as inhuman, etc). And using his fear toxin for ransom money is very much like him.
Loved the ultrasonic bat-caller in the bootheel. Recognized it right away, and loved how they used it.
Nice work with Falcone giving Bruce the idea to start on his quest.
Didn't like Batman setting R'as up to die and justifying it as simply not helping him. But it's okay. We know R'as isn't dead.
BTW, what's up with pronouncing it "Rahz"? It's Arabic for "head," right? The Hebrew word is pronounced "rosh" (with a long o). I'm used to hearing "R'as" pronounced as "Raish," which is fairly similar to the Hebrew. I don't speak Arabic, though. Anyone care to help?
Anyway... wow. There's a lot of stuff where I can just point to it and say "they finally got it right!!" Too much to list, really. The important thing is that they nailed the spirit of what Batman and his origins should be.
Really looking forward to seeing what they come up with next (and how they explain Joker's appearance).
Paul
