DC Bat Man Begins Movie Review and Analysis on Max
Introduction
Hello everyone, welcome to the Mattacritic. This is Matthew Hemenway. I hope everyone is doing well today. I am doing as well as I can. In this episode of the Mattacritic, I will be reviewing and analyzing Bat Man Begins done by Warner Bros and is a product of DC comics which is currently on Max. You can watch this movie on Amazon Prime by subscribing to Max there or you can subscribe to directly to Max. If you are reading this on blog, you can go to Amazon or you can go to Max and do either one of these things to watch the movie. You can go directly to the movie in the link in the description below. Thank you. There may be those who have the DVD which is another way to watch the movie and that is fine. This movie deals with Bruce Wayne figuring out who is and what he is supposed to do after his parents got killed by Joe Chill. I am not spoiling anything by saying that here. No matter what version you watch or read, Joe Chill is the person that kills Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s parents. Bruce Wayne will be trained by Ra’s Al Ghoul which is the leader of the League of Shadows. Bruce Wayne will believe that he is being trained by a kindred spirit but will soon learn that Ra’s Al Ghoul wants to destroy Gotham. I will explain later in this review. I will give you my rating at the end of this review. I hope this episode will inspire you to read, watch, and learn.
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Rest of the Review and Rating of the Bat Man Begins
This movie will take the viewer through the journey that Bruce Wayne embarked on. It will be two journeys he goes on. Why two journeys you may ask? Bruce Wayne will go on a physical journey, but he will also go on a spiritual journey. Bruce Wayne is trying to navigate the pain that was caused by his parents being murdered by Joe Chill. Bruce Wayne believes that it was his fault. I will explain more about this as I go on with this review.
Bruce Wayne was at the prison camp, and he had a nightmare about falling down a hole to where the bats were when he was 8 years old when he took the leaf from his best friend Rachel Daws. He took on 6 men by himself. Bruce Wayne was later locked in solitary confinement because he was beating them up badly. Bruce Wayne will later meet Ra’s Al Ghoul and Ra’s Al Ghoul tells him, are you so desperate to catch criminals that you lock yourself up taking each one at a time. Bruce Wayne tells Ra’s Al Ghoul, there were 7 of them. Ra’s Al Ghoul tells Bruce Wayne, I counted 6, Mr. Wayne. Bruce Wayne tells him; how do you know my name? Ra’s Al Ghoul tells him; the world is too small a place for Bruce Wayne to simply disappear. I can offer you a path. Bruce Wayne tells him; what makes you think that I need a path. Ra’s Al Ghoul tells him, only a person like you is here by choice. If you make yourself more than a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal; you become completely something else. Bruce Wayne asks him; what? Ra’s Al Ghoul tells him; legend Mr. Wayne. Tomorrow you will be released. There is a blue flower on top of the mountain, pick one, and you may find what you are looking for. Bruce Wayne asks, what am I looking for? Ra’s Al Goul tells him, only you can know that. I will have the YouTube video of the clip in my blog; I do not want to be flagged by YouTube by showing in the video instead I will use images. You can watch the video on my blog. I will do this for all the clips. The links to the all the references will be in the bottom of this video and blog. If you want to not leave here, I will leave it after this text.
After Bruce Wayne is released; he goes to the top of the mountain. It is cold and he finds the flower and picks it like Ra’s Al Ghoul told him to. Bruce Wayne takes it, but it is not easy. He gets to the monastery on top of the mountain and meets a man claiming to be Ra’s Al Ghoul. Bruce Wayne lets him know and the League of Shadows of what is he seeking. Bruce Wayne wants to find a way to turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. Ra’s Al Ghoul lets him know that the only way to manipulate fear unto others, you must first master your own. He asks him, are you ready to begin? Bruce Wayne lets him know; he can barely stand. Ra’s Al Ghoul lets him know, death does not wait for you to be ready and make no mistake, here you will face death. Bruce Wayne is doing his best to fight Ra’s Al Ghoul, but he is struggling. Ra’s Al Ghoul knocks him down and he realizes it is not him that Bruce Wayne is afraid of. What is it that Bruce Wayne fears? You will find this clip on my blog. You can watch the video on my blog or in the description below. If you want to watch it here, I will leave it below this text.
Bruce Wayne goes through the training. Ra’s Al Ghoul tells him that jujutsu and how to be invisible for a ninja is nothing more than patience and agility and knowing your own strengths as well as balance and strength as the movie will show. He learns how to use a sword and what I picked up from my own martial arts training is when Bruce Wayne moves the sword with his finger. I will show you here now in a video clip of me doing it and watch a clip from the film if you are reading this on my blog. You are rotating the sword with your fingers, and it will come back up to the position you want it to. The reason to do this is it helps you with your coordination. If you can control doing that, it will make you better at it. You have certain strikes, and those strikes are important to do. The sword fighting is realistic based off my training using the sword for several years. I started learning how to do it back in 2009 and did not stop until my final exam of September 29, 2014. Ra’s Al Ghoul helps him to understand that it was not his fault that his parents were murdered; it was his father’s fault. Bruce Wayne tells Ra’s Al Ghoul, the man had a gun. Ra’s Al Ghoul tells him, would that have stopped you? Bruce Wayne tells him, I have training. Ra’s Al Ghoul tells him; training is not enough. You must have also the will to act. You can go to YouTube to watch the clip for the sword training and how jujutsu is done from Batman Begins. If you are reading this on my blog as I will explain how to do it, you can go to this link here . Thank you. I will explain how realistic it is to do the sword training and how you strike and everything. If you want to watch it here of Bruce Wayne training, it will be below this text. Thank you.
There is a scene in the movie when Bruce Wayne was going to kill Joe Chill, but he did not get to because Carmine Falconi sent a woman to kill Joe Chill for him. Carmine Falconi did that because he wanted to stop Joe Chill from testifying against him. Joe Chill knew things that could put Carmine Falconi in prison. This was important for that not to happen. Bruce tells Rachel that maybe; they should be thanking Carmine Falconi for killing Joe Chill. Rachel explains to Bruce Wayne that what you want is revenge not justice. Bruce Wayne tells Rachel Daws that sometimes they are the same. Rachel tells Bruce no it is not; justice is about harmony; revenge is about making yourself feel better. That is why we have an impartial system. Bruce Wayne feels that the justice system is broken. At times, it can feel that way; especially those that get away with heinous crimes and it should be obvious that they get convicted, but they do not. You can watch Rachel slapping Bruce on my blog and the description below. Go here to watch it. If you do not want to leave here, it will be below this text.
Bruce Wayne lets Carmine Falconi know that he does not want to thank him. Carmine Falconi was played by the late Tom Wilkinson. Tom Wilkinson was a great actor, and he says, I would have no hesitation to blow your head off right now and here in front of them. He has corrupt judges, corrupt attorneys, and corrupt police officers in his bar. He talks about the power of fear and how it can be used to manipulate people. It can as we all know those that know how to manipulate fear into scaring any one of us. I will leave a link for you to watch Bruce Wayne confronting Carmine Falconi on my blog, but I will leave a link to the video in the description below of this video; you can go here to watch it. The idea is that you use fear to manipulate people is not new; Hitler has done it and so has Donald Trump. Hitler used it go after his enemies and so has Donald Trump. If you do not want to leave here, it will be below this text. Thank you.
Bruce Wayne will learn that the League of Shadows led by Ra’s Al Ghoul wants to destroy Gotham City, and he must stop them from doing so. He decides that he needs to stop them after he realizes what their plan is. This is after he has mastered his training and realizes what they want. They had him face his fears as he is afraid of bats. Ra’s Al Ghoul lets Bruce Wayne know that you must become an idea and let this power of fear be yours. Bruce Wayne ends up setting the monastery on fire when he realizes they wanted him to lead these men to Gotham to destroy it. The monastery will end up being destroyed. Bruce Wayne saves Ra’s Al Ghoul from dying. He thought he was doing a good thing by not letting him die. He will find out later that he is wrong in doing this. The link will be in the description of this video as well as my blog. To watch; please watch it here to see the clip. Thank you.
Bruce Wayne will return to Gotham City and decide that he needs to fight the criminals and the corrupt. Bruce Wayne tells Alfred that he cannot fight this battle as Bruce Wayne that he is flesh and blood. He needs to take on a mantle of a symbol. As a symbol he can become immortal, incorruptible and a legend. The symbol he will pick will be his fear. Bats frighten him, he believes his enemies might as well share his dread.
Bruce Wayne will meet Lucius Fox who helps to get him the weapons and the gear he needs to the fight the criminal underworld. You can watch the clip where Bruce Wayne gets his gear and suite on YouTube. It will be below the text. Mr. Earl will tell him to go to Lucius Fox after Bruce Wayne tells him about his interest in applied sciences. He will also be with Alfred in the cave, and he is painting the suite and getting ready in the color he wants which will be black. You can watch the clip in the description below of this video on YouTube or you can watch it on my blog. You can watch it here now when Bruce Wayne gets the memory cloth and the tumbler and below this text.
He will later become Bat Man and put fear in the criminal underworld. He catches Carmine Falconi and his goons that were at the docks. Bat Man will later stop the two men that were going to kill Rachel Daws. He tells her he has leverage on Judge Faden to start the process of putting Carmine Falconi behind bars. Rachel Daws is more than willing to do this as the movie will show.
Later in prison, Carmine Falconi tells Dr. Crane that he knows all of Dr. Crane’s dirty little secrets. Carmine Falconi wants to know what this guy is planning. Dr. Crane knows that they will kill him. Carmine Falconi is pretty sure that they cannot touch him. Dr. Crane tells him, do you want to see my mask? I’m pretty sure for a guy like you, it does not scare you, but these crazies can’t stand it. Carmine Falconi says, when did the nut take over the nuthouse. Dr. Crane releases the poison that creates fear in Carmine Falconi and lets the defense attorney know that he cannot treat him here in prison; he needs to be moved to the secure wing of Arkham. This is the part of using fear to manipulate others. Dr. Crane is using it to justify moving Carmine Falconi to Arkham Asylum. This is the same way Dr. Crane did it earlier in the movie to get one of Carmine Falconi’s thugs moved to Arkham. He used the deception that this person is insane and cannot be in prison.
Bruce Wayne will find out about the plot to use Dr. Crane’s toxin to infect the whole city to justify in destroying Gotham City. This is part of the League of Shadows’ plan to destroy Gotham City. According to Ra’s Al Ghoul, Gotham is so corrupt that it deserves to be destroyed. Bat Man will get help from Jim Gordon who is a detective in the movie. He is usually the guy that Bat Man trusts no matter what version of Bat Man there is.
I will not reveal any more here. Yes, the story does get to the climax, and it sets up another film in the dark knight trilogy.
I will give you, my rating. I give Bat Man Begins, a 10 out of 10. I understand why it was an Oscar nominee. This movie was the first Bat Man after Bat Man and Robin which was a disaster. I personally have not seen that movie of Bat Man and Robin. What I understand is that it was so bad; it looked like Gotham City and Wayne manor did not pay their power bill. All I know is that I was not impressed with the trailer and hearing from enough people, it was bad. I was in high school when Bat Man and Robin was released. Bat Man Begins does a great job of making this movie into a crime drama. It had the feel of Bat Man, and it showed the parts of him being a great detective. He was researching Jim Gordon at the time and was seeing if he could trust him. Bruce Wayne knew that he could since Jim Gordon was the cop that helped to comfort him after his parents died when he was 8 years old. Jim Gordon is a good cop, good man, and a good family man. He loves his wife and his children. When he was meeting with Bat Man; he was taking out the trash and he told him, he thought Bat Man was doing his best to help save Gotham City. I understand the pain that Bruce Wayne went through since I buried my guilt with anger. You must confront it so that you can heal. That is easier said than done.
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Music: A Day to Remember from Clipchamp video editor as well as No Filter Trap
Reference: Bat Man Begins on Prime Channel Max
Reference: Images for BatMan Begins on IMDB
Reference: BatMan and Robin (1997)
Ra’s Al Ghoul meets Bruce Wayne in Prison on YouTube
Bruce Wayne meets Ra’s Al Ghoul on YouTube
Bruce Wayne learning martial arts on YouTube
Bruce Wayne confronting Carmine Falconi on YouTube
Bruce Wayne destroys temple on YouTube
Bruce Wayne meets Lucius Fox on YouTube