So I was at best buy and saw Batman(1986) on the Blu-ray for $10. Having not seen the movie quite some time and it being the only batman movie not in my collection I couldn't pass it up. So I picked it up, watched it, and it got my mind going. I've always wanted to break Batman and Batman Begins down and compare them.
It goes without saying the major differences between the two. The first batman movie being steered by Tim Burton as the director and Michael Keaton taking on the role as Batman while Batman Begins being directed by Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale as Batman/Bruce Wayne. But the more, for lack of a better word, less superficial differences between the two is like comparing apples and oranges.
Now Batman was a huge part of my childhood. Yeah spiderman, superman and the Hulk are good stories but when I wanted a hero's story that I could relate to, I always had a huge spot for batman. So here's my take on the different adaptations on Batman.
Tim Burtons vision of Batman is taken from the DC comic version of Batman, so it seems a lot more cartoonish than Nolans film, not saying that's a bad thing, you just get a different experience. The film starts out with a family walking through the streets of Gotham. At this point it doesn't take long to figure out these people don't belong. You've got a well-to-do family walking amongst the slums of Gotham; the child actually gets a proposition from a hooker. Eventually the get mugged by some low life druggies. While the crooks are going through their payload, one of them gets nervous and starts talking about "the Bat". The one starts to mention stories of a guy getting the blood drained from his body and his skin peeled but his cohort doesn't buy it. Que the Bar coming to prove him wrong. Now my first thought was ok, Batman has dispatched the bad guys so now he's going to return the guys wallet, money, etc. No. He tells the crook to "tell your friends about me" and makes off into the night. So obviously Batman isn't exactly a knight in shining armor but instead trying to spread a message to all crime doers that he's here and won't take it; ok I can accept that. Not every crime fighting badass can be a goody two shoes.
You then start to pick up more on the heresay of what people are saying about the Bat. No one seems to have any kind of information on Batman nor has anyone seen him. So Mr. Wayne seems to be keeping his alter ego under wraps without rising any kind of suspicion. Which I think is what kind of bothers me about this movie. The only insight you get into Bruce Wayne/Batman is that his parents were murdered when he was young at the hands of the Joker and was taken care of by the family caretaker Alfred. You don't get much backstory on why create the persona of Batman? I didn't really get any kind of emotional attachment to him, again I can't really relate to him if I don't understand why he is who he is and im saying this from the perspective of someone who might not have read the comic books prior to seeing the movie. With that being said, I think Michael Keaton did a good job as Batman, even though the audience was still devoid of any kind of background/psyc profile on Bruce Wayne but still making it just a fun movie to watch. And Jack Nicholson was awesome as the Joker. He brought that paychotic, crass persona of the Joker to the table and is unmatched.
Then comes Batman Begins with Christopher Nolan at the helm as the director and Christian Bale suiting up in the Bat suit. Nolans rendition was based upon the graphic novel and delves a little deeper into the mind of Bruce Wayne.
At a young age, Bruce falls down a boarded up well and is then surrounded by bats. He is stranded at the bottom of the well until he can get pulled up. I picked up that he's been traumatized by the experience and seems to have a hard time coping with the fear.
Cut to Bruce riding on a monorail with his parents while making their way to some play. Bruce notices Wayne tower and asks his father about what he does. He's father, in a nutshell, explains how he aims to help those that are less fortunate than them, i.e., keeping people of the streets that may be prone to committing crime etc.
While at the play, there comes a part where some of the actors do some acrobatics that start to cause Bruce to have flashbacks to being swarmed by the Bats. His parents walk him out as he starts to get scared. When they step out Bruces parents get gunned down by a mugger and he's left to the care of Alfred and is still in good care financially because of his fathers business.
Jump forward to Bruce returning home from college to learn that his parents killer is being released but gunned down after his release which gets Bruces blood boiling because he feels there was no justice in his parents killing or in the case of the man that made it happen.
Bruce decides to leave behind his life in Gotham when he confronts Carmine Falcony; basically the head crime lord in Gotham but fails when Falcony tells him a city can't be run by money or power but by fear. While traveling the globe Bruce is taken under the wing of Ras al'Guhl who trains Bruce in the way of the ninja, basically learning how to hide in the shadows and... how to kick ass basically. Bruce learns how to take his darkest fears on turn that on his enemies,i.e, the bat. Things kind of go south when he's asked to execute a man caught stealing. Bruce basically says he'd rather bring him to justice as killing him is just an easy way out. I know I'm leaving out some MAJOR plot points there but that's kind of the basics of who Bruce Wayne is and that's left than half way into the movie.
So basically half way through Batman Begins you get way more insight into what Batman is and that's not even half of what happens in the movie. The big thing with this movie was that relation you get with Batman because of the much deeper back story you're given. That's on the most important aspects of the movie to me because I get better understanding of why Bruce is the way he is so you can empathize with him a lot more because a tiny part of me knows that it's something that I or anyone could become.
In summation, I don't want to say that either movie is bad or good it just depends on how deep you want to go into the story of Batman. I could have typed a lot more by I'm typing this article up on my phone so please forgive the major yapping holes I left while talking plot points. It's my first blog post so go easy on me until I can get the hang of this!
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