Batman and Spiderman movies keep being made, and I find myself so unencumbered by their comic book back stories that I can only focus on what's before me. Batman Begins (2005) is just that: the beginning of what I had for so long been in the midst of.
We open with a twenty-something Bruce Wayne in a People's Republic of Chinese jail where, having run away from the Gotham City his parents were committed to rehabilitating, yet whose needier element kills them before his eyes, he takes on all comers, eventually coming under the tutelage of someone who, like Morpheus with Neo in The Matrix (1999), trains him to kill better, faster, harder. Unlike The Matrix, Bruce refuses to join this Morpheus's army, and in saying so burns down his training facility and makes his way back to Gotham where, six years removed from when he left it, he applies what he's learned to the betterment of humanity (his version), not to mention to the elimination of special interests endemic to any stratified society.
A memorable moment comes at the funeral of Bruce's parents.
Bruce's father's business manager William Earle approaches Bruce and says:
"You're in excellent hands. We'll be watching the empire. When you grow up, it'll be waiting for you."
No comments:
Post a Comment