New Batman Prequel Sports Dark Mood, All Star Cast
There's a new
Batman Prequel on the
horizon, and it looks like it's
going to be good.
The first Batman movie was, almost by definition, cool. They had distilled the concept of Batman down enough to be palatable to movie audiences, but retained his conflicted nature, brooding introspection, and almost guilty enjoyment at dealing out his brand of vigilante justice. The sardonic twist that he'd created his own greatest super villain was not lost on the screenwriters, and Jack Nicholson's Joker was the perfect foil to the Dark Knight.
The movie also gave Gotham the real grit and grime of a city desperate enough to allow and even call on a vigilante for protection, and the Gotham of that era was a very plausible "what if" reflection of the then deteriorating pre-Disney New York City.
The sequels came and went as many sequels of the 80's and 90's did, riding simply on laurels of the title and built-in audience, while forgetting everything the original movie and concept were about. Batman became, once again, as two dimensional as the comics he was derived from.
Finally, Hollywood has woken up to the real worth of franchise films. Bringing familiar characters and stories back to a willing audience and then doing them justice will not only pull in your original audience, it will also boost DVD sales of the original and grow a bigger core fan-base.
X-Men, LOTR, and Spiderman are but three recent franchises built on this premise, and it seems all the major studios are finally beginning to take notice. The idea of bringing true fans of the original work in and giving them some control over the project is also taking hold in the wake of Peter Jacksons lucrative devotion to the spirit (if not the letter) of Tolkien's work.
Batman Begins has, so
far, differentiated itself from the Batman sequels
by returning to the humanity of the characters, and making the casting
(and budgetary) decisions to back that up. Christian Bale, Gary
Oldman,
Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, and Michael Caine are among the A-List cast.
Each (including even Holmes) has an impressive string of dramatic roles
under their belt and they all stand poised to bring the Batman story
back to life, resurrecting it from the POW,
BANG, and ZOOM that it had
been reduced to by the recent sequels.
Of course, casting isn't everything, but the mood of the piece already seems suited to the story. Take a look at the teaser trailer and see for yourself.
