Batman Begins (Yawn! Must it?)

Went for Batman Begins last night and fought overwhelming sleepiness all through. Now, I have nothing against the movie: in fact, I have absolutely no opinion on it. Blame it on the lateness of the hour -- it was the 10:15 pm show -- and the fact that the night before had been spent in a drunken stupor and not the refreshing, invigorating sleep I usually require to drag myself from day to day, but I just couldn't help nodding off and waking up with starts whenever there was a sudden burst of noise, which there was rather a lot of. All I remember about the last half an hour of the film is that lots of buildings were calamitously crashing to the ground, bridges were breaking impressively, a manic train was plunging to the ground and then suddenly all was calm and there was Batman (in Bruce Wayne avatar) chopping wood or something. No, sorry, he was actually boarding up a well.

It would have helped if Batman had been better looking -- that Christian Bale character looked more like Ratman to me. The only passable looking guy in the whole film was that psychiatrist character, and then he was wearing a gunny bag mask most of the time.

According to Roger Ebert, "Batman Begins at last penetrates to the dark and troubled depths of the Batman legend, creating a superhero who, if not plausible, is at least persuasive as a man driven to dress like a bat and become a vigilante." The absurdity of it makes me want to laugh. Ok, so here's a man who wants to dress up like a bat and save people. Now if you want me to believe he's not, well, batty, put him in a less serious and less earnestly dark setting, for heaven's sake! Make it more like the frothy and cheerful Superman, I say! On one hand, you have this gloomy city -- very believable in its tales of corruption and its dark, miserable depths --and on the other, you have this totally absurd and fantastical thing of a caped crusader fighting evil. Who goes to Tibet or wherever to seek a blue flower that makes people see fire breathing dragons and all. Which is ok in itself but not if it feels like these guys were trying to make a Gangs of New York with a caped crusader.

Do film-makers who make superhero movies need to take their subjects a little less seriously? Anyway, whatever, they do at least need to find better looking leading men, if you ask me.