Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Talk amongst yourselves.

I want to see Batman Begins (cheap link alert!) again before I make any final judgments, but it'll most likely end up in the pantheon of my top 5 comic book movies. Somewhat behind the Holy Quadron of Superman, Superman II, Spider-Man 2 and X2: X-Men United and just edging out Unbreakable.

They called me Mr. Glass.

But here's an observation I have - file it however you choose:

Batman is a vigilante who clouds himself in mystery. He is terribly anti-crime and plays on fears, his own and others. He is concerned with meting out justice outside of the normal realm of the justice system and often seeking the lesser of two evils to accomplish his ends. He has no qualms about using costly and lethal military resources for those purposes. He is also fabulously rich and a shrewd manager of his affairs. His father, Dr. Wayne, teaches his young son this semi-call & response mantra: Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up. And Dr. Wayne tries to lead the upperclass citizenry to concern for the poor and blighted by his own public examples of humanitarianism.

Batman Begins is a celluloid monument to Reaganism.

9 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:25 PM

    I don't know I've mentioned the L to my friends who don't live in the Chicago or the state of Illinois for that matter and they were like, "uh what is that?"

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  2. you're hilarious, gabi.

    you'll just post any-dang-where.

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  3. Anonymous2:04 AM

    In other words...Batman sucks...

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  4. timi,

    welcome back to my site, timi-lady.

    i don't believe it sucks, but then again, i'm not as political as you are. although i was largely disturbed while watching the movie by the whole prevailing sense of the uber-man, the rich patronizing fellow who can save us all from the ravages of the urban plight.

    but at least he takes some sort of responsibility. maybe not a healthy one.

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  5. This is my thing...and this should cause of us to think.

    Batman has no super powers. Therefore, he's just as frail and vulnerable as us. Yes, he pushes a dope whip with acessories not even West Coast Customs could get, and has all those McGuyver-esque gadgets, but that's it. He's no one special. Oooo, he learned martial arts, whatever. Who's gonna take him seriously as a martial arts champion in that latex-pleather get up?

    Batman's been overhyped people. Plus, the real Batman is Micheal Keaton. "I'm Batman." <--- classic '89 line.

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  6. i think you missed it. he has no superpowers, that's what makes him great. he uses sheer intelligence, sharpness, skill, agility, strength. things that are nats for supes as the like, batman has to work hard at acheiving. which brings him to the top of his game. yeah, i don't care for the quasi-fascism of his mythos, but he is extraordinary by the fact of what he is able to fashion out of what 'little' he has.

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  7. Anonymous3:36 PM

    Batman has no superpowers? You mean he cant fly? Then the heck do we call him Batman?

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  8. Well he 'glides' with those pleather wings, sis.

    And Jason, don't get poetic with my haterism. I see your points, but I still think he sucks :)

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  9. who's getting poetic? it's the pathos of comic books, the u.s. of america's addition to mythology, which both c.s. lewis and j.r.r. tolkien acknowleged as an under-truth, a way to point to truth. in batman, we may see ourselves, our fears (batman is a horrifying creature of night. he doesn't fly but gives the illusion of it, all the more to terrify the weak-minded, superstitious, preying criminals of the night. timi.)

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Be kind. Rewind.