I Turn My Camera On

Without having seen THE DARK KNIGHT yet, I’d say that BATMAN BEGINS is my favorite Batman film to date. Two of the others are good, one is passable, and the other I wish I could forget…but this fifth movie, that served as a chance to reboot the franchise, stands far out in front of the others. For my money, I think much of the credit belongs to Christopher Nolan.

Last weekend I bemoaned the fact that too many directors are trying to be the real stars by making sure the movies are promoted as “A Rob Cohen Film” (yes…I’m picking on him again). Meanwhile, there are a handful of truly solid new directors that talented as they are, tend to be content to stand back from the fray a bit more. Christopher Nolan is one of these.

Nolan is an interesting brand. While he is indeed an established talent, he’s still a relatively new one having only been on the scene for ten years. What’s interesting is that in that time, he’s yet to make a bad film…try saying that for M. Night Shyamalan who’s been around for the same stretch.

Nolan’s movies may not always be the flashiest, but they are always built around well layered stories, often dealing with characters struggles between chasing ambitions and seeking redemption. I believe it’s this fascination with more human qualities that made BATMAN BEGINS such a good movie. Looking at the franchise as a whole, Burton and Schumacher seemed to be interested in bringing the lore of Batman to life, where as Nolan seems more interested in focusing on Bruce Wayne’s struggle and story.

The look of Nolan’s films are also what I think suit Batman the best (In an interesting side note – I’ve read that prior to filming, Nolan showed the crew a screening of BLADE RUNNER saying “This is what I want our movie to look like). Whether it’s the searing light of day in INSOMNIA, or the dusty theatres and workshops of THE PRESTIGE, his movies have tapped perfectly into the look of their stories in a way that make me wish the cameraman were able to get his name above the title.

In BATMAN BEGINS, Nolan manages to bring Gotham City and Wayne Manor to life without falling completely in love with his own imagination. He seems bent on making the story plausible, or at least as plausible as a vigilante dressed as a giant bat can be. While I loved the look of Tim Burton’s Gotham, and can still clearly imagine details like The Flugenheim Museum and Shrek’s Department Store, these details didn’t add to the overall story…certainly not in the way that tweaking Chicago into Gotham works for BATMAN BEGINS.

Perhaps I’m being a bit too hard on Schumacher and Burton, or perhaps I’m too enamoured with Nolan. I do still enjoy the first films to a degree, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve started noticing more and more of the flaws. However, comparing all of them to BATMAN BEGINS, there’s a clear distinction in storytelling and film making.

To be fair, Nolan may just have been in the right place at the right time. After Warner Brothers saw what they had done to their franchise, it was clear that a change had to come. While their first choice of director – Darren Aronofsky -might have been an equally fitting choice, I think they got it right by handing the reigns over to Nolan. His vision has clearly served the franchise well.

Now if they can only convince him to return for a third movie.