Batman Begins

The batman franchise has been a story of failure the past several attempts so many will, expectedly so, be cautious before going to see a re-boot of a string of movies that were critical failures. I’m here to tell you that this one is going to be different. The trailer opens with a young Bruce Wayne falling down some sort of well. 5 seconds in, and the trailer has most likely already effectively captured the viewer’s pity and attention. This use of pathos plays a role in seizing compassion from the audience. A seemingly bodiless voice then utters “Tell us, Mr. Wayne. What do you fear?” Fear turns out to be a common theme throughout the trailer, and the scarecrow is revealed to be one of the enemies in the movie. This theme of fear will also serve as a testament to the pathos of the viewer. What stands out more than anything in this trailer is the color palette; the hues hardly range from anything more than charcoal gray to pitch black. This implies that Nolan is in fact digging down to the roots of the batman origin story, which many die-hard comics fans will appreciate. Nolan doesn’t want to show a brightened, naïve version of batman that runs around during the day hitting criminals on the head. Despite how he may appear on the outside (at one point in the trailer Bruce rolls up to a hotel in a Lamborghini with two beautiful women in the backseat) Bruce Wayne has been permanently affected by his parents death and this is apparent in the dark color scheme – after all, he is the “dark knight.” Batman Begins also brings with it an impressive veteran cast. The main role of Bruce Wayne/Batman will be played by Christian Bale, an actor with an amazing reputation, particularly in cult classics. Morgan Freeman, an actor with a mountainous supply of achievements in his resume, will be appearing as Lucius Fox, one of Bruce Wayne’s assistants. Michael Caine is set to play Alfred, the trusty butler. Caine has won countless awards, including Best Actor in a Supporting Role for both “The Cider House rules” as well as “Hannah and Her Sisters” (Michael Caine Awards, IMDB). Lastly, Liam Neeson will also be in the movie, as a nameless character in the trailer. What makes this such a special cast is that no one in it has been typecasted (with a possible exception in the case of Neeson, as he plays in mainly action films). Bale has played everything from a boxer to a sociopathic killer, Caine from Austin Powers’ father to an interesting old man in Secondhand Lions, and Freeman from a jail bird to God. On top of all this, none of these actors have had any sort of fiasco in their private life that may jeopardize their reputation and therefore use ethos in a detrimental fashion. The trailer uses logos in such a way that it will make previous batman films look like cheap knock-offs. First of all, the score is amazing. Hanz Zimmer brings an amazingly dark sound that contrasts beautifully with cheap jingles in other superhero flicks. The new batsuit is a high-tech (nipple-less) military grade suit of armor. The new batmobile is a small, stubby military vehicle – not a high-powered freight train that runs on a single turbine and spits oil out the back. Both of these things suggest that this new film will be taking a more realistic approach to the superhero genre. As Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz suggest in “Everything’s an Argument,” “people usually prefer arguments based on facts and testimony to those grounded in reason alone” (73). The new dark knight will be a superhero that we can actually imagine, breaking the mold of the slapstick, romantic approach that preceded it. All in all, it was an incredibly effective trailer that will bring a long-anticipated breath of fresh air for moviegoers. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vak9ZLfhGnQ Rating: 4/5