The rotten reviews for Batman Begins (2005) are kind of surreal to read

[CyberCubed]

Batman Begins only has an 84% on rotten, so out of curiosity I looked at the rotten reviews just to see what critics disliked about it and I forgot how divisive this movie was for some in 2005:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bat...e=&sort=rotten

Some quotes from different reviewers:

Batman Begins isn't a terrible film, it simply isn't that good. Overly long, vaguely goofy in places, and straining for gravity and dignity, it's the dignity part that is hard

All the good intentions in the world don't change the fact that the new Batman is a bit of a bore.

Nolan fails to bring grace or sweep to the action; he stages and edits it too tightly. It's punchy, all right, but not pleasurable.

The class dynamics of Batman Begins are just insufferable. Thank heavens we have our incorruptable masked moneybags to keep the criminal poor in line.

Batman Begins delivers enough action to please Saturday-night crowds, if not the surreal wit that made the first two Batman movies, directed by Tim Burton, so entertaining.

June 15, 2005
Is it too much to ask that the action sequences not be monotonously, narcotizingly dull?

The action sequences feel like generic studio product, frantically and confusingly edited, and the lengthy Batmobile chase scene feels like a good opportunity to take the kids to the bat-room.

June 14, 2005
It's still an old-school superhero summer movie, the plotting tortuous, the characters relegated to one-scene-one-emotion simplicity, the digitized action a never ending club mix of chases and mano a manos.

The movie slowly moves away from being an engaging film about people and starts to fit itself into the mold of every other dumb action movie you've ever seen.

After much unnecessary padding and delay, the film settles down to...a thinly veiled and thoroughly trivialized reworking of 9/11.

Batman Begins is an utterly conventional, conformist work, respectful of order and wealth, unable or unwilling to challenge any of contemporary society's taboos. Worse than that, its grim pomposity and self-seriousness invite only laughter.

Batman Begins leaks existential phoniness from the first frame.

Critics were hating on WB movies even 15 years ago.

Kind of surreal to read now when Batman Begins is considered one of the best Batman films.

[Cure]

"Only" an 84%.

[CyberCubed]

That's pretty low for a movie like this IMO. Either way it's noticeable a lot of the reviews complain the movie is "too serious" or "doesn't have a lot of charm" like the old Batman movies. I mean given the last movie prior was Batman and Robin which was hated for being too campy and silly, it's surprising to see people hate on this one for the opposite reason.

Also the amount of reviewers hating on Nolan as a director is pretty funny too.

[Galactus]

In a lot of respects Begins is my favourite of the Batman movies but done of those quotes about the poor action sequences are spot on. It's also fair to say once Bruce puts on the costume it does go a bit generic superhero movie complete with one liners "nice coat", "I gotta get me one of those", "can you drive stick". The movie was actually more interesting in it's set up of Batman.

I don't think The Dark Knight would have been anywhere near as successful as it was had it not been for Heath Ledger. Both his portrayal of the Joker and his passing making it a must watch for people.

[Leo656]

Basically, a lot of people went into it with a mindset of, "There's no way this can top Burton's movie" and so when the time came to review it, they couldn't be objective and just had to find SOME dumb sh*t to say that was negative, even though it was nonsense. That's really all it is.

You'd have to dig pretty deep to find anything wrong with that one. Nothing is "perfect" but that movie is pretty damn close. Those blurbs are just some of the worst kind of "criticism". They literally read like some stuff someone just plain made up without even watching the movie.

"The Dark Knight" is in ways a better "movie" movie, but Begins is the best "Batman movie".

[sdp]

Yeah, people forget that batman begins wasn't a huge success, it was the dark knight which changed everything for Begins. At the time people were even still debating that it was A prequel to batman 89.

Despite it's flaws I think Begins is the best batman and superhero movie. The only one that's close is the first iron man movie. I flippin loved it when I saw it in theaters and at least the forums I hung out in loved it as well but it wasn't as well loved everywhere

[Barkworm]

Out of the Nolan Batman movies, the only one I thought was amazing was TDK. There are a lot of things I disliked about Batman Begins, the editing, a lot of the lead performances (especially Katie Holmes), some terrible dialogue and oneliners, Batman's hilarious voice. Of course way better than the third one which was was sometimes as silly as the Adam West Batman.

[Leo656]

Katie Holmes wasn't in TDK, she was in Batman Begins. And while her performance didn't win too many people over, I thought she was miles ahead of Maggie Gyllenhaal in the sequel, if for no other reason than her face didn't look like a crumpled dishrag. Seriously, WTF kinda drugs was she on between "Donnie Darko" and "Dark Knight"? Things like THAT don't just happen. Yeeeesh.

I really like "The Dark Knight" but I have some resentment towards it for ruining any chance of getting a "real" series of Batman movies out of it. Going 100% "Realism" really hurt the series AS a series, since it meant all the good villains had to be killed off immediately and none of the more fantastic elements of the mythos could be explored, like Robin or whatever else. One of the best things about "Batman Begins" is that even though it's "realistic", it doesn't disregard the comic book in any significant ways so it's a rare comic book film that both causals and purists can enjoy in equal measure. I always really appreciate that. Most comic book films bear almost no resemblance at all to what they're supposedly adapting, but Begins fits right in there quite neatly. It set up a great foundation for a near-perfect series of Batman films.

Then Dark Knight came out and while it's a great movie, it's SO totally it's own thing that you can't even pretend it fits in with comics canon anymore, so they lost a little something there. Killing off Two-Face just as he was becoming "Two-Face" was such a poor creative decision (one they apparently haven't learned from, as with movies like "Birds of Prey" they're still doing the exact same dumb sh*t). It's still a great movie, and I understand why it's most peoples' favorite, but I have my own reasons why it's not.

I also definitely think that Ledger's death sort of nudged people to put the entire film a bit higher on a pedestal than it otherwise might have been, or deserved to be, but that's not really a big deal. Given the box office take of Begins compared to Dark Knight, I do think that if Ledger survived then the movie wouldn't have made a billion dollars. People were quite tepid about his Joker until he up and died, and then seeing the movie became an "event" all its own, which I think artificially inflated its success just a bit. This bled over into the following film; "Dark Knight Rises" also made huge money despite the fact that... well... it's not that good. Not compared to the first two, by any measure. But people who ignored the first film went to go see the second film because of Ledger, and they just happened to like what they saw so much that it enticed them to see the third film. If Ledger survives, neither the second or third film makes a billion dollars, I don't think.

I mean, we'll never KNOW, obviously, but that's always been my suspicion. It does kind of gnaw at me that "Rises" was the worst of the trilogy and made so much money, while a strong case can be made for "Begins" being the best one (or at least the most focused and "Batman-centric") and yet it made a ton less than any of them. That's pretty much a grand injustice any way you look at it.

[Barkworm]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Katie Holmes wasn't in TDK, she was in Batman Begins.

Yeah, all the things I said were about Batman Begins, I edited my post.

Your post makes a lot of sense, I'd add that TDK was also enjoyed by many people who don't care about comic books because it worked as a great action movie that just happened to have Batman as its main character while Batman Begins was a lot more Comic book-like. I think super hero adaptations often suffer from an overly serious tone because the source material doesn't work the same way on the big screen. TDK mostly worked anyway for various reasons, one important one being Ledger's fantastic performance.

[CyberCubed]

Considering Dark Knight Rises has 87% and that's considered the weakest of the trilogy, it really does seem like Batman Begins low score is because people weren't ready or used to a more serious take on Batman?

It's really odd. By 2005 people were sick of the campy stuff from the 90's and wanted a more serious take, and we got one and the critics didn't like it.

[Barkworm]

What the **** are you even talking about?

[CyberCubed]

Exactly what I said. Batman Begins has the lowest review score of the 3 movies in the Nolan trilogy, whereas it's generally considered one of the best and the Dark Knight Rises is the weakest.