The Dark Knight Returns

...No, not that movie "Batman Returns" where Catwoman was great and the Penguin ruined it. This is "Batman Begins," where for the first time I feel that the title "Dark Knight" is warranted in a Batman movie--sorry, the 1989 Batman IS wonderful and IS classic and Nicholson IS a stupendously great Joker--but much as Keaton did a bang-up job in the role, he wasn't Dark Knight-ish like Bale is. Talk about delivering the two-sided role of Bruce Wayne/Batman--wow.

They tried ridiculously hard in "Batman Forever" to draw on the whole psychological issues of Wayne by having Val Kilmer act angst-driven and Nicole Kidman talk psychobabble, and it didn't work at all. Not to mention the fact that Two-Face was drivel and the theme of the movie was "use a LOT of neon lights--no, I mean a LOT MORE than that, dangit!"

Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Qui-Gon--I mean, Liam Neeson in his better Jedi role deliver one solid movie. And it wasn't even until halfway through the movie that the thought crossed my mind, "Oh yeah, he hasn't even become Batman yet. And I DON'T CARE because the movie is THAT GOOD."

Not even Katie Holmes could ruin this movie. And can someone PLEASE tell me how they managed to throw multiple villans into one movie and make it not good, but great? I mean, before this movie, the number of villans in a Batman movie was always the inverse of the level of its greatness. It was like the next director would say to himself, "Well, the last one sucked--maybe if we throw in one or two extra villans, they won't notice that we have no plot and that Chris O'Donnell really has no right to play Robin."

And in this movie, they threw in (SPOILER ALERT for anyone who hasn't read anything about this movie) Ra's Al Ghul (twice!), Scarecrow, Carmine Falconi, and on a smaller level Richard Earle. How the heck did they pull this off? How did they weave the "fear" theme so intricately into the Scarecrow/Ra's Al Ghul plot and Wayne's own fears about himself, bats, etc.?

I am so glad that I asked for Batman: Animated Series Seasons 2 and 3 for my birthday, so that something can tide me over (slightly) until this movie is released on DVD. Go see it now--I don't care if you like "comic book" movies or not--this movie surpasses its genre. See it.

Now, man--go!