The other night something struck me which I thought was rather odd. I was sitting in my house with my roommate, we were about to watch Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins", a film I had liked before when I had first seen it and had no problems with it up until this present time. Once the film started there was this feeling inside of me not wanting it to start. When the film did in fact begin I found myself enjoying it less and less. That isn't to say I disliked the film, I just wasn't taken with it like I was before. I began noticing things that bothered me about the film, the way it was put together, the way it was cut, jumbled in places, sometimes if felt like some sequences were unfinished. The dialogue was also very dry, the characters didn't seem real to me at all, they mostly sounded like symbols, plus for a super hero movie it seemed rather grim and not very fun.
What happened to me between the time I first was taken with "Batman Begins" and today? Well when it did come out in 2005, I was six years younger, I was a partial comic book fanboy. This was to be the first Batman movie to show how Batman became Batman, and what fanboy wouldn't want to see that? I had also not started this film blog yet, which has become somewhat of a hobby of mine over these past five years it's been operating. I'd like to think of this film blog to be a part of my own evolution as a student of film. Throughout this time I've grown to love different kinds of movies, I've even surprised myself at what kind of movies I'm open to, and I like to think that I've helped a few people discover films they otherwise wouldn't know of.
Always growing, always evolving, a lot had happened since I was first taken with "Batman Begins". I wasn't just a student of film, but also a student of film criticism. The Internet is full of bloggers like me, and for most film critics it has been the only way to express their views as well. I surf weekly, sometimes daily for recent articles from favorite critics, and recently I've been hearing a lot about the films of Christopher Nolan.
Nolan is riding high these days thanks largely to his Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" which has become one of the most successful films of all time. Add to that his own personal movie "Inception" which became one of the very few non-franchise hits of last summer, and no one in Hollywood is hotter. There was even a little controversy this year at the Oscars that Nolan was snubbed for a Best Director Oscar for "Inception", plus it has been argued "The Dark Knight" was robbed of that honor as well.
Despite all his loyal followings and acclaim, I've started to notice cracks in his armour. The first instance for me happened with "Inception", a film I found to be "okay". I gave it a fare review, but I was not blown away by it. Nolan has a set up for a very interesting action movie, and his set pieces are constructed well, but the movie left me cold. I was overwhelmed by the rules Nolan sets for himself, much of the scenes were about how the whole movie works. Nolan has a problem with just showing how the film works, when he does stop the dialogue, he is capable of pulling off pretty impressive action sequences.
I found it even more in "Batman Begins", the characters are never able to come out of its restricted environment. Batman/Bruce Wayne is never interesting to me, neither are the villains, listen to the first bit of dialogue between Christian Bale and Liam Neeson, and you might see what I mean. The characters talk of the themes of the film and what the inner demons Bruce is battling and the journey he must take for himself. The only things that are shown are action scenes, yet Nolan doesn't even put these together as well. The editing is all over the place in "Batman Begins", you don't know where characters are in relation to others. Nolan isn't the only one who does this, many action scenes done today are like that, as if they haven't been storyboarded, or they have been story boarded too much.
When it all comes down to it, I do still enjoy Christopher Nolan on a certain level, but what he puts on screen isn't memorable. I'm not moved by his films, but there are far worse ones made today in mainstream Hollywood than his. Nolan has ambitions, and he's able to put them on screen, and I think there is always something interesting he's trying to convey, at the same time, there are far more interesting and intriguing films and filmmakers than him.
I like to think I'm evolving as a film goer, I like to be challenged, and entertained at the same time. I'm interested how certain films can move me whether with a certain shot, an edit, a performance, or a piece of dialogue, I try to stay hyper aware of these things as I watch movies, perhaps my perception of what I'm seeing is changing, that to me is never a bad thing, it shows growth.
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