Batman

I am home all alone this weekend, so one of the things I've done is gone and seen "Batman Begins." Minor spoilers (very minor) follow.

The first comic book movie to get it right was 1978's "Superman." That film understood that any film based on a comic book powerful enough to become American mythology had to be self-referential. The film referenced many of the earlier incarnations of Superman. Ones I've noticed include John Williams' music, which echoes the theme of the 1941 cartoon. Also, the way Superman stops a bursting dam from causing chaos echoes the first episode of that first cartoon.

The next major milestone in comic book cartoons was Tim Burton's "Batman." Burton understood something about the comic book characters' worlds - they are not our world. They have a character all their own - Superman's Metropolis is not New York, it is a gleaming supercity as people imagined a future urban environment in the 1930s - not unlike Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Gotham, especially as portrayed in the Frank Miller-era graphic novel Batman stories was a gothic, dark, and rainy city, much like Blade Runner's Los Angeles, but with Gargoyles. The landscape is as much a part of Gotham as the hero. So that's exactly what Burton did.

Unfortunately, Burton is where comic book movies also started to go wrong, and why they disappeared for a while (until the Marvel ressurection brought them back in this decade.) Burton's Batman should have been called "Joker." We got to see how and why the Joker was created, but Batman already existed. We never find out what led Michael-Keaton to dress in black rubber, though we know he's generally mad at criminals because of his parents' death. The successor movies did even more of this, sidelining Batman until the time of the ridiculous "Batman and Robin," when we learn more about Batgirl, Alfred the butler, and Poison Ivy than we ever, ever do about the titular character.

The Marvel movies, especially Spider-Man, get it right. It can be interesting to see a charismatic actor ham it up as a bad guy, but what is really interested in terms of story is the genesis of somebody about to step up to the plate to true greatness - what makes that person different from those of us who lead unremarkable lives?

This new Batman film does that. Sure there's a bad guy, and we even to some extent know what drives him, but even that serves to highlight who Batman is, as the villain is himself a kind-of prototypical Batman, a predecessor kicked into motion by a similar tragedy to Bruce Wayne's into becoming what he is. The focus here is on Batman, and we learn what motivates him. It isn't mere revenge - he tries and fails to take a shot at that. No, something else inspires him, and he himself does not fully appreciate his own motivations until the end. He is inspired by hope! He profoundly believes that, despite how bad things appear, Gotham city is worth saving. That in fact, it can be saved.

Batman is brutal, and devastating when fighting criminals - he leaves a trail of cracked skulls and broken limbs. And he terrifies criminals (a thing he learns he must do before he becomes Batman.) But he does not execute justice or judge, the way his opponent would. He leaves the system, however flawed, to do the work, because there are still good people in the system (like pre-Tom Katie Holmes.) He thinks fate is a hopeful thing, if prodded along by a dark flying bat.