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Reviving Batman

New darkness a return to form for Caped Crusader

By Todd Leopold
CNN

Christian Bale debuts as the Caped Crusader in "Batman Begins."

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(CNN) -- "This Is Spinal Tap" said it best: There's a fine line between stupid and clever.

Director Joel Schumacher has left the scene, gone to take on some other movie genre. But he did such a good job destroying "Batman," it's taken eight years to bring the Caped Crusader back to the movies.

Schumacher may have thought he was having fun, emphasizing Batman's homoerotic aspects -- people still remember the Batsuit nipples in "Batman & Robin" -- and generally conducting his two "Batman" movies as camp, closer to the old Adam West TV series than the original comic book or the Frank Miller graphic novels.

But it didn't work. Schumacher thought he was being clever; his movies, particularly the second one, were merely stupid. Batman may be a comic book, but he needs his darkness.

Consider another hero: James Bond. Sean Connery (mostly) played the character seriously. Sure, his 007 could be cheeky or absurd, but you never doubted that he was still a cold man with a deadly weapon, and the movies benefited from the portrayal.

Roger Moore has said that he looked at the ludicrousness of the Bond character -- a world-famous secret agent? Talk about an oxymoron -- and decided to lift an eyebrow whenever he could.

Which is why the Bond films with Moore are vastly inferior to the Connery movies.

Of course, it's easy to go too far the other way. George Lucas has taken his recent "Star Wars" films so seriously the zest of the original trilogy is gone. Those recent movies could have used a lighter touch.

But back to "Batman." Director Christopher Nolan knew little about the superhero when he took the reins of the new movie, "Batman Begins." He and co-screenwriter David S. Goyer decided to go back to the source material -- and its spirit.

After all, Bruce Wayne is an orphan whose parents were brutally murdered. He's a loner. He lives in a corrupt cesspool of a city. This is dark stuff, worthy of an old legend. The TV series didn't mine it, but the TV series had completely different ideas.

Eye on Entertainment enters Wayne Manor.

Eye-opener

"Batman Begins" also features a new Batman, Christian Bale.

Bale may be the most appropriate actor ever to play Batman. He's made a career out of unusual career choices, generally avoiding box-office cotton candy and instead playing a strange serial killer ("American Psycho"), a wasting-away insomniac ("The Machinist") and a Henry James character ("The Portrait of a Lady"). He also has a face that looks good brooding under a cowl.

"Batman Begins" tells the Batman story from the beginning: how Wayne lost his parents, how he traveled the Earth to learn the ways of evil, how he came back to Gotham City determined to change things for the better, and how he had to do so while gripped by uncertainty and self-loathing.

Along the way, he meets Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), who guides him in the ways of evil; Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), a technology wizard employed by Wayne Industries; Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), his loyal butler; Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), a childhood friend-turned-attorney; Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman as a good guy for a change), Gotham City's most honest cop; and Ra's Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe), whom you don't want to know about.

The movie has been welcomed by critics and fans as a return to form -- perhaps even better than Tim Burton's "Batman" films.

"The Batman movie I've been waiting for," writes Roger Ebert.

"A bold and brilliant superhero movie," says the BBC's Nev Pierce.

About bat time.

"Batman Begins" opened Wednesday. The film was produced by Warner Bros., like CNN a unit of Time Warner.

On screen

"The Perfect Man" stars Hilary Duff as a girl who creates a fake suitor for her unlucky-in-love mother (Heather Locklear). But then her mother wants to meet the guy, and hilarity ensues. You know, I don't think this plot has ever been used before in a Hollywood movie. What will they think of next? A free-spirited cop who argues with his by-the-book boss? Also starring Chris Noth. Opens Friday.

On the tube

Last week saw the debut of "The Cut," a reality show starring Tommy Hilfiger. This week features "Making the Cut," an HBO special starring Ray Romano and Kevin James, who try to do just that at Pebble Beach during the famed course's February pro-am. 9 p.m. ET Saturday, HBO. (HBO is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN.)

If you've ever wanted to learn how to act around money -- or like you have money -- try "I Want to Be a Hilton," in which Kathy Hilton (Paris' and Nicky's mother) tutors a number of contestants in the proper way to do things. The contestants may learn something, but they're probably just in it for the money -- a $200,000 trust fund. 9 p.m. Tuesday, NBC.

Sound waves

"The Future Embrace" (Warner Bros.), Billy Corgan's first solo album, comes out Tuesday.

Paging readers

Seems like only last year that Janet Evanovich published the last book in her Stephanie Plum number series, "Ten Big Ones." (Hey, it was last year.) Her new one, "Eleven on Top" (St. Martin's Press), comes out Tuesday.

Video center

"Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous," the sequel to the Sandra Bullock beauty pageant cop comedy, comes out on DVD Tuesday.

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