Batman Begins & Fantastic Four Movie Review

inspiring fear in his victims. Compared to Ra’s Al Gul, The Joker is just that,
a court jester.

In the comics, Gul has a super sexy beautiful daughter with whom Batman becomes romantically involved. Gul also comes to Batman's aid a number of times in solving highly complex crimes involving a league of powerful international cartels. In the comics, Gul is always a step ahead of Batman as he manipulates our hero into destroying his enemies or into foiling a ring of criminals that represents a threat to his (Gul’s) own operations.

Overall though, Batman Begins delivers, and oh boy does it deliver!!! The Brothers at Warner finally did it right by tapping a supporting cast of brilliant actors from Morgan Freeman to Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman and Rutger Hauer, the movie is carried on the shoulders of Oscar-winning and Oscar-caliber performers who deliver just the right tone. Christian Bale is not left wanting for support in this production. The look of this movie is by far superior to the staged look of the first series.

Here we see a real city, a real skyline, blue skies and clouds, a sophisticated metropolis with a decaying underbelly, being inexorably wasted by corporate greed and corruption, very much a reflection on today's reality in our United States and perhaps an unwitting commentary by the auteur.

The editing is first rate, the overall pacing is fast and Nolan does not overdose on the CGI effects or "the look" as has been the tragic undoing of others. Gone are the close-up looks at leather nipples. In fact one might say the Batman in this movie is on a war footing, from the early ninja martial arts training he endures to the advanced military hardware he appropriates to fashion an array of gadgets Q would have envied.

Of course not to be overlooked is the rousing and sinister musical score by Hans Zimmer, which helps to propel the cinematic experience of the moviegoer several notches upward. Mr. Zimmer is to be highly commended for an incredible work which puts

Elfman's efforts on the original series in the rearview mirror. The soundtrack is very much dead-on and on par with John William's work with Superman. Only do not expect romantic notes or the fanfares of the gods blaring from trumpets. This movie is dark, brooding and intense and Zimmer's score does magic for this picture.

If you are tired of watching lackluster movies this summer, this could be the antidote for you. A more honest and possibly the first ever legitimate cinematic interpretation of the Batman to be committed to celluloid. So park your car in a good spot and head for the cool darkness of the theater to savor the return of the Dark Knight Detective.

Some of our readers may be wondering why there are no Batman Begins photos in this article. As of the date of publication we are still trying to get hold of a media press kit from Warner Brothers. It would seem that media liaison officers are too busy to respond to our request. All Related Batman trade names, trademarks are the properties of Warner Brothers Studios and DC Comics.

The Fantastic Four
RATING: llll out of lllll
By Pierre E. Maertin

For as long as I can remember I have been an avid comic book reader. As a kid I could not get enough. I grew up abroad in the Old Country, and where we used to live, exciting TV programming was scarce.

We didn’t have a color TV set until I was ten years of age and in the 70s the most exciting episodes of American programming in my neck of the woods were the Six Million Dollar Man, The Love Boat, Little House on the Prairie, Happy Days and Black Sheep Squadron (at least that’s what I remember). Superhero comics were more abundant and DC Comics was the standard. My best boyhood heroes were Supes, Batman and The Flash.

Occasionally DC would put out a special edition issue of Superboy and the Legion set in the far future or a Superman & Batman special. You could say I was a comics nutcase the way a Star Trek fan might behave at a hot Trek convention if he were to run into Jolene Blalok.

We used to trade comics back then without the help of an auction and “mint condition” was not part of our vocabulary. We would check out the cover and quickly peruse the stories to be sure they were not “to be continued in the next issue”, and if it looked hot we would trade. Sometimes we would throw in some marbles in the deal if the other party looked hesitant.

I was never a fan of Marvel comics and in fact was only aware of the Hulk and Spiderman characters through the TV adaptations with Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno and the Saturday morning cartoons but never made the connection to the Marvel universe. In 1978 when Superman with Chris Reeves was released, the movie stood as a definitive milestone in my mind.

Superman The Movie was the “Star Wars” of comic books superhero adaptations brought to the silver screen. I was speechless.

The movie’s flow of narrative, groundbreaking flight sequences, humor, romance, warmth and incredible score by John Williams made the experience indelible. Thirty years later, Superman The Movie remains the classic it was destined to become.

With the release of X-Men and Spider-Man, I was fascinated not only in the level of technical wizardry but also in