A personal reason was just what the first movie meant for me at the time. It was the summer after freshman year and I was super burnt out on film after my most intense academic year of it. I'd been beyond hyped for the film for quite a while, ever since the trailer blindsided me before a screening of THE VILLAGE at the Metreon San Francisco the summer before. It was about as close to the Batman movie that i'd always wanted to see all these years. As a matter of fact I remember sitting in my room with one of my best friends, trying to write a pitch/ story for the third installment of the Batman saga, Tim Burton edition. Don't know where that doc went but our villains were the Scarecrow and Two Face as I recall, and years later, Chris Nolan would use these characters in big, interesting ways.
The other reason, which I came across tonight, was that the first film has a really large international scope, that in a lot of ways makes for a more interesting film. It's about Bruce Wayne's spiritual and physical journey that lead him to become Batman, and though it's pretty grounded in the real (or as real as a 150 million dollar summer popcorn flick can be), there's something deep and fantastical about the more intense psychological and hallucinatory elements of the film. The second film was huge and scope too, and without a doubt one of the best sequels EVER, but it's significantly more gritty and grounded in a world of local crime. It also traffics in very big ideas (this is Chris Nolan after all) but for me, as someone who's quasi a-political, the concept of city government and the saving power of a pure, good and strong elected official, just wasn't as compelling to me. Mind you Heath Ledger's insane(ly good) performance trumps any individual thing about the first movie, but that was such a distinct individual contribution.
Either way, I am really looking forward to next summer's epic conclusion of the trilogy. From what I can imagine, and from what I've gathered, it's gonna be an ante-upper that seamlessly blends the styles and approaches of the first two films, into what will likely stand as the capper to one of the greatest trilogies in the history of film, if not the greatest commercial one. Then we'll give Batman a nice 10 year rest from the feature world, and I'll be waiting in the wings to swoop in and give it another look then (or at least, that's how it always turns out in my dreams). Who knows? Anything's possible, but I'll have to make myself more than a man, that is for sure.
Alright, that went on way longer than I'd intended. Time to dream dreams about that same bat time, same bat channel.
