I liked Batman Begins. While I suppose Bruce Wayne's actions aren't entirely realistic, I think it's as realistic and rational an explanation as you're ever going to get for why Batman exists. Ultimately, the reason why I liked it was because it was the only Batman movie that I think truly let us inside Bruce Wayne's psyche.
I do think that it lacks that great, gothic, mythic quality of the Tim Burton movies, particularly in its portrayal of Gotham City.
Obviously it's better than those Joel Schumacher atrocities. Lets just forget those ever existed, shall we?
As for The Dark Knight, I liked its anarchist interpretation of the Joker and its depiction of Harvey Dent's descent into madness. However, I felt like it kinda lost its focus on Bruce Wayne. Nolan seemed more interested in making a straight up crime drama about Harvey Dent & Jim Gordon teaming up to take out the Joker. Batman almost felt like an inconvenience. He was mostly there for the requisite action sequences.
If I had to rank the live action Batman movies, my list would be:
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
Batman Returns
Batman (1989)
Batman & Robin
Batman Forever
I think the reason why he was picking Gotham City to be destroyed is because it was a symbol of the corruption & decadence of modern American culture as a whole. It's basically New York City with a different name.
I do think that it lacks that great, gothic, mythic quality of the Tim Burton movies, particularly in its portrayal of Gotham City.
Obviously it's better than those Joel Schumacher atrocities. Lets just forget those ever existed, shall we?
As for The Dark Knight, I liked its anarchist interpretation of the Joker and its depiction of Harvey Dent's descent into madness. However, I felt like it kinda lost its focus on Bruce Wayne. Nolan seemed more interested in making a straight up crime drama about Harvey Dent & Jim Gordon teaming up to take out the Joker. Batman almost felt like an inconvenience. He was mostly there for the requisite action sequences.
If I had to rank the live action Batman movies, my list would be:
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
Batman Returns
Batman (1989)
Batman & Robin
Batman Forever
Ras' intentions for Gotham makes only the slightest sense, well he's a comic book villian so he's crazy anyway. But the Gotham portrayed is not terribly different than the corruption found in any city in the world. There's no special motive to pick Gotham. Gotham needed to be shown to be unique in this story, and it just wasn't.
I think the reason why he was picking Gotham City to be destroyed is because it was a symbol of the corruption & decadence of modern American culture as a whole. It's basically New York City with a different name.