Customer Reviews

Batman Begins

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I enjoyed reading this novelization. Enthralled by the first 135 pages, I was able to widen the voyeur lens on Master Wayne. I also met characters not introduced in the movie. Young Bruce has a tutor named Miss Daisy. Later, Vagrant Bruce has an encounter with a bosun named Hector, and hijacks a truck with a bandit Bruce nicknamed "Stocky". We also get the scoop on Ra's Al Ghul/Ducard: He is a "methodical man" of "rationality and science" who "keeps records"; he has "sired 414 children", yet "must have a son"; has a daughter named Talia who he wants Bruce to impregnate because up until now "no man . . . has ever been worthy of mingling his genes with his" [Note that Talia is not mentioned again in the novel after this, which is a misstep in my opinion]; and one more surprise regarding his "origin".

Unfortunately, by page 136 the novel dips ever so slightly, but provides some insight into motives of the main players. The creation of Bruce Wayne's backstory was the high point. Some of the dialogue is verbatim from the movie, which works 80% of the time.

It took me 6 hours to read this novel. If you enjoyed the movie, you may enjoy the book. Ra's Al Ghul's journal almost steals Bruce's thunder, but who can really steal anything from Batman? He's the Guardian of Gotham City.

5 stars: pages 1-135
3 stars: pages 136-320
Total: 4 stars

I always read the novel before I see the movie, rule of thumb. I have not yet seen Batman Begins but after reading this book I can only hope it's as good. The first few chapters are entertaining and suck you into the story of an only child raised by his billionaire parents. The plot thickens as young bruce discovers a crevice in the well he has fallen into, while playing, and bats fly at him and nearly scare him to death. The story trudges on, chronicling the death of bruce's parents, his insane travel across the globe in dark trashy shipbottoms, his discovery of an ancient temple dedicated to martial arts, and his rise into the role of Gotham's own Dark Knight.

Overall this book is an excellent telling of Batman's origins, but lacks in thematic elements. Most action scenes are rushed through and written poorly, and some moments don't seem to make much sense.

Being the complete comic book nerd I am, this story seems too good to be true. I reccommend this if your looking for a short fun read.

Dennis O'Neil adaptation of the screenplay of Batman Begins is a great read from the first page to the last. The story packs a real punch and tells how Batman began his career. A few surprises are thrown into the mix and you get a top notch read all the way.

If the movie is half as good as the book was, it will be great.

Four Stars

A smoothly written novel that follows the movie quite closely, which was what I wanted. It also fills in some data not supplied by the movie itself (though not a lot), and so consequently is an interesting supplement at times. It also provides another way of experiencing and reviewing the story line. I enjoyed it, and when I read the ending, I wished there were more so that I could keep reading.

This book is the first Batman movie novelization I've read and I've got to say, I was very impressed. This was the first of Dennis O'Neil's writing that I was exposed to, And i liked how he put such great detail into a simple movie novelization. I also enjoyed O'Neil's rendition of Batman: Knightfall.

This is great read for any fan of Batman or for someone looking to have a full set of Batman novels

PARTY ON, DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before I begin, let me say that I knew full well that O'Neil's characterizations were considered 'flat' by others, but I figured I could overlook it since I originally bought this book because I was interested to see how O'Neil would delve into the seven year gap of Bruce Wayne's life.

With that said, I'll now say that it wasn't worth the .65 cents I paid. I could have just as easily looked it up online or made something up myself. O'Neil's characterizations are much worse than the previous reviews will lead you to believe, especially when his idea of 'indepth' is adding another sentence to describe the scene. Consequently, as another reviewer pointed out, the whole book reads like a screenplay. I can count on one hand the number of times I absolutely knew for sure what one character was feeling at any point in time and that was usually when O'Neil went out of his way to point it out to us (I suppose subtly is overrated nowadays anyway).

It was like the whole book was just copied and pasted from the actual script itself with a few extra scenes to give it something the movie didn't have. It gets to the point where you frankly just don't care what happens to anyone or, if you're like me and/or you've seem the film, you really just want someone to write something better.

Perhaps the only upsides to this book are that we're given a brief look into the seven years of Bruce's "disappearance", what Bruce did when he got back, the few paragraphs of Ra's journals, and a brief peek into the heads of Gordon and a few other people. But as I pointed out before, all of which are flat and all could have just as easily been looked up online.

Let's just say I've read fanfiction with more substance than this.

I give it one star, but only because I can't give it a 0.

Normally, I don't bother with novelizations, but since this and Transformers have novels that go along with them, not based on anything, I decided to give them a shot, and I'm glad I did. While the Batman Begins movie seemed to rush through some parts, and drag on through others, this novel seemed perfect. It goes into far greater detail about the League of Shadows, and Ra's Al Ghul's history, and in doing so, solidifying his long life, by having explicit references to the Lazarus Pit and his HIGH number of daughters. I felt in the movie, the pre-Batman stuff was boring, not because of a lack of cowl, but because it all seemed to move to fast, and was too hard to follow. In the novel, though, it all seemed to fit well, it was clear what was going on at all times. It also goes into the minds Ra's, Rachel, Gordon, and Crane far more, giving more insight into everyone's motives. It feels less like a novelization, and more like the movie was an adaption of it.

I loved the movie, so naturally I enjoyed reading the book. It did have some extras in that it gave a little more information as to the origination of Ras Al Ghul. It also showed a bit more of Bruce Wayne's earlier life, before Batman. Once he became Batman, the extras pretty much stopped. I was hoping to perhaps read some extra scenes not shown in the movie. I was also a bit disappointed in the action scenes. I did enjoy the book, but I thought it could've been a little better.

This story clearly shows how Batman came to be. The author gave us just what we wanted and even more. A lot of action and even a mystery that surrounds one of the main characters. Batman is truly a hero and a legend that will always be a part of our culture.

Honestly, the only reason I was super excited about this movie was for Scarecrow. Batman's nice but I'm more of a fan of his main Rogue's Gallery. When I bought this book after watching the movie I'd hoped they'd go more into Scarecrow's detail. Not only did they avoid it but they left out a few quotes I really liked from the movie. Besides that they did the other characters alright but I would have liked something different.