The above protagonist fundas go for explaining why as a kid, I totally abhorred Nancy Drew, disliked the Hardy Boys, but found the “The Three Investigators” interesting. Nancy lived in a nice home, was good-looking, mature, kind, understanding (oh, kill me now !), had a handsome boyfriend, and a rich lawyer father to boot (he was the one who provided Nancy with new cars whenever the old ones got stolen etc.). Ditto for the Hardy boys (reverse the gender). The 3 investigators were, granted not poor, but had limited means, they biked everywhere – not old enough to have licences. Definitely not rich, they didn’t have familial support for detective work, and pretty much depended on their smarts to see them through.
Anyway, coming back to “BB”, it reminded me of “Judge Dredd”, fragmented and slow-paced, at least in the first half. Actually I think a faithful translation of the comic format, it doesn’t work well in cinema. This really begins from the very begining, really taking you through Bruce Wayne’s life as a child, his fear of bats, the death of his parents and the problems he faces thereafter. Liam Neeson was a misfit, I thought, but Michael Caine was perfect as Alfred. Parts of the story seemed very theatrical, and far-fetched, but on the whole an OK watch for Batman fanatics.
