ROTTEN TOMATOES: Ebert & Roeper: "Batman Begins" Best "Batman" Film Ever

Ebert & Roeper: "Batman Begins" Best "Batman" Film Ever

by Senh Duong | June 05, 2005

On their weekly syndicated show "Ebert & Roeper," Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper gave early reviews of "Batman Begins." They gave the film two thumbs way up.

Ebert, who didn't like any of the previous "Batman" films, called it the best "Batman" film ever and one of the year's best films. He thought it's the first "Batman" film to get it "absolutely right"; It's the "Batman" film that he's "been waiting for and hoping for." Roeper, who loved the visionary first "Batman" film by Tim Burton, agrees; To him, it's, by far, the best "Batman" film ever. You can access an audio version of this show on Monday at their official site.

Related Items

Movie:	Batman Begins
Critic:	Roger Ebert
	Richard Roeper
Celeb:	Christian Bale
	Michael Caine
	Morgan Freeman
	Gary Oldman
	Ken Watanabe
	Katie Holmes

(1-20 of 40 posts) | Reply

rcbaker87 writes:
on Jun 05 2005 08:02 PM

know im going to see it

(Reply to this)

Madman writes:
on Jun 05 2005 08:48 PM

Good to hear!! Although in all honesty the other films have never been fantastic with the exception of the first which was fun the first time but was a suprising let down with repeated viewings.

Madman

(Reply to this)

Scott Weinberg writes:
on Jun 05 2005 08:51 PM

Variety also has their review up, which is not nearly as complimentary. ;)

(Reply to this)

Barty writes:
on Jun 05 2005 08:53 PM

Of course they called it one of the best films of the year, that's because it will be. Hell, it will be my new favorite of the year when I see. I love being a fanboy.

(Reply to this)

mr_movie_maniac writes:
on Jun 05 2005 09:14 PM

Best ever? I don't think it had much to compete with...but still...you can count me in.

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arpeggio191 writes:
on Jun 05 2005 09:22 PM

[b]oh my dear lord...[/b]
i am so excited for this movie! I found out they were doing a new batman about 6 months ago and have been waiting patiently ever since. Christian Bale is a complete bad-ass. Think they'll have a midnight showing like they did for star wars???

I have to disagree and say that the first batman movie with Keaton was very good. It was dark and angry (as it friggin should be joel!).

In the end, everyday is a countdown till the 15th...

(Reply to this)

Ophiuchus writes:
on Jun 05 2005 09:52 PM

I'm glad they found someone who could rescue Batman from its pit of campy mediocrity. My dad was so mortified by the more recent one that he walked out on it.
As the Spiderman movies proved, comic book movies don't have to be stupid. I guess I'm not the only one who realised that.

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arpeggio191 writes:
on Jun 05 2005 10:14 PM

I agree that the spiderman movies were extremely well done. Any word on who the villian will be? I'm hoping for either vemon or carnage, personally.

Also, what's the word on a possibile Flash movie? I know they want Ryan Renolds to do it if it goes through. I can't think of anyone better. Renolds is pretty good and is who i picture the Flash to look like.

As you could probably guess, i'm a fan of making comic books into movies, but only if they're done well and capture the tone of the comic books. Unfortunately, the ones that suck far outweigh the ones that are good.

it's now 5/6... only 9 more days.

(Reply to this)

braziliangog writes:
on Jun 06 2005 12:02 AM

I am SO happy to read this... with such a great cast, I was really hoping this wasn't going to turn into another, I don't know, "Copland" or something (as in, waste of talent). I love Batman, and haven't enjoyed it since Burton let go; the last two were pretty much a joke. He's the Dark Knight, not the Technicolor Knight! I expect Bale will be great -- the perfect combination of intelligence, intensity, wit and darkness.

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TheAnswerMVP2001 writes:
on Jun 06 2005 12:05 AM

Ebert and Roper don't know jack, I could care less what they think. I was going to see this film anyways and still am, as far as better than Michael Keaton...we shall see, as far as the other Batman films a college production would be better so saying this one is the best isn't saying much.

(Reply to this)

Jaws2004 writes:
on Jun 06 2005 05:31 AM

Cool!!!

(Reply to this)

JB3 writes:
on Jun 06 2005 07:45 AM

I don't always agree with Ebert and Roeper, but this does look to be great.

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fight__club writes:
on Jun 06 2005 02:40 PM

I get more pumped for this movie everyday.

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OutToLunch25 writes:
on Jun 06 2005 02:48 PM

The guy who wrote the Variety review just doesn't understand what the movie is about. He complains that the movie is too dark and not suitable for kids. Well that's the whole point. This is not supposed to be a kid-friendly summer movie. Go watch Spiderman 2 again if you want that. Batman is supposed to be much darker and violent. I'm glad to see they finally got a director who understands the source material. Tim Burton never really cared for the comics. He just wanted to make his own movie and he used Batman as the vehicle for it. And Joel Schumacher just turned into a joke. After Batman & Robin, that man should never be allowed to direct a movie again. There's no excuse for botching a movie that badly.

(Reply to this)

arpeggio191 writes:
on Jun 06 2005 06:29 PM

In reply to this comment (#822736)
oh man, i completely agree. It's so dissapointing when directors tone down a movie to target a larger audience. While i think the Blade movies were ultimately kind of dumb, i do appreciate their tone. Blade's a pissed off, half-vampire, vampire killer. He should be allowed to swear and kick the shit out of people. You can get away with kid-friendly movies like spiderman, probably the up coming superman movie, and mostly likely the Flash (if it's ever given the green light... if i has, i haven't heard.) Batman however, is like Blade in that they are both very angry and should be allowed to be vengeful and dark. I can't wait for this movie... now all i have to do is buy the poster...

(Reply to this)

sprsteve writes:
on Jun 06 2005 08:21 PM

In reply to this comment (#822730)
I just read that "The Flash" got the green light from WB. And seeing how close Reynolds and Goyer are, he is sure to star. Personally I love Reynolds, he's hilarious with great facial expressions that only add to his humor. He's perfomance in Blade Trinity was really the only thing good about that movie. Besides, I believe he could fit the personality of Flash perfectly.

And I agree that most of the previous Batman movies were a joke, so saying that this is the best shouldn't be interperated as that this movie is just better than them. This movie appears to have great promise.

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planetawesome writes:
on Jun 06 2005 10:05 PM

[b]Ebby and Ro Ro[/b]
Ebert and Roeper loved the Hulk movie, Roeper giving it "big thumbs up," but it blew chunks. (As a sidenote, that thumb system is really annoying. What are "enthusiastic thumbs"?) So I'm not getting too excited about anything they say. In fact, their praise makes me a little nervous. Still, I want this movie to work SO MUCH... glowing reviews from the comic book elite are what's getting me giddy. We'll find out soon.

(Reply to this)

penguinking writes:
on Jun 07 2005 03:11 AM

[b]This film will rock![/b]
Forget the thus-far 67% rating. Even the 3 bad reviews don't make the film sound too bad. It just doesn't sound like the reviewer's cup of tea. Basically the negative reviewers seem to want it to be a camp-fest or to be a kid's film. ALL the feedback from proper Batman films on this has been amazing. People on batman fan forums who didn't like the burton films have said this is even better than Mask of the Phantasm.

I think this will end up on about 85% on RT. Its mark will be dragged down of course by those who simply failed to see the point, or don't understand what Batman is all about.

(Reply to this)

Yrk writes:
on Jun 07 2005 12:36 PM

planetawesome, i have to disagree with you about hulk. i thought it was excellent. certainly better than a lot of recent comic book movies lately. i'm a big hulk fan though, so maybe it's just me being biased; i just thought it was put together very well.

i'm excited for batman begins, but don't want to get hopes up for it, since most of the batman's have not been that great, with the exception of the first one. it needs to be good though. something needs to jumpstart this pathetic blockbuster season. hell, maybe "land of the dead" will be 'the one.'

(Reply to this)

Reel 2/Dialogue 2 writes:
on Jun 07 2005 12:42 PM

In reply to this comment (#822739)
[b]It's supposed to be in-out, not up-down, Ebert, yo[/b]
:D

Too true. They need to quit saying stuff like that. Pretty soon, they'll use thumbs for all sorts of descriptives, like "two orgiastic thumbs up" or "one severed thumb down" or "two huge big fat fargin' meh thumbs sideways". Stick with star ratings, you kids.

I'm not excited enough to see this in a theater, but I'll await the DVD in a few weeks :). And the ultimate Batman, for me, will always be the Animated Series. That one had NO ARMOR and sparse use of kung fu. My kinda hero.

(Reply to this)

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