BATMAN BEGINS = Rewrite of THE SHADOW?

~I mean, was he even mentioned as a martial artist of any kind in the comic or cartoon? He was good at fencing, that is all I remember. ~

Have you been reading the comic book series?

Neeson maybe Irish but he wasn't portraying an Irishman, neither was Bale who is English portraying an Englishman. So arguing this is pointless.

Frankly no, it is not a re-write of the Shadow. Also the Animated Series was great, but not the definitive Batman. The comics will always be.

Crantson was a criminal, he was a drug dealer, he was also ruthless, remember he let one of his own men die. Bruce Wayne was just studying the criminal mind, he never became one of them. And yes, in the comics, Wayne did alot of search and training, he did not become Batman overnight. You have to remember this is a man with no super powers or powers to cloud people's minds. Instead he has to use his body as a weapon as well as his mind.

Also his nationality, Neeson's, isn't revealed and yes, like the comic, he is a terrorist whose motivation is to dominate societies. Neeson/Ducart/ not his Japanese stand in, trained Wayne and yes, in the comics he is the greatest living martial artist. Go to DC's website and read his bio. Also, I think they went into the oriental slant for quite a few reasons, one being that it would save time, because Wayne's martial arts training has to be entered in somewhere also not stating that Ra's Al Ghul was Arab was more than likely political correctness wanting to avoid Arabian or Muslim references with a terrorist plot. I think it was wise it also helped them kill two birds with one stone so to speak. I also agree that some re-invention occured due to these reasons. But on the whole, it is the most accurate version of Batman on film yet.

About the Lazarus Pit, do you thinkthey had time to go into it? They didn't say there was no Lazarus Pit, they just didn't bring it into the story. You know how villians resurface, since there are going to be 3 movies, then Ra's Al Ghul could show up again. We never did see him die, we did see him go into a meditative state, or perhaps he was merely closing his eyes. It left room though for a reapperance. Personally I think it was a wise descion on Nolan's part to drop the Pit concept for a more realistic feel to the movie. Which in my opinion he established.

~And the little asian guy who trains Cranston, is very similar to Ken Watanabe's Ra's Al Ghul.~

Uhhmm I don't see it, one is training Cranston in the metaphysical abilities to cloud minds, change his face and control a demon possesed dagger and the other just stands about being a double for the real Ra's Al Ghul. You have to also noticed the little asian guy was training Cranston to be a force for good, Ra's Al Ghul was training Wayne to be a force for terrorism. Also it isn't the little Asian guy who shows up to destroy the city, he is dead, it is Gengas Khan, someone who really had nothing to do with Cranston except they were both trained by the same person.

We also don't know about Cranston much, who was not the Shadow in the pulps, but another disguise for him when the real Cranston was abroad, while in Begins it follows the comic book story where Joe Chill kills his parents, Wayne's motivation to find out more, to understand more about the criminal mind.

If you get a chance, pick up Frank Miller's Year One which is still in print. Great read...you will then see reference's in the movie, Gordon as a young cop, his wife and daughter Babs. No, Begins is not a verbatim lift from Year One, but contains alot of references.

Like I mentioned before, Bob Kane admitted that the Shadow was one of the many inspirations used to create the Batman. So it is logical they would both have similarities. In fact originally Batman used a gun, which was dropped because Kane did not want him to be too much like the Shadow. Then the comics later had the reason for Batman not using guns due to his parent's death and adversion to firearms. They are both creatures of the night and use fear as a tool against criminals.

Personally I think the Shadow film could have been much better if they had stuck with the pulp version and not let us know who the Shadow is till much later as in the series. Cranston was not the Shadow except in the radio series and this film.

Hopefully the next film they will make will be truer to Gibson's creation and not the <shiver> radio series.

So in your world everyone is wrong and you are right...gotcha.

I wondered about Raimi basing Darkman off of The Shadow.
I've only seen this one version of The Shadow, but I wonder if it's possible a few scenes could be based from Darkman, too... Or if an earlier The Shadow already had those things. I can't even remember what parts sounded so alike, though. All my movies vanished over a year ago. >_>" I think something the Shadow said sounded like Darkman at one point, and maybe camera angles, but that could be more to do with the types of movies they are than anything else.

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actually they're both ripoffs of ZORRO. yes, really.

but who cares. probably 90% of the stories you like are reinterpretations of other stories.