Batman Begins

Director Christopher Nolan is rebooting the Dark Knight with a ever darker style. It is faux realism. He starts off with the death of Bruces' parents. After not able to kill their killer, Bruce is in a Chinese prison where he meets the mysterious Ra's Al Ghul. It is the anti-Obi-Wan Kenobi. His message is a dark perversion of Justice. When he returns to Gotham, he invents Batman.

There are two things that keep this from an even more impressive start of Nolan's Batman Trilogy. The first is Katie Holmes. She is not up to the task. She is still playing that little girl character from Dawson's Creek. She doesn't have the seriousness or gravitas to play this gutsy lawyer character. It's a big character, and not just another girlfriend.

The second is that Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy) isn't a big enough villain. The evil plan has too much of a silly Bond feeling. It is too unrealistic in a Batman movie that is suppose to be realistic. It leaves a bad taste for the climatic ending. Other than those two, this is still a great start to the trilogy. It sets the tone for the final two.

Batman Begins is a well told story of the origin of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale). It covers a lot of the same ground as Michael Keaton's original Batman, but goes much further in depth in many factors of his creation. It goes into great detail about subjects such as how he got his costume, what exactly it is. Same goes with the Batmobile. We also find out why he chose to be bat-like.

One of the more interesting aspects here is how it shows Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne (Linus Roache), and how he molded Bruce's life and instilled good judgment within him, a point which is misunderstood about him by most people he comes in contact with. Thomas, too, teaches Bruce valuable lesson, such as "We fall so we can learn to pick ourselves up". This is pretty close to the theme of the movie or motto Bruce Wayne lives by. The resemblance of the father & son is pretty good, too.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the training Bruce Wayne endured becoming "invincible". Bruce is trained by Ducard (Liam Neeson) in many ways like a ninja (The concept of Batman IS similar to a ninja). He is taught many valuable lessons in this temple and is shown no mercy. Eventually, we even see his first real enemy as a superhero/vigilante.

Although I am not positive as to how true to the comic book this movie is, I am sure it took a few liberties, as did Spider-Man. Most of the small examples I have noticed are for the better and make for a good story. The Batmobile is more believable as an expensive armored vehicle that the military would not spend the money on than a juiced up Corvette (or whatever that was). Same with the Batsuit.

Katie Holmes is excellent as Rachel Dawes, a D.A. who is not afraid to go after the big villains in court. Also worthy of mentioning is Michael Caine as Alfred the butler. I do not believe they could have found a better man for that role, although I could not get the image of Caine as Austin Powers' dad out of my head when he was on screen.

Finally, in my opinion, Christian Bale makes a much better Batman than the three recent previous ones in Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney. Something about him makes Batman darker and more mysterious. Hopefully, DC Comics and movies have learned from their mistakes and we will not have to worry about Batman picking up a sidekick in this newest installment of the Batman series. 9/10

To start off this review I'd like to go back to the original batman series. Adam West hammed it up in what has to be the campest yet enjoyable version of batman. It was cheesy, it had the POW, WHACK, KABOOM, very very tongue-in-cheek which, brings me to my next point, is what batman eventually became. Batman, featuring Michael Keaton was a good film, keaton was a good batman, he portrayed the dark knight to a whole new army of fans, a darker batman, less camp, plus with a villain such as Jack Nicholson (turning in another great performance) as the Joker it was win win. Where from there? A sequel, Keaton yet again, Batman Returns, not as good as its predecessor but still a thoroughly enjoyable film with the villains being Penguin (Devito) and Catwoman (Pfeiffer) adding something different to the batman series. All is going well, then things start to go sour. Keaton is gone and in comes Kilmer who has to be the most wooden Batman ever, in come the clichés, the tongue in cheek one-liners and so on but Batman still has some credibility until, dare I mention it, Batman & Robin. This ruined the Batman series with Clooney just being the eye-candy for the ladies, the addition of Batgirl (oh dear Lord) and the villains just coming out with the most tongue-in-cheek one liners ever, example Mr Freeze "You're not sending me to the cooler", wrong, oh so wrong. Something had to be done and this was Batman Begins. This film rescues the Batman series single-handedly, it's a shame it didn't start off this way as it might not of died on it's rear. Bale is an inspired choice as Batman bringing a more serious side to Batman, the story is well paced, it's not all talk or just mind-numbing action, it actually keeps you gripped as you want to find more about Bruce Wayne's past. The only reason it misses out on a 10 is the quite pitiful bad guy scarecrow If you've not seen it I don't want to give too much away about the story but throw away all your perceptions about Batman because Batman is back and Batman has truly begun. D-man.

It sickened me in the past to see the Batman movie franchise slowly digging it's way to an early grave. After the quality Tim Burton films, the series pretty much went down the toilet, beginning a horrifically campy age of 'Bat credit-cards' and an armored Arnold Schwarzenegger tossing cringe-worthy puns at a Batman who seemed to be trying not to be embarrassed by the fact that his costume had nipples. So what could Warner Brothers producers hope to do to resurrect the franchise? Pretend it never happened, and start the whole series over again with a talented director, compelling story and capable cast.

Enter Christopher Nolan, the mastermind behind 2000's 'Momento', widely praised as one of the most innovative films of the decade. As director/co- screenwriter, Nolan creates a richly dark, atmospheric world for Batman to inhabit, similar to that of the Burton films, but less cartoony. The film's screenplay, written by Nolan and David S. Goyer is quality stuff, it's true that some of the dialog exchanges can seem kind of contrived, particularly between Wayne and Liam Neeson's character, Ducard, but it sounds so classy you tend not to care.

Nolan also puts a lot of trust in his audiences to stay put while the first hour of the film comprehensively explores Bruce Wayne's backstory, with no cape donning and few fight sequences. Nevertheless, the pace never slows, and the story is so unexpected and fascinating (who would have expected a Batman film to begin in a prison in Tibet? only Nolan could pull it off!) there's little chance of us losing interest. And this way, we really get a sense of who Bruce Wayne is, a trait none of the past movies were able to capture, including the Burton films. We see what drives him, what leads him to become this iconic crime fighter, and the reasoning behind the mask.

Of course, to help the audience get under Bruce Wayne's skin, it doesn't hurt to have such a talented lead as Christian Bale. Bale has been emerging as one of the most talented actors of his generation, and he brings that talent to a peak here, playing the darkest of all superheroes. If you were to break down the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne, you would find that it is essentially three characters: Wayne as Batman, behind the mask; Wayne's public facade as the billionaire playboy; and the real, brooding Bruce Wayne. Bale plays all three of the characters to absolute perfection, and molds them together well enough to make it clear to show they are still the same person. He has been given tons of accolades for his performance already, and needless to say, he deserves every one.

And the sheer quality of the supporting cast is mind-boggling, if for the number of big names only. It's very hard to find a weak spot in the incredibly strong array of performances here, but if one had to be found, it would have to be Katie Holmes. It's not that she gives a bad performance, on the contrary, but just she seems too young to be convincing as a district attorney. For me, Michael Gough will always be the definitive Alfred, but Michael Caine does an excellent job of taking over the role, giving a very strong (and often funny) performance. Liam Neeson is sheer class as Ducard, Wayne's mysterious mentor, as is Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, Wayne's arms manufacturer and provider of the Batman gear. It's wonderful to see the incredibly talented and much underrated Gary Oldman as Sgt. Gordon, the only decent cop in Gotham, and he truly makes the role his own. Even cult favorite Rutger Hauer makes an appearance as Richard Earle, the ambitious head of Wayne Enterprises. And (surprise surprise!) the villains are also actually menacing for once, as opposed to cartoony and corny. Cillian Murphy just about walks away with the show as the truly chilling Scarecrow (the sequences involving his 'fear gas' are surprisingly frightening) Ken Watanabe is mysterious and creepy as guild leader Ra's Al Ghul and Tom Wilkinson is very convincing as Carmine Falcone, head of the Gotham city mob.

Nolan's knack for realism also comes as a breath of fresh air in this age of CGI bloated blockbusters - there are next to no computer generated shots in the movie, even a sequence with Batman standing on top of a high building staring down at the city was filmed with a stuntman. And it really works, the Batmobile actually interacts with it's environment, and looks so much better real than computer generated. But don't think that the film will come across as too serious and stuffy because of Nolan's realism - true, Gotham seems too dark and dirty to come across as a fantasy world, but Batman Begins retains that unmistakable sense of fun that seems to only be present in comic book movies. We jeer and fear the villains, and cheer the hero as he lays his life on the line to vanquish evil and save the city. And that is how it should be. There's even a surprising twist near the end, which is doubly surprising because it actually comes as a shock. What's not to love here?

(and, further cudos to director Nolan for finally managing to make a swarm of bats actually frightening for once)

Overall, I'd have to label Batman Begins 'The must see movie of the summer' - it's a well written, authoritatively directed, impeccably acted (especially by Bale's powerhouse lead performance and Cillian Murphy's sickly menacing Scarecrow) and very high quality production. Indeed, most other summer blockbusters could learn a thing or two from Batman Begins. If the Batman franchise died under it's own gaudiness years ago, let us rejoice this glorious rebirth - Batman truly does begin here.

-10/10

I've just come back from a preview screening of Batman Begins. I went in with low expectations, despite the excellence of Christopher Nolan's previous efforts. Talk about having your expectations confounded! This film grips like wet rope from the start. I won't give away any of the story; suffice to say it mixes and matches its sources freely, tossing in a dash of Frank Miller, a bit of Alan Moore and a pinch of Bob Kane to great effect.

What's impressive is that despite the weight of the franchise, Nolan has managed to work so many of his trademarks into a mainstream movie. The story does not progress in linear fashion for the first half, and there are some truly spectacular hallucination scenes. Parents thinking of taking their young kids along, think twice. When we left, a terrified 8-year-old boy was being comforted by his parents. Some of what's up there on screen really is the stuff of nightmares.

Of the cast of Brits chosen to bring this American tale to the masses, Christian Bale convinces in his dual role, while Michael Caine as Alfred comes up with the humour just when the film is in danger of taking itself too seriously. Gary Oldman and Tom Wilkinson provide able support, as does Morgan Freeman.

Most refreshing of all is the way that Nolan and co have come up with a way of bringing comics to the screen that does justice to the often adult source material in a way that, say, Daredevil, tried and failed to do (although the director's cut is better). If the Dark Knight doesn't return after this, there's no justice.