Batman Begins (2005, PG-13)

Rating: ****

Batman Begins completely reinvents the Batman movie franchise.  The Burton/Schumacher Batman films ended on a sad note, and none of the films were really that good.  Christopher Nolan, having marked himself as a director with the success of Memento, might have taken a risk at this, but he succeeds, and makes the best Batman movie yet.

            Batman Begins makes a nice intertwined combo of action and character developmental elements, to produce a noteworthy superhero film.  The films approaches humanity and fear for its basis, giving a much more realistic tone then the previous Batman movies that were heavily stylized, flashy or just plain stupid.

            The film follows billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), who has been orphaned at a young age.  Eventually, as a young man probably in his late 20s, he finds a man named Ducard (Liam Neeson), in the Himalayas, who teaches him the art of hand-to-hand combat.  Disgusted when Ducard orders Wayne to assist him in destroying Gotham, as he believes it can never be rescued from the crime that overflows it.  Wayne escapes to Gotham, and unleashes his alter ego: Batman, with the help of his trusty butler Alfred (Michael Caine), family friend inventor Lucias Fox (Morgan Freeman) and police sergeant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and seeks to return Gotham to justice.


              Bale, by the way, is perfectly suited for the role as Wayne.  He feels so confident, and comes in with debonair and style as cool, rich man Bruce Wayne, and dark and menacing as Batman, who yet fights for justice.  


                 Batman Begins is the darkest and grittiest of the Batman films yet, but Nolan introduces new elements of total fear, and probes his character’s minds.   In addition, he adds several quick-shot action sequences that are well choreographed.  But what Nolan does best is he produces such believable characters, characters we can so relate to that we would want the plot to be just as believable to.  We can compare this to characters in previous Batman outings, which appeared as stereo archetypes.  The well orchestrated music adds on to the drama and the excitement.  

            As is with most movies of this type, a romantic subplot is added, this time between Wayne and his long time friend Rachel (Katie Holmes).  This is where Nolan proves to have his weak spot, in that he fails to allow the subplot to grow out of where it starts, and Bale and Holmes also do not form a good couple.  Besides, Holmes is almost miscast anyway, whereas Bale is perfectly suited for the role. 

           While clocking in at approximately 140 minutes, Batman Begins is quickly and evenly paced, even though the end fight scene goes on at length.  

             Batman Begins serves in many ways the darker, more realistical superhero movie.  The action sequences are well staged, it's makes a good use out of today's technology, and actually deals with issues going on in big city's concerning gangs, drugs and money. This is a cut or two above your usual popcorn flick, mostly because this pic digs deeper into itself then most action flicks or superhero movies do these days.