Movie Review: Batman Begins

In a word, fantastic. I was so sure I was setting myself up for a fall. I remember reading about how Warner Brothers was going to get this franchise going again. Visions of Batman & Robin filled my head. Then a glimmer of hope in the darkness, Christopher Nolan was brought in to direct. For those unfamiliar with his past work, he did the phenomenal Memento and the also excellent remake of Insomnia. Then David Goyer was brought in to write, he had done excellent work with the Blade series.

The big question was who could pull of our complex hero? Enter Christian Bale, who proved to me he could play the role with the underrated Equilibrium. Then the big names started rolling in. Before long the cast comprised of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, and Rutger Hauer. This sounded too good to be true. I was sure Warner would find a way to turn this into a train wreck. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

This is a wonderful interpretation on the creation on one of the most interesting of heroes. This is the first film to truly capture who Batman is without requiring any leaps of logic. The film, while clearly not "real" in any sense, plays by it's rules and the logic holds through to the end. This is the first real insight into why Bruce became the Bat, the first to explore with any type of depth to give background to his pathos. It has become more than just a reaction to his parents murder.

I really don't want to get into too much of the story. Many of you, even non-Batman fans have at least a basic knowledge of Batman's origin and the fact that he has a large rogue's gallery to choose a villain from. What is really going to cement the stature of this film is going to be the a combination of character(including acting and dialogue), visual style, and story. So, it may be a better idea to take a look at these elements.

The first one to look at is going to be the story. This film, more so than any of the Burton/Schumacher era films, gives us a clear focus on Bruce Wayne. The first hour of the film shows a great deal of development and growth in the Wayne character. We all know that his parents are murdered by a robber in an alley after going to the theater, we know that he grows up and puts on a bat costume on and fights crime. Christopher Nolan gives us reasons for this change, and Bale gives us a conflicted young man. We see him develop naturally. The growth we get and the way they tie his training and such in to the later story works well and gives it more emotion.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

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