Batman Begins

Christian Bale stars as Bruce Wayne and Michael Caine is the loyal family butler, Alfred, in Batman Begins; which is Christopher Nolan’s first installment in a new Batman film series. And getting straight to the point: Batman Begins is the fifth attempt to bring Batman to the big screen, but the first one to get it right.

As a little boy, Bruce Wayne sees his parents murdered. As a college student, avenging his parents’ death becomes impossible, Bruce Wayne leaves Gotham City to travel the world. He is found by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), who convinces Wayne that avenging his parents’ deaths isn’t impossible. Together, Ducard and Ra’s Al Ghul (Ken Watanabe) train Bruce Wayne in the martial arts in a mysterious Eastern country — which is never specifically named.

Meanwhile, back in Gotham City, there’s a plot unfolding to drive all of its citizens mad, on the part of a psychiatrist named Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), who doubles as the Scarecrow. Rachel Dawes (Katie Holms), a childhood friend of Wayne’s, is an assistant DA and begins to suspects that this shrink isn’t on the level.

Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is the scientific mastermind at Bruce Wayne’s family company. Fox has been exiled to the company’s basement, where he has some top secret projects under development. Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) is the one good cop on a corrupted police force. Gordon is working hard to rid the city of crime and ends up helping Batman, though he doesn’t know if he can trust the Caped Crusader right away.

This was the darkest of the Batman movies, and the most engrossing — by far. Because the film features an all too human hero who learns from his mistakes you really get involved in the story. This thrilling movie even includes an incredible chase scene involving the Bat-mobile and half the cops in Gotham City.

This isn’t just a Batman movie for kids. You know: “Hi, Kids. Here’s Batman and there’s the villain acting out with some weird evil scheme.” No – it’s a fascinating story. Unlike the previous Batman movies, you don’t get bogged down with the villain of the week. Instead, in this movie there are about four or five interconnected bad guys; because the movie is mostly about Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego (or is it Batman and his alter-ego). Furthermore, the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman is an incredibly fascinating character, because he’s so incredibly driven.

This is the best Batman movie ever – by far. Christopher Nolan put a great stamp on this film: It’s dark, it’s gothic – but not cartoonish. Assuming that a vigilante hero like Batman could exist in real life, he would have to be the way Nolan presents Batman in this movie; and yet the movie remains faithful to the character Bob Kane and Bill Finger originally created.

Bale does a brilliant job as the Batman and is supported by a phenomenal cast of great actors – and all of them play the characters straight. Nobodies winking at the camera and saying, “We’re doing a comic book here.“ Instead they play out the Batman characters as if they exist in the real world we live in.

Batman Begins is the Batman movie I’ve been waiting for, it is simply a great film.

Joshua Flaugher

BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: "Fantastic. Emotional. Genuinely Gripping." - Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle.

FILM REVIEW: 'Batman Begins' is perhaps the first true and appropriate translation of the Batman comic book to the silver screen. Sure, there have been four previous big screen attempts, and even Tim Burton's first Batman from 1989 was a solid film, but in 'Batman Begins' we get the most accurate translation of the character, how he got there, and for the first time, making him the star of the story. Previous Batman films have made the villains the stars with Batman being the host so to speak. In this case, Batman himself, and by extension, Bruce Wayne, is the central character. Director Christopher Nolan takes the franchise in a wonderful new direction, thankfully jettisoning all the rubbish from the previous film, Batman And Robin, and grounding it all in a sense of realism that would almost have you believe it could really happen. In this film, Batman is perhaps the darkest and even scariest he's ever been which is welcome surprise; he's almost on the edge of being the anti-hero and by focusing the story in this area, 'Batman Begins' contains a richness and texture that the previous film don't come anywhere close to matching.
We start with Bruce Wayne in a hell-hole prison, a man lost but trying to understand the criminal mind by becoming one himself. We get flashbacks to his childhood, why he became afraid of bats, the incident where his parents are murdered in front of him (and not by the Joker as in Burton's film), culminating in his meeting with the enigmatic Ducard (Liam Neeson), a man who offers him the path to a secret group called the League of Shadows, a vigilante group who restore balance when greed and corruption have totally taken over society. After receiving ninja and mental training, Wayne is given one final test to prove his worth; he must execute a criminal. On this point, he disagrees with Ducard and ultimately the two come to blows, with Wayne barely escaping alive. Wayne then returns to Gotham with all his training and decides to create a symbol of fear for criminals in Gotham City, 'Batman'. As he goes about fighting crime as his alter-ego, Wayne comes to discover that Ducard is still alive and is actually the mysterious super-villain Ras Al Ghul, who has a diabolical plan to let Gotham destroy itself so it can be rebuilt in the name righteousness. Only Batman can stop him.
The storyline on the surface is perhaps quite the norm for a superhero origin story, but the first point it endears itself with is creating three-dimensional characters, and then getting quality actors to play them. Christian Bale is great as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and is absolutely threatening as Batman in particular. One sequence where he interrogates a corrupt cop with a voice straight from hell is frightening and dramatic. Liam Neeson is spot on as Ducard as well as the villainous Ras who serves as a foil for Batman, who in effect is Ras' student who ultimately rejected him. The remaining actors are also excellent; Michael Caine doesn't quite look like a potential Alfred but he definitely makes the character his own, Gary Oldman is perfectly understated as the up-and-coming Lt. Gordon, Cillian Murphy is creepy as the film's second villain The Scarecrow, Morgan Freeman is great as a James Bond 'Q' style character who helps to give Wayne all the tools he needs to be Batman, and only Katie Holmes doesn't fit well. Somehow a former Dawson's Creek star just doesn't fit in to this type of film.
The action set-pieces in this film are spectacular; Batman's first appearance to defeat a group of thugs and crime boss Carmine Falcone is effective, as is the final sequence where Batman and Ras battle it out one final time with Batman reluctantly letting his former mentor die to save Gotham City. Surprisingly, all the action plays second fiddle to the story which covers a lot of the pathos in the Batman character, starting with his fear of bats and his guilt over his parents' death. All of this makes Bruce Wayne perhaps the most flawed and internally conflicted characters ever to appear in a superhero film and serves to give him more depth and texture.
Where this film also scores major points is its realism; Batman only becomes who he is over a certain period of time as Wayne experiments with different looks and technologies until he finally settles on the look and feel he wants to properly enforce his crime-fighting in Gotham City. Even the batmobile looks more like an army assault vehicle rather than a stylised black bat-looking car and this is all very welcome, especially when compared to the previous film entries which despite certain strengths look pale by comparison to this movie. Even the Scarecrow is realistic; what is really a cartoon villain is actually portrayed with enough realism to make you believe any one could be such a character.
"Batman Begins" is an excellent film in its own right; as a Batman film, it's the only true Batman film.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The video transfer of this film is flawless. The picture is crystal clear perfect, crisp, colourful and vibrant. The soundtrack is likewise flawless, with several of the action sequences, and even the film's first image of bats flying across the scene to create the bat symbol working wonders on the surround system. A perfect transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The extras in this 'Collector's Edition' are a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, we get the CD soundtrack and a glorious special edition comic book which has back-editions of Batman comics that directly influenced the film. On the minus side, the bonus DVD with behind the scenes material is not really that extensive. There are a number of featurettes that explore the making of the film, but unfortunately the main featurette which interviews Chris Nolan and the filmmakers is only 15 minutes long, and the remaining featurettes are quite dry as they focus on technical aspects of the production. Rounding out the collection are a theatrical trailer, an additional German soundtrack, and a wealth of subtitles. The lack of an audio commentary and a substantial documentary is a major disappointment but the comic book and CD soundtrack are welcome. Overall, not bad but could have been better considering it's a limited number 'Collector's Edition'.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.

FILM RATING: 9/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 7.5/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 8.5/10 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

I want to make it perfectly clear that I don’t care for Christian Bale or Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of Batman. Having said that, I am a fan of the bat and keep an open mind. Don’t judge me, I have my opinions, you have yours.
Personal feelings aside, Bale does not do Batman justice. He seems very wooden. As Bruce Wayne he lacks compassion that the character has in the comic. Now, I will say that Bale is good in the action scenes and one-liners, and, unlike in The Dark Knight, he doesn’t go overboard with trying to make Batman’s voice so gravely that it distracts.
Liam Neeson is nearly a dead ringer for Ra’s al Ghul. If he was of Middle Eastern decent, he’s be dead on. Aside from certain deviations from the source material, Neeson does a pretty good job of nailing it on the head. Even going so far as to maintain the respect, contempt, and disdain that Ra’s has for Bruce Wayne.
Katie Holmes had all the freedom in the world with her character since Rachel was created for this film. Unfortunately, she doesn’t make it her own. Like Bale, she is very wooden and the audience can’t connect with her.
Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow would be a much better character if he wasn’t a pawn in Ra’s’ scheme. I read somewhere that Scarecrow was going to be the villain i the next Batman film before they decided to reboot, so there was a bit of faith that he could have carried a film, but I guess Nolan felt he could do more with Ra’s al Ghul.
Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine add some nice support to the cast.
I do not care for the Batmobile. It is too big and tank like. The Batmobile has always been sleek and inconspicuous. Why did Nolan feel the need to bring in a tank? I would like to know.
The water evaporator is a nice plot device, but I couldn’t help but be reminded of the dehydrating device from the 1966 Batman.
One thing that I really love about this film is how it goes into the training Bruce received. Most Batman origin stories skip over that or mention it.
There isn’t enough action in the film for my taste. It was bordering on getting too dramatic and preachy when it could have some real action.
For those of you that are into these dark films, this will be a treat for you. For those of us that prefer lighter fare, it’s a bit of torture, though. Yes, its an interesting take on Batman’s origin, but all the fun that the previous films have has been sucked out so that Nolan can make a “real” film. Newsflash, Batman is a comic book superhero! He does not need to be real! If you can get past all that, though, you should enjoy this film. Despite my feelings toward Nolan and Bale, this is a very good film.

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