Batman Begins

One thing is for certain, this ain't your daddy's Batman. Batman Begins is the story of how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman. It is about why and how a millionaire would become a crime fighting bat. This movie finally explains how the batcave came to be, how Batman got his suit, and where Batman learned those sweet moves that take down the bad guys. There are no villains in funny costumes here, just some evil people ruining Gotham City from the inside out. It's a new kind of comic book film. One about real people and how one person can make a difference.

Christopher Nolan has finally delivered on the promise he showed after the great mind fuck that was Memento. Nolan and Goyer have managed to not only revitalize a dead movie franchise, but also reinvent what a comic book movie could be. Batman Begins is structured perfectly, giving you everything you need without you even realizing and always pushing the story forward. Nolan shows a real visual flare here too. The cinematography is a throwback to Burton's Batman, but with some new cool visuals. Especially cool where the hallucination scenes, shot in a very cool and scary way. The cast is exactly what you would expect a cast like this to be...excellent. Never before has a comic book film been graced with a cast this distinguished (except maybe Sin City), and Nolan puts them to good use. Bale turns in a solid performance in the lead. He is the best actor so far at playing Bruce Wayne, but his Batman sometimes seems a bit forced. Michael Caine as Alfred the Butler is the character who steals the movie. He is basically used to help turn Batman into Bruce Wayne as opposed to the other way around. Rutger Hauer does good work with a relatively thankless part, as does Tom Wilkenson. Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy really turn in great performances, perfect for their parts. Freeman plays an inventor who has been demoted from one of the company's heads to someone who just sits around in a room full of scrapped top secret war stuff. Ain't that convenient for our good friend Bruce Wayne. Murphy plays Scarecrow, the closest thing to a costume villain this film has. He is a psychologist who uses a fear cerium to make people crazy. It is nice to see Cillian Murphy turn in a performance that will keep him working in Hollywood, after his great, but under seen star turn in 28 Days Later. Liam Neeson as Batman's mentor, and Gary Oldman as the soon to be police chief Gordon also do well here. Ken Watanabe, Katie Holmes, Mark Boone Junior, and Linus Roache round out the cast.

Not everything works in this new and improved Batman, but most does. The fight scenes were too dark and choppy and you could not tell what was happening most of the time. This may have been on purpose, but it was still annoying. Also, Katie Holmes' character was completely useless. She was ok in the movie, but it was so obvious she was in there just to have a female lead. That's pretty much all the problems I had with this film. One thing that I loved about this version of Batman is that it makes Batman scary like he is in the comics. In the comics his greatest asset is that the villains fear him. By keeping him in the shadows and keeping most of what he does to people off screen, it make him seem far scarier. So, all in all this is a very good film, on par with Burton's Batman and just about any other comic book film for that matter. Can't wait to see what Nolan does next.