Batman Begins

a new legend rises from the ashes of an old one.

Yes, I know it's been a while & I do know you're wondering "why is this guy reviewing a movie that everyone has made reviews about before?" Well, you know me, I'm a movie lover and also a comic book fan, specially about the ones that deal with the caped crusader, and since I've already dealt with "The Dark Knight Rises" I feel it is my concerned citizen duty to complete the trilogy as I did with previous bat films.

I had fearful reservations about this one. I loved Tim Burton's Batman - 12 years old when it came out I was the perfect age for it and I also enjoyed Batman Returns so much, that I thought it'd be the ultimate Batman film for ages to come. The franchise went so wrong under Joel Schumacher that I wasn't sure I wanted it resurrected. Not least because Batman was one of the few comics I read and enjoyed as a kid and was always my favourite superhero (yes, I know he's got no superpowers to be called a superhero) I grew up reading the comics, watching reruns of the Adam West TV show and then getting Burton's celluloid vision. I was spoilt for choice as a kid but as an adult now I was concerned revisiting the franchise, especially given Warner's record over the last decade of screwing up summer blockbusters with potential all over the place (dare I bring up the Matrix sequels?) 

Bruce Wayne is not your average yuppie.

Bad guys can teach you well sometimes.

However, I am pleased to report I could not have been more wrong about how great Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is. This is better than Burton. Sacrilege, you say?! Well Burton was still cartoony in many elements, he wasn't churning out the bilge of Schumacher but Burton's Batman was still over the top. As a kid this was ideal but Nolan's Batman is real. Everything in this world seems plausible and it is therefore a world that draws you in. Characters' vulnerability is that much more present. Every bruise, every scare, every concern, every emotion seems real and the whole technology behind Batman also seems very plausible. The batmobile looks like a massive tank monster, and Lucius Fox science & tech aid looks and feels very very real (the kevlar batsuit is a great example of it)

Part of this is that Nolan has assembled an exemplary cast. Again, this concerned me prior to seeing the film. I wasn't sure a cast of big name legends like Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman and well known names like Liam Neeson and Katie Holmes wouldn't detract and distract from Batman. I was always sure Christian Bale could be the great moody Batman he's been waiting his career to be but the others I wasn't so sure about.

You'll believe a bat can fly...oh, wait! bats do fly!

Batman had the swag even before swag was cool XD.

That said Bale is not just good, he's superb. I never thought I'd really be able to envision anyone other than Michael Keaton as the definitive Batman for me but since seeing Batman Begins a couple of days ago Bale has cemented himself in the position. Perhaps Keaton will now be able to escape the spectre of Batman he hasn't truly shaken off for 13 years. A funny fact is that Christian Bale had already played an obsessed millionaire character in 2000's American Psycho. Strangely, the name of his character was Patrick Bateman, ring any bells?

The rest of the cast is also pitch perfect. Cillian Murphy is creepy as hell, Liam Neeson is authoritative and imposing, Katie  Holmes is strong and sexy (I particularly thought she'd be insipid, but I was wrong) and Michael Caine is an Alfred you've never seen but in fact far more likely as a butler than the aristocratic pomp with which he is usually portrayed. Gary Oldman is also superb in a rare wholly decent character for him as Lieutenant Jim Gordon who gets far more to so here than Gordon has ever had to do before. Only Tom Wilkinson is a little off with a slightly comedic wise-guy American accent that never really convinces.

The emotional bond between Bruce Wayne and Alfred is actually a wonderful human heart to the film than Nolan and Goyer have written perfectly.

Fortunately not as boring as her past in Dawson's Creek.

Say Bruce, will ya diddle my skiddle?

Don't let that make you think the action is not front and centre though. From Wayne's training through the early stages of the film to his early missions as Batman at about the half way point to a thrillingly choreographed chase sequence and an edge of your seat finale this film delivers the cool quotient in bucket loads.

Great villains (especially Murphy), great story, great cast, great action... put simply, great film. Probably on of the best comic-book movies ever made (that's excluding the genius Sin City which I consider a moving comic-book rather than a comic-book movie, that will never be bettered but Batman is a different beast and the best of its kind). 

Overall, you already know this is part 1 of a magnificent trilogy Marvel wish they had, and the liberties Nolan took for the origin story won't bother the extremists bookworms of the comic book world. 

Anyways, here's the great movie trailer, and the following review will obviously be "The Dark Knight"