Editorial Review:

Description:
Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents' murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

Amazon.com:
Batman Begins discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's Batman & Robin. As the title implies, Batman Begins tells the story anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken in by a mysterious instructor named Ducard (Liam Neeson in another mentor role) and urged to become a ninja in the League of Shadows, but he instead returns to his native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is strangling it. But are there forces even more sinister at hand?

Cowritten by the team of David S. Goyer (a veteran comic book writer) and director Christopher Nolan (Memento), Batman Begins is a welcome return to the grim and gritty version of the Dark Knight, owing a great debt to the graphic novels that preceded it. It doesn't have the razzle dazzle, or the mass appeal, of Spider-Man 2 (though the Batmobile is cool), and retelling the origin means it starts slowly, like most 'first' superhero movies. But it's certainly the best Bat-film since Burton's original, and one of the best superhero movies of its time. Bale cuts a good figure as Batman, intense and dangerous but with some of the lightheartedness Michael Keaton brought to the character. Michael Caine provides much of the film's humor as the family butler, Alfred, and as the love interest, Katie Holmes (Dawson's Creek) is surprisingly believable in her first adult role. Also featuring Gary Oldman as the young police officer Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as a Q-like gadgets expert, and Cillian Murphy as the vile Jonathan Crane. --David Horiuchi



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Stills from Batman Begins (click for larger images)





















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Rating: - Re-inventing Comic Book Movies
This is one amazing film. There is no better fleshed out Hero then Bruce Wayne aka Batman the Dark Knight. Other Superhero films touched one deep feeling of the protagonist and carried that theme throughout the film. Best example is the first Spirder-Man where the main character has to protect his secret identity in order to protect those that he loves. Peter Parker was an interesting, easy to pull off character. But what Christian Bale does for Bruce Wayne easily surpasses even Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark. Bale gives such a performance, so much depth that he gives Bruce Wayne something that has never been seen before in all forms of Batman films, a real motive. We are given the best origin story of Bruce Wayne to really give him a meaningful backbone. He does what he does not for a loved one but because he believes in justice. Sure every Hero fights for that reason, but I have never seen so much devosion to ones work on film as Bruce Wayne's attempt to clean up Gotham.
What really suprises us is the fact that this is the first Batman film that focuses on none other than Batman. This film is given ao much life and so much hope that one might ask "Why doesn't someone devote their life to fight crime?"

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Rating: - Exactly where Batman should have begun in the first place!!!
* Finally Batman is being tributed as it should have been a long time ago. Batman Begins is where it should have really begun in the first place. The production is flawless, the portrayals keep you in disbelieve all thruoghout the movie... ...

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Rating: - As dark and rich as a good cup of coffee
I will preface this by saying that I might have glanced at a Batman comic book when I was a kid, but have never read one. I did watch the Michael Keaton Batman movie, but my main Batman experience, prior to this movie, was watching the television series, non-animated, as a kid. In short, I am not an expert, at all. I bought this movie because, when I was in the hospital, it was showing on cable television and, while I did not get to see the entire movie there, I liked what I saw.

When the title says "begins," it means exactly that. This movie portrays Bruce Wayne's privileged but traumatic childhood, his path toward becoming an agent of justice, and his unusual training. It then moves back to Gotham, Bruce's hometown metropolis, that has become extremely crime-ridden, corrupt, and impoverished, with the gains made by Bruce's parents having been just about wiped out. To address this, Bruce Wayne, in his new persona of Batman, must face a powerful crime-lord, and an even-more-powerful, albeit shadowy, figure, plotting to ride the world of Gotham's evils by eliminating Gotham itself.

Batman is known as the Dark Knight, and we clearly get that here. Christian Bale gives us a Bruce Wayne who is glib on the surface, troubled beneath that, and an avenging crusader at his core. The imagery, both real and computer-generated, is awesome and dark, and the musical score enhances the story well, without ever dominating it.

The supporting cast is amazingly good. Michael Caine as Alfred? Perfect! Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, Bruce Wayne's teacher in the martial arts (and more), was also perfectly cast. Tom Wilkinson was chillingly ruthless as the crime boss. Katie Holmes gives us a Rachel Dawes, potential love interest for Bruce Wayne, who is equal parts silk, steel, and flower. I had not seen Rutger Hauer in anything in a long time, but he was very good as the cold, greedy, power-hungry businessman. Morgan Freeman did his usual excellent job as Lucius Fox, Wayne Enterprises engineer and Bruce Wayne's technical advisor. I also liked Gary Oldman as Inspector Gordon, and Cillian Murphy was coolly insane and cunning as Dr. Crane/Scarecrow.

Of course, Batman had to have some interesting toys. What makes him nearly invincible? Check out the suit. How does he fly? That cape is not just a fashion statement. The big toy, though, is the tank-like Batmobile. Wow! Just get out of its way, and watch!

As you can tell, I like this movie. I did not like having to be in the hospital but, at least, I found a good movie from the experience.

-- Chris McCallister, author of Coming Full Circle

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Rating: - it works
* I suppose producers could not leave Batman alone in the course of the current revival of every possible cartoon figure, even if the last filmed series had already exploited most of the possibilities with one peak, the beautiful \"Batman returns\" with the superb Michelle Pfeiffer as the deadliest and most convincing Catwoman ever.

So, to find something new, we have here a \"let's go back to the beginnings\", hark! hark! such a novelty this is, trying to explore what was purposefully left unsaid by the creators of the character.

Curiously enough the result is not half as bad as it could have been. There is the usual sticky story of the poor soul wronged by men and fate who after a long wandering in the dark comes to know his real self, originally in the far east among kung fu teachers.
There is the usual town corrupted to the core, where all people is desperate or desperately evil but where a group of righteous souls still works for the greater good ( taking an airplane to some more reasonable resort?)

Ethics are trite and commonplace, completely uninteresting, so is character development and interaction.

All above notwithstanding the movie works in a way. Christian Bale is as intense as parmisan cheese and so is Katie Holmes but one cares, a little, for the situations and the atmosphere is convincingly gloom and desolate.
Side characters are good, each up to the not much required trying to give sense to the senseless lines they are given.

This film can be fun, just let yourself in the general atmosphere, the beautiful settings and turn off your critical self. ...

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Rating: - A unique take on the Batman saga
I have doubts this movie (or its sequels) fit in with Warner Brother's previous Batman series of movies (though there are some similarities). I also doubt it fits in with the TV series (which has far fewer similarities).

If there is a weak link, it is the time spent on the origins development. The comic books give the impression that Bruce Wayne trained after his parents' murder getting physically prepared for his role as Batman. The TV series didn't deal with the subject at all and the movie series barely touched on it. (The excellent animated series did deal with the subject to a small extent.) This movie dealt more with it, with some similarities to the Matrix in the process.

I will admit I had to adjust to Michael Caine in the role of Alfred. Of course Caine did a great job with the role -- we're talking about Michael Caine, after all -- but looks wise he did not fit my image of the role. Christian Bale did as good as anybody as Bruce Wayne, though Michael Keaton was my favorite Bruce Wayne.

One major difference is the description of Chill, who orphaned Bruce Wayne. This movie made him believable as a thug, and not as cold-blooded as the comic book crook or the pre-Joker Jack Napier of the previous series (both of which contemplated killing the boy, which Chill did not). I won't touch any more of the story to keep from spoiling it any further.

The one interesting thing was that it showed Jim Gordon in his pre-commissioner days. It developed the relationship between Gordon and Batman that was basically ignored in the previous movie series and taken for granted in the TV series. Another interesting thing was the insertion of the comic book/animated series villain Scarecrow as a minor villain.

In short, the acting was great -- in addition to Caine there are great performances by Liam Neeson (who I didn't recognize), Rutger Hauer, and Morgan Freeman. The action started slow but ended up on pace. The special effects were more spectacular than in the previous movies. I probably would not take children nine or under (an arbitrary age) to see it, and would accompany any minor before seeing it. To me, though, there seemed to be less sex than in the previous series, which was a plus to me.

This ended with a minor cliff-hanger (the introduction of the Joker, another sign of independence from the previous movie series), enough to whet a person's appetite for "The Dark Knight", but not enough to keep them from sleep.