Year:
2005
Studio:
Warner Brothers
Feature:
3/5
After the over-the-top Batman movies of the 1990's Warner Brothers
decided to reimage and restart the series from scratch. Batman Begins does not have the
look of its predecessors. Previously Batman and his gadgets and Gotham
were stylized: glossy gadgets, retro-look city and vehicles,
carefully-staged sets.
Christian Bale plays the star role of a more gritty-looking movie.
There are real outdoor locations. The indoor locations also look like
real buildings rather than sets. The Batcave is a real dingy and wet
cave with bats. The gadgets are hand-made or a bit more
technically-grounded (or at least more techno-speak).
This being the first movie we get to see the origin of Batman. Bruce
Wayne's childhood is done in flashbacks as the current Wayne spends
time delving in the criminal underworld and training with Ra's Al
Ghul's minion Ducard (Liam Neeson in a sequence that reminded of Jedi
training).
The childhood introduces a playmate, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), who
grows up to become an Assistant District Attorney for Gotham. We get to
see the Wayne parents murdered and this time Bruce is indirectly
responsible because he wanted to leave the theatre early.
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After the
half-hour introductory sequence we get to the main story. Bruce Wayne
finishes training with Ra's Al Ghul's Shadow League and he realizes
that they are evil. He destroys the Shadow headquarters and returns to
Gotham to fight crime with his Ninja skills.
With the help of his butler Alfred (Michael Caine) to guide him, Wayne
impersonates a devil-may-care playboy by day and dark-vigilanted by
night. For the cool gadgets he turns to Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) who
heads the Wayne Enterprises high-tech division.
In this first movie Batman is pitted against mob boss Carmine Falcone
(Tom Wilkinson) who controls Gotham. But Falcone is working for Dr
Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) who as the Scarecrow is quite effective
with a one-trick gimmick, just like in the comic books. But the
Scarecrow is working for someone else...
Batman has the help of Rachel who by the end of the movie knows
Batman's true identity. Batman also enlists the aid of police officer
Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), before he became commissioner. Come to think
of it several elements of the movie are based on Batman: Year One.
Overall I thought this was a good movie. In today's world it doesn't
have the same impact as Michael Keaton's first Batman movie. That's
mostly because special effects and action movies have gotten better. I
think Christian Bale makes an ok Bruce Wayne and a below average
Batman. It bothered me that every time he spoke as Batman he sounded
unimposing. And Katie Holmes has a lopsided smile. Still I did sit
through this 2-hour plus movie and enjoyed it.
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