It’s been eight years since the horrible Batman & Robbin, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney and Uma Thurman, was released. Batman suits up for another adventure in his quest to get rid of the sinister villains lurking in Gotham. Spider-Man is taking a year off, so someone has to save the citizens of New York, right?
What separates Batman Begins from the other Batman movies is the fact that this one is a prequel, as its intentions are to explain how Bruce Wayne truly became Batman. The movie starts out with Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in a remote Asian prison. Bruce is tormented by his past, which is shown by constant flashbacks. We learn about his childhood encounter with bats. We learn about his parents and their murder, which was witnessed by Bruce. Bruce feels responsible for the death of his parents, and the guilt and anger are eating him up.
After one of apparently many skirmishes with the other prisoners, Bruce is led to a cell where he is confronted by Ducard (Liam Neeson), who offers Bruce to join the League of Shadows. The League of Shadows is for those who wish to fight crime, but do so by being more than just vigilantes. Initially Bruce agrees, and on the top of a snowy mountain his grueling training begins. Before the completion of his enrollment into the League, he bails out. He returns to Gotham City to his mansion, and this is where the movie begins to really develop.
We meet other people in the life of Bruce Wayne. There we meet his old-time butler Alfred (Michael Caine), a jovial figure that is one of the only people that truly believes in him. We meet the girl from his childhood, Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), who is now a Gotham District attorney. We meet Lucious Fox (Morgan Freeman), who is head of design of the firm Bruce’s father created. All of these people help transform Bruce Wayne into Batman.
The bat was chosen because bats instill fear in Wayne, and he wants bats to instill fear into those that prey on the fear of others. Batman must first deal with Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson), one of the most influential personas in Gotham City. He is a crime lord who is turning Gotham into one of society’s pitfalls, and earns money with large drug shipments along with other illegal activities. But an even worse plague is about to be unleashed on Gotham City – a hallucinogenic poisonous gas infecting the city’s water supply that will lead to Gotham City’s downfall. It seems like this plot has been played out before, but this can’t be counted as a bad thing since this plot was lifted almost directly from the actual comic books.
Batman Begins features a very complex, convoluted and dark plot. Director Christopher Nolan (Insomnia, Memento) constantly incorporated flashbacks to further the plot, which was a very effective tactic. And I must say that the action stunts and chase schemes were quite impressive. Batman looked as cool as ever, with a wide array of weapons and a brand new Batmobile that resembled a tank for one.
One of my main quips with the movie was the overabundance of extremely cheesy lines. There were dozens of them, the kind that you love in emo movies but laugh at when seen in blockbuster Hollywood hits. There were atleast five times in the movie when a character would tell one character some deep and insightful thought, and later on in the movie that same line would be used by the other character to the one that originally said it. Once is fine, twice maybe, but using this over and over is quite cheesy. Another thing that really bothered me was the choice changed that Bruce Wayne would undergo when he becomes Batman. He inherits this raspy, much deeper voice that seems like a joke. Whenever he spoke as Batman throughout the movie, I’d just burst out laughing. Also, the villain’s mask in this movie was rather uninspiring and not really frightening. In superhero movies, villains are supposed to have a mysterious quality, which Scarecrow lacked.
Otherwise, the acting was mostly top-notch. Christian Bale (American Psycho) did a good job portraying all of the emotions felt by Bruce and Batman. His acting captivated the audience’s attention, and made particular scenes as emotional as could be. I loved Michael Caine in the role of the butler, and his cutting-edge humor and wisdom was perfect for the role. It’s a shame his screen time was limited. The role played by Katie Holmes was the role of the traditional love interest of the superhero, although I felt she went even further. Critics have been saying she was sort of dry in her performance, but there was not much more that could have been done with it. Morgan Freeman’s warmth and humor created some outbursts of laughter from the audience, and he truly maximized the role that was given to him. All of the cast, including the villains, were also solid and delivered good performances.
Batman Begins is rated PG-13 for “intense action violence, disturbing images and some thematic elements.” The rating is deserved, as there are some dark and disturbing scenes that should probably not be seen by young ones. The duration of this movie is 137, which seemed to long. I remember glancing at my cell phone to see how much longer I’d have to remain in my seat. In my opinion, all of the speeches, the action scenes and the movie itself were just a bit too long. Without the comic relief, I would have been suffering.
Overall, Batman Begins is fairly good for a comic book/superhero movie. Although it can be argued that Batman is a mere mortal and not a true superhero, this movie will be compared with movies like Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk. A great cast, a good plot and some terrific effects make this a solid movie. However, there were a few things that bothered me that keep this from being the amazing movie that everyone claims it to be.
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