DC Comics Begins...

Rating: 10/10 (1 August 2005)

DC Comics really does Begin, with the return of the caped crusader, Batman Begins. Begins is head and shoulders above the previous four encounters and is set in reality as a posed to the fantasy world of Burton/Schumacher. The film starts from scratch in explaining Bruce's childhood right up to his ninja training through to him becoming Gotham's eternal saviour. Nolan not known for his action expertise, delivers a fantastic and more importantly believable set of circumstances that see Bruce become the dark knight. The viewer is drawn in and everything in the film seems to be believable, like for example Bruce's bat suit, bat mobile etc. Unlike Spiderman, where the story is less plausible, Begins makes sure that how the bat came to be is totally possible in the real world and that is what sets it apart form the Marvel films. The cast is in a word superb. Mr Bale was not merely acting the part of batman, he was batman, such was the excellence of his performance. Bale totally reinvents the role and does so with such flair and confidence. I'm sure Mr Keaton fans will agree that Bale was simply born for the part. Other great performances include: Mr Caine who brought a warmth to the role of Alfred and I myself looked forward to his scenes, Liam Neeson was for me unexpectedly good as Ra's Al Goul, Morgan Freeman gave a solid performance as Mr Fox and so did to Gary Oldman as friendly cop Mr Gordan. Cillian Murphy was great as Dr. Crane aka Scarecrow and some of scenes were truly a delight to watch. All in all DC Comics, Mr Nolan and Mr Goyer have pulled off a marvellous comic book film, one that will truly be hard to beat, even for the likes of Marvel Comics and Spiderman. A scary thought however, is that the joker has yet to be seen, indeed part two could be the best comic book film ever made.
10/10