Blows the other excuses for Batman movies out of the water

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2006)

I was very lukewarm about seeing Batman Begins when it came out. The Tim Burton movies were okay, if a little cheesy. Batman Forever was fun to watch, but it had no story and butchered the character of Two-Face. Batman and Robin was a flat-out abomination.
I was shocked at how good Batman Begins was. I'd go as far as to say Begins has become one of my all-time favorite movies. It was the complete package- good story, complex characters brought to life by the stellar acting, and the action scenes were very well executed.
The decision to reboot the story saved the Batman franchise. And Christian Bale, who I hadn't been familiar with before seeing the movie, did a great job of making Bruce Wayne a complex character and showing his struggles of balancing his desire for revenge with true justice.
Michael Caine makes a terrific Alfred, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman also give their usual good performances. But to me, the two standouts were Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard and Cillian Murphy as Jonathon Crane/Scarecrow. Neeson uses his mentor image to good effect with a nice twist involved and he plays off very well against Bale. And Murphy steals every scene he is as the creepy psychologist Crane who is up to no good.
Fantastic movie in every aspect. Christopher Nolan has gained so much confidence from me from this movie, that I trust him with the selection of Heath Ledger as the Joker for the sequel, a bit of casting that I would usually take with some skepticism. But after Begins, I give Nolan the benefit of the doubt with little hesitation.
The other excuses for Batman movies are a joke compared to this. This is what a Batman movie should be. 10/10.