Batman Begins Better and Bolder

Rating: 8/10 (21 July 2012)

Batman Begins is the first movie in what has become one of the greatest film trilogies of all time. Christopher Nolan's version of Batman/Bruce Wayne's origin story begins with his childhood, his fear of bats, his parents' death, and his subsequent disappearance from Gotham as he travel's the world living like an ordinary criminal. Eventually he is discovered by a man claiming to work for one Ra's Al Guhl, the leader of a mysterious group known as the League of Shadows, who then trains Wayne to become an ultimate crime fighting machine. Eventually Wayne returns to Gotham and becomes Batman as he attempts to clean up the streets in the crime ridden city.
This Batman changed the name of the game in many ways. It was the first live action superhero movie that broke through the constraints of its genre, refusing to be held captive by the gimmicks and silliness that had plagued many of the comic book hero adaptations. The movie threw down the gauntlet and declared that a Superhero movie can be just as good, just as brooding, and just as serious as an art house drama, all with the entertainment of a summer blockbuster.
Christian Bale proves to be the best Batman yet. His performance gives us more than just the one dimension we are used to seeing in Batman films. Bale makes Batman a hero yes, but human above all. We see his mistakes, his sorrow, his anger, his passion. The rest of the cast is almost perfect with Liam Neeson, Michael Cain, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Wilkinson all giving respectable performances. The one miscast was Katie Holmes. She isn't bad, but she just pale's in comparison to the other top notch actors in this film.
More so than the acting, it is Christopher Nolan's direction and vision that really carry this film. Nolan is a master at presenting us with the world of Gotham, a world that isn't so very different from our own; full of crime, corruption and fear. The director also succeeds in giving us a decent exposition to his story, even though it was far too much information crammed into such a small amount of time. Wally Pfister's breathtaking Cinematography along with Lee Smith;s brilliant film editing present us with a much darker and bolder look at Batman, and the look of the film alone makes it a worth while viewing.
It's not a perfect film. There are plot holes and clichÃ©s, but the movie is an experience that you don't often get from a big budget superhero movie, and that is why this Batman film and the trilogy as a whole will go down in cinema history.