Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2005)

Boy did I have high expectations going into this movie. After making two of my all time favorite films, Insomnia, and Memento, and making a solid debut film in, Following, I thought Christopher Nolan could do no wrong. And while this film isn't exactly wrong, it just isn't better than Tim Burton's Batman. Hell, in my opinion it's a little worse than Batman Forever.
What problems do I have with the film? For one thing Christian Bale. I always cringe when I see a graduate of the Keanu Reeves school of acting, and Bales deep monotone whisper did just this. For god sakes show some emotion! Guy Ritchie was able to pull that style of acting off in one of Nolans previous films, Memento, but in this it just doesn't work for Bale.
Getting back to Nolan, it's hard to smell his stench in the movie. The beginning of the film is evident with his type of dialouge and dark artsy cinematography, but as the film goes on, you forget it's Nolan's, and it will remind you more of David S. Goyer's (the co-writer) Blade films. The second half of the movie is filled with little dialouge, and because of this the film just drags on to its way too long 2 hour and 20 minute end. And whats with all the one liners? It seems that Nolan and Goyer stuff the film with way too many inappropriate for the time jokes. But my biggest pet peeve with the movie was the score. It wasn't as much that it didn't hold a candle to Danny Elfman's classic Batman score, but more that I could not recall ONE time that it wasn't playing in the background.
On the plus side, Katie Holmes does a good job as the love interest, and Michael Caine is great as Alfred. Gary Oldman also gives a fine performance. I could however do without Morgan Freeman's character who is basically to Batman exactly what Q is to James Bond.
While the premise of the film about Bruces fear of bats was excellent, the rest of it just doesn't work as well as it worked for Burton (and even Schumaker in 'Returns) if you are more of a Batman fan than a Nolan fan, you'll probably enjoy the film a lot more than I did.
6/10