Best Batman movie to date

Rating: 10/10 (13 February 2013)

The Batman movie that stood out the most. Yes, it is better both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Yet unfortunately, it is the arguably the most underrated one.
So where do I start here? Oh yes, the beautiful scenery that caught my attention first. When you see Bruce Wayne traveling to Ra's Al Ghul's palace, you are exposed to incredibly eye-pleasing landscape. You see even more during the sword fight between Wayne and Ducard (Ra's as you will find out in the end). Beautiful sky-blue mountains everywhere. How can you not commend this movie for having this? So Ra's trains Bruce Wayne. And let me tell you, his lines are magnificent and poetic. All his talk about theatricality and deception makes you even more excited for Bruce Wayne to finally don the cowl. In my opinion, his performance was far superior than the not-so-amazing Health Ledger's Joker. Liam Neeson did an excellent job as a ninja master and his lines make his fights with Bruce seem like a masterpiece. Why did we not get this sort of action in the sequels?
After returning to Gotham, Bruce is no longer the angry rich kid. Now he is a different person. However, before he completely goes 'all-out', he must run a test, and I'm referring to his very entertaining visit to Gordon in his ski mask. With Gotham you can tell that it's not a place that you would want to live in. It is pretty much the ultimate dystopia for law. Corruption, drug trafficking and bribing is virtually everywhere. Nolan did a fantastic job portraying more hell-like than the Gotham in TDK or TDKR.
Now for Christian Bale's Batman. Before I watched this movie, I expected to see very little of Batman or see him at the end of the film. But I got more than I expected and we received Batman who occupied the 2nd hour of the movie. Batman here is a BEAST. "The Dark Knight", "The Caped Crusader", "The World's Greatest Detective" apply perfectly to this Batman. This is not the wimp with throat cancer we got from the sequels. Bruce Wayne was trained to be a ninja, and it is reflected how much he learned in his Batman activities. He has got everything you want from a Batman: stealth methods, mind games, fluent martial arts skills, tons of gadgets, intimidating suit, AND a voice that you can understand. Don't believe me? Watch this movie again. This Batman tackled a whole group of ninjas (who should be as, if not more skilled as him). Yet in TDK he couldn't beat Joker, a clown who doesn't know how to fight, and a few of thugs? The Batman got a little rusty, hadn't he? Also, this Batman does not shout/talk as much as TDK's Bats. During the tumbler chase scene, he really did not speak much, except on occasions to calm Rachel down. To add more proof, re-watch the scene where he gets poisoned by the Scarecrow's fear gas. When he breathes in, he starts getting hallucinations, yet he doesn't say A WORD. This is the true "silent guardian" that Gordon was talking about in TDK. This makes me feel that Batman himself is not the primary character here, Bruce Wayne is. However, when Bale dons the cape, he steals every scene he's in, something I did not receive in TDK (aside from the lack of stealth techniques).
Alfred and Lucius Fox's fantastic in this film. Both of their lines are very clever and very humorous at times. If you had a butler like Alfred in real life, he will reassure you that things will work out. "Why do we fall, Master Wayne?"
However, this movie is not one without flaws. Katie Holmes, as much as I think she better than her replacement in the sequel, sounds extremely sarcastic in a lot of her scenes, e.g. when she first meets Batman or when she meets Scarecrow on a horse. Also, some people complain that the fight scenes in BB are terrible due to their 'shaky' feel. I must agree, it can be frustrating sometimes to work out who's hitting who. However, it works effectively with Batman as it makes him look more like a living shadow. Overall, this movie is my 2nd most favorite film I've seen in my life. Batman's performance, Ra's Al Ghul, the amazing cast and the fantastic soundtrack more than convince me that this is superior than the rest of the trilogy. It's entertaining, clever, soul-grasping and most of all, inspiring whereas The Dark Knight is mentally exhausting. If you love Batman and see him be a total badass monster, go watch this movie. If you despise Batman with all your heart and want to see him suffer, please go back to watching your TDK and keep telling yourself how "amazing" the Health Ledger's Joker is. Or you can watch The Dark Knight Rises to see Bats' ass handed to him by Bane.