Excellent

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2006)

This is the best Batman film yet. It tells the story of how Bruce Wayne, becomes Batman. His journeys take him from Gotham to Asia back to Gotham where he must save the city from destruction. It sounds clichÃ©d, but it's really unique in it's presentation.
Christopher Nolan's direction is excellent. He creates a darker and more depressing Gotham city not seen in the previous Burton/Schumacher films. The cinematography and special effects are also great and they work with the dark mood of the film great. The fight scenes are perfectly edited. They show the quickness and panic of the scene.
Nolan wrote the script along with David Goyer and it's truly great. It has great humor, great insight on revenge, justice, and relationships.
Christian Bale (American Psycho, Equilibrium) is the best Batman yet. He completely inhabits the arrogance of Bruce Wayne and the strength and anger of Batman. Michael Caine (Educating Rita, Alfie) is a great replacement for Michael Gough as Alfred. He plays the English butler the only way he knows how: Sophisticated but also tough and witty. Gary Oldman (Dracula, Leon) gives a nice performance as Lt. Gordon, one of the only straight cops left in Gotham City. Katie Holmes (Pieces of April) plays Bruce's love interest Rachel Dawes. She gives a decent performance, but she is miscast because of her looks. Morgan Freeman plays Morgan Freeman.
Now on to the bad guys.
Liam Neeson (Schindler's List, Kinsey) plays Henri Ducard, a man that Bruce meets while is Asia. Henri ferociously trains Bruce to join the League of Shadows, an organization designed to restore balance to the world by any means necessary. Liam plays the role intensity and intelligence. Ken Watanabe plays Ra's Al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows. he doesn't have much to say, but broken speech is entertaining. Cillian Murphy plays Jonathan Crane, a psychologist at Arkham Asylum who is fascinated with fear. He cooperates with mob boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson) and they smuggle drugs together. Along with drugs, they smuggle a gas Crane created that brings out a person's worst fears when inhaled. Murphy gives a great performance bringing instant creepiness to the character. Tom Wilkinson plays the mobster role quite well.
OVERALL: If you're looking for a great movie, look no further