A cinematic masterpiece (POSSIBLE SPOILERS)

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2005)

After seeing Batman Begins on Friday night, I was just totally gob smacked, sitting there as the credits rolled, I've seen a lot of films, and being an actor myself, I find myself being very critical, analysing and over-analysing films from the acting to production, and so forth; but as I sat there after the film finished, it dawned on me that I had seen for than just a Batman film, more than just THE Batman film, what I had seen in my eyes was truly a cinematic masterpiece, that realised and achieved everything the script by the talented Mr Goyer, and indeed the comics of the last 66 years and set out to tell; Mr Nolan and company, have put together one of the finest most breathtaking films I have seen in a long, long, long, long time. The epic quality of this film, gives this the feel that this is very much a real film and not your typical comic book hero film. There is very much a wealth of emotion within in this film, predominantly fear, but it draws you in to care about the characters, especially Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne, you can at times feel yourself in his shoes. One of the catalyst moments in this film, the murder or Thomas and Martha Wayne, is handled and executed (no pun intended) very well, the camera angles draw you in from both sides of the situation; it isn't drawn out too long before there demise, creating a quick sense of panic and fear, ending quickly with the murder, bang Thomas is shot , within a second or two, Martha is shot, as someone viewing this you're are not given time to react the first shot before hearing the second, which places you in the young Bruce Wayne's shoes; the whole scene is just in your face up close and personal, and through out the film scenes are done in this way, no matter how far away from the screen you way be, this technique draws you in and involves you in every critical moment. The very essence of this film and the examples in cinema, and graphic novelisation it draws from (last time I use the word draws, promise) Blade Runner for example, and the very comics its based on, this film surpasses them all for it's visual quality, indeed the comics could learn a lot from this film. The Spiderman films may have raised the bench mark for these sort of films, but this film has made the bench unreachable, and could easily hold its own up against the the top 50 classic films of all time; it is a real pleasure to see this film in 64th place of the Top 250 films on this website. Full praise is deserved to the actors in this film as well, Bale is Bruce Wayne/Batman, its hard to imagine anyone else in the role, Bale owns it. The same goes for Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman, the roles they play, were made for them; the chemistry between these actors works works extremely well and adds to the attention to detail this film maintains through out. But I'm not going to single out the rest of the cast, as all were exceptional, no matter how big or small their part in this film. The villains of this film, all carried a certain panache, all equally chilling in their individual ways, nothing over the top, just purely sinister and insidious. One thing that annoyed me about reviews of this film is the Katie Holmes bashing and how she lets the film down, can I say to those of you out there who feel this and you know who you are, you are talking rubbish, Katie does a splendid job playing the friend and the D.A. that gets caught in the whirlwind events that take Gotham city, indeed even her performance plays a vital part in the chemistry that links the characters, and makes you care for them. My hats off to the Production staff and Special Effects team, every location of the Batman myth has been faithfully and realistically recreated, the Batsuit, the utility belt and kit, especially the bat mobile, all make realistic sense, considering Batman's mission to reclaim Gotham and considering how dangerous that will be. The Tumbler is an amazing piece of machinery, and shouldn't be changed at all. I love the way every aspect of Batman's suit and gadgets are explained, with out boring us, and with out sounding far fetched, remember the bat mobile really can do most of those stunts. My only recommendation is to go and see this film, see it as many times as you can on the big screen, whether it will earn the credit or respect it so rightfully deserves, this film has earned its right in cinematic history. I have one piece of advice, forget Starwars, and War of the Worlds, these heavily special effects laden films think that CGI is the answer and is the selling point, and ignore good story telling, and lose passionate character acting, both films represent a misguide tired tradition in Hollywood, Batman Begins finally proves that CGI should only be used to enhance a film and not carry it. Don't be made to think these films are better than Batman Begins, they are very different in their own right, but can't hold a candle to good old fashioned story telling, god bless you Mr Nolan, for sticking to your guns, and producing a film the way it should be done, as for you Mr Lucas and Mr Spielberg....shame on you, the public is wising up, Batman Begins has sent the bench mark sky high, just try topping that