The Blade Runner of comic book movies!

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2005)

I have seen this movie twice now. The first time I saw it I thought it was a movie of two disparate halves. The first, all origin story, I thought was too slow and clunky; the second half, my favourite, all action and emotion. I was reminded of Superman the movie in fact, a film I can only watch after skipping the first forty-five minutes. After a second viewing of Batman Begins though, I appreciated the beginning much more . I see it now as a cohesive brilliant whole with tight, clever dialogue, powerful lingering images, stirring music (like Superman I came out of the cinema humming the main theme to my myself), great acting across the board (yes even from Katie Holmes!) and enlivened with rousing, glorious action set pieces. I mentioned Blade Runner in my summary. That masterpiece is clearly an influence on Nolan; the hard, gritty look of the city, the old school special effects (no Playstation-like imagery here).I think Nolan may even have sneaked in a few Blade Runner homages in the shape of the hot-dog stand guy, the cyclists weaving through the smoggy streets of the Narrows. In fact one of the distant shots of that place had me grinning like the Joker himself! But I do Mr Nolan a bit of a disservice here. His film is a major achievement in itself. Quite simply, it is the best film I have seen since The Matrix and like that fine film, fully expect it to be regarded as a modern classic!