A Very Good Batman. In fact, the best Batman yet.

Rating: 8/10 (19 June 2005)

No movie is perfect, but this is certainly one heck of a good Batman. What is especially impressive is the intergenerational viewpoint of the director. I normally do not seek out, or even notice, references to other films when going to a movie, but I thought I detected visual references to Clockwork Orange in some of the scenes with Liam Neeson. Perhaps I'm just imagining it, though Christopher Nolan's biography on IMDb.COM indicates that he's a big fan of Stanley Kubrick, the director of Clockwork Orange.
I was impressed by the subtle and somewhat more intellectual underpinnings of the film than what one might expect from a summer blockbuster. To bring a political quotation into this review, it's as if Nolan had taken to heart FDR's famous dictum that there is "nothing to fear but fear itself." If anything, the fight against fear is at least as important in the film as the fight against evil. That, in fact, seems to be the source from which Batman draws his strength in his fight against evil. The evil in the film is not just of the black and white variety either, but occupies a much grayer area. Official corruption, poverty, and the misuse of psychiatry (a la the Soviet Union's Serbsky Clinic, perhaps) are elements seamlessly blended in with the obvious evil of old-fashioned Gotham gangsterism. This is quite a heady diet for a summer blockbuster film, I'd say.
Christian Bale is a fine Batman, and his supporting actors are as good as one could hope for, especially the wonderful Michael Caine as Alfred the Butler and Liam Neeson as Batman's mentor. Tom Wilkinson, too, is very believable as a Gotham godfather, and Rutger Hauer seems to be a perfect fit for the director of Wayne family business.
This movie seems, therefore, to have it all: a good story, fine actors, and, if you are of a mind to entertain them, some deeper questions about what really constitutes good and evil.
The darkness and themes of the movie may be too strong for children younger than 11-12 years old, I think, but for everyone else looking for a good summer movie I'd very much recommend it.