A Better Batman

Rating: 7/10 (15 June 2005)

I attended the 6:35 pm showing Wednesday (opening) night at a suburban multiplex in Minneapolis. It was a very sparse audience of mostly 50 to 60-year old men, some of whom had dates of equal vintage, which seemed like a very odd audience for this type of film. Perhaps it was the day and hour, but it certainly wasn't the audience I expected.
Though better than the most recent "Batmans," this visually impressive actioner fell a little short.
In this prequel we learn how Batman came to be, starting with a nightmare. Stuck in an Asian prison at the base of a glacier encrusted peak, Batman-to-be Bruce Wayne awakes from a flashback of his childhood, where he fell down a well and was terrified by swarms of bats. Orphaned when a common thief kills both his parents, Bruce embarks on a personal journey for seven years. Inter-cut with his former cosseted life as the only child of a doctor mogul, is the quest of this current young man, living among criminals in order to understand how their minds work so that he may someday vanquish evil. Now imprisoned for some criminal act, he rather quickly frees himself, lured to the aerie of Ra's al Ghul.
There he undergoes ninja training by Ducard (Liam Neeson) who spews aphorisms more akin to Steven Segal than the Dalai Lama. Much mumbo jumbo later, Bruce Wayne evolves into a skilled killing machine, only to reject the role of executioner of bad guys, and membership in the elite League of Shadows, the position for which he was groomed. He burns down al Ghuls house and returns to Gotham to fight evil on his own.
Constructing his Batman persona and superstructure with the aid of his wise and loyal butler, Alfred (charmingly played by Michael Caine), Bruce Wayne becomes Bat-man because it symbolizes a fear he has conquered. As he reacquaints himself with Gotham he eventually finds that his father's company, its legacy chairman, most of the Gotham police, and Ra's al Ghul are all tied into the dirty workings of Gotham's king of corruption, Carmine Falcone. When Falcone has the man who murdered Wayne's parents killed to prevent him from testifying against Falcone, Bruce confronts him for fostering corruption. It is then Bruce quickly learns that insulting Falcone only puts those he loves, Alfred and his childhood girlfriend, Rachel, at risk. The conflicts between all parties are satisfactorily entangled in a heinous plot to destroy Gotham, and is then skillfully unraveled by Batman with truly impressive action sequences.
But it only gets fun after a long 55 minutes into the film when Bruce finally gets a handle on himself. Until then the film is a bit tedious. But when the super toys roll out the basement of the Wayne corporate office building, the thrills are non-stop. Morgan Freeman plays a wonderful cameo as purveyor of cool technical gadgets, including one helluva Batmobile.
Unfortunately, many of the bons mots of the film are lost to poor enunciation on Bale's part. While Caine, Neeson, Oldman, Freeman, Holmes and just about everyone else in the film speaks clearly, Bale lets the words sort of fall out of his mostly open mouth. Only after he dons the slick iconic body armor of Batman does Bale close his mouth and enunciate. Hard to believe the oral transformation was part of the movie's dramatization, but one can only hope.
While most of the dialogue is workman-like, spare, and to the point, it becomes almost ludicrous when the characters presume to say something "deep." Most notable are when Neeson, early on, delivers his melodramatic utterances, and, toward the end when Holmes proffers the truly incomprehensible gibberish about the Batman person who she loved and might someday see again. On a more positive note, Holmes put in a genuinely adult dramatic performance, which suggests a successful transition from TV darling to serious big screen actress.