Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins: Defending the Action Scenes

Rating: 9/10 (17 June 2005)

One word sums this one up: WOW! My anticipation for this movie could not be higher, one the most brilliant directors around directing an all star cast taking a fresh look at a time honored hero. First of all the cast is just not all star, the ensemble performance is on par with The Godfather. Every character from Batman to the bum on the street is perfectly cast (Boris the Blade from Snatch plays a homeless man with less than a minute of screen time, yet returns a memorable performance).
Much has been made about the action sequences, many calling them too closely shot and confusing. However that is the point, anyone who has played Halo 2 knows how confusing a battle can be up close and personal, this movie truly captures that. Unlike Hollywood films, comic books have always attempted to capture this idea of chaos in their fight scenes, Begins is the first movie to convey this on film. The innovation Nolan has brought to this genre will not be over looked and I believe will be mimicked in many movies for years to come.
The hallucination scenes are incredible, Nolan needs to try his hand at horror, if you thought Memento was something, wait till Nolan shoots a horror film: honestly I don't know if many people would be able to stomach it.
And then there's Nolan's trademark: non-sequential time line. During many parts in this movie Wayne "flashes back" (honestly thats way too simply put) to his childhood. The transitions are seamless and completely appropriate in their context. Many directors have attempted this before and after Memento, no one does it as well as Nolan.
The music (or lack thereof) was very refreshing, I can not tell you how many movies ruin their fight scenes by playing a 70 piece orchestra score over all of them. I mean is the action really that boring that we need to be entertained by music while the fights are happening? Nolan also achieved amazing results using swarms of bats in several parts during the movie and managed to transfer Wayne's fear of them onto the audience.
As for more of these, honestly I think Nolan needs to move on, there is no doubt it my mind he could make another Batman film just as good or better as this one, but he has bigger fish to fry. The man is by far the most brilliant director making movies today and the only one who might be able to challenge Hitchcock for the best director of all time.
When it's all said and done this is one of the best action movies I have ever seen, right up their with Apocalypse Now and The Professional. Well done!