Revisited and Better Appreciated

Rating: 8/10 (17 November 2008)

I was surprised to find this movie listed in the top IMDb movies so I decided to watch it again - and eventually agreed wholeheartedly. It really is a very well scripted and well crafted movie. The surprise is that it's a franchise and technically a no-brainer. Batman will always attract viewers so why bust a gut making it better than good? However this is a cut above the average movie and really does belong in the same company as Zhivago, Gandhi, and Godfather. In several ways it is better than some of its company because it benefits from the modern improvements in film-making. But aside from the staging, budget and computer aids that make the action so real and engrossing the script is excellent, the performances are some of the best of the actors involved, the direction is almost perfect and the editing has been done carefully and with a real eye to quality and audience understanding and appreciation. I can think of over a dozen movies off the top of my head that have recently aspired to the whole effect that Batman Begins achieves apparently without effort. It is almost embarrassing and sacriligeous to say that this 'blockbuster' episode in a worn-out series outshines many more earnest cinematic efforts but in fact it truly does.'Blockbuster' usually equates to big effects that disguise weaknesses of plot, characters, and pacing but this move exceeds where others falter and fail. If you haven't viewed it recently I recommend seeing it again for what it is - quite the contemporary masterpiece.