Batman has ressurcted at last!

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2005)

I had lauded on my review of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm as the best Batman movie ever made; well, Batman Begins is the better movie of the entire franchise. Ever since the franchise became popular with the 1960's show and spin-movie, including the Tim Burton version in 1989, fans and critics alike (especially Roger Ebert) had complained that the films (including the crappy Batman & Robin) had no relations of the Bruce Wayne character and how he started out as the caped crusader. Now with director Christopher Nolan (Memento) taking charge, Batman has been brought back to life darker, meaner and full of energy than the last other films.
The prologue of the film has millionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in a Chinese prison camp where in his cell, he has flashbacks about the fear of bats he had when he was a little boy, including the flashbacks of when his parents were alive and the incident of their death taking place, and the aftermath of meeting with local crime boss Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). After getting in a fight with Chinese prisoners, Bruce is taking into a dark cell where a mysterious stranger name Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) wants to take Bruce under his wing and train him by a group called The League of Shadows, a ninja organization where they don't leave their enemies to suffer, but to execute them. The team is lead by Ra Al Ghul (Ken Watanbe of "The Last Samurai") in which after Ducard has given extensive training to Bruce Wayne, including letting go of the fear he once had. It's ironic that Liam Neeson is playing another character that trained an apprentice. In Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, he trained a young padawan (Obi-Wan Kenobi) to protect the innocent and fight evil.
Now Bruce must go for the final test: the execution of a prisoner. Bruce joined the organization to help others and punish those who harmed, not to kill. Ghul reveals that he wants to murder everybody in Gotham City, so now Bruce destroys the lair of Ra Al Ghul's as he calls his butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) to have a plane ready for standby.
It has been seven years since Bruce Wayne has left Gotham City; the city is in druid than it was before as more of the homeless people have turned into criminals with Carmine Falcone running the upper strength of Gotham, the other half belongs to criminal psychologist Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy) who has most of his cronies in Arkham Asylum, an institute for the insane as he commits all of his thugs to Arkham. The only person who finds it all a hoax is district attorney Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) in which she wants to find out about Crane's plans.
Wayne Enterprises is in control by a ruthless businessman (Rutger Hauer), in which after Bruce Wayne arrives, he gives Bruce a job working in the science lab downstairs with loner Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). The lab is underground where Lucius has the gadgets that even the military won't take in to protect soldiers. Lucius becomes an aid to Bruce as he knows from the millionaire is that he just wants to fight crime and protect the innocent. Lucius gives Bruce about everything from his lab, from a jumpsuit to a car that has more protection than a hummer itself. In one scene, Bruce asks Fox, 'Does it come in black?' and he does have one.
Before Bruce puts the suit together to fight crime for the first time, he goes to the lair he once fell in a cave of bats and makes it his underground lair for Batman.
There are no such things as good guys in Gotham City, as the only two remaining people who try to maintain a presence of good is Rachel Dawes and Sgt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman), in which everybody else on the force is corrupted and working for Carmine Falcone, as Batman makes his first appearance in a Gotham warehouse where he takes down Falcone's thugs as a shipment of drugs has been delivered in the city. Batman takes down the thugs one by one as he knocks out Falcone and leaving him tied to a signal.
During a scene between Crane and Falcone, we discover an alter ego of Crane as he puts on a mask and sprays toxic chemicals on people's face, calling himself The Scarecrow where he frightens his patients, leaving them to be insane. The plot behind the Scarecrow is that he wants to drug the water supply of Gotham City, which will leave everybody in the city insane killing one another, as the young D.A. finds out that what Crane is doing is illegal she becomes a victim of his scheme as Batman rescues her and gives the Scarecrow a taste of his own medicine.
Yes, I reveal a lot of what happened in the film. But can I go on? Just because I gave you a lot, doesn't mean I going to tell you everything. You must see the film for yourself, as it is a grand spectacular from minute one to the end.
I admire the first two live action movies directed by Tim Burton in which we saw the murkier side to Gotham City, but not enough of Bruce Wayne; and as much as I admire Batman: Mask of the Phantasm as the best Batman movie, Batman Begins was the ride we had all been waiting for.