The Nipples Died Seven Years Ago.

Rating: 10/10 (6 July 2005)

The nipples, campy quips, and any remnants of the campy 60's Batman television show died with the woeful 'Batman and Robin'.
From the ashes of the Caped Crusader's death, rose the Dark Knight...
A force of good...
A force to be reckoned with...
This film is pure perfection. It is the comic book movie that fans have dreamed of for over seventy years. Unlike Spider-Man or X-Men, who regard themselves as comic book movies, not to be taken seriously, this film regards itself as a great movie about honor, justice, courage and above all, revenge.
As a child, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) witnesses his parents murdered by a desperate mugger and from then on falls into a dark persona of hate and fear. Upon witnessing the mugger's death almost ten years later, Bruce realizes that the justice system just can't work in a city as corrupt as Gotham City. He travels the world, studying the criminal element for himself, almost becoming a criminal. He is saved from a Bhutanese prison by a man known only as Ducard (Liam Neeson). The training begins.
Upon Bruce's return, he enter's a cave where he was frightened almost to death as a boy. It is a cave plagued with bats. He embraces his fear (in a beautiful scene), turning it into power. Using resources from his family's company, he becomes the Batman.
Christian Bale's performance as the Batman is exquisite. Absolutely perfect. Unlike previous incarnations where actors were unable to play the dual identities of Bruce Wayne and Batman, Christian Bale has come to the realization that this is in fact three characters. Bruce Wayne, the rich playboy who dates famous women and parties all night long, is a disguise. Batman, the dark knight who preys on evil, is a disguise. The man trapped between the two is the lead character in this film and is known only to the people Bruce loves the most.
Michael Caine's performance is also quite effective as his character is given far more attention than before (Michael Gough's Alfred of the previous films was more of a doormat than an ally) and the scenes between the two are remarkable.
Gary Oldman's Gordon is also given more screen-time than Pat Hingle's was in previous films. Oldman plays a dramatically different character, who is far more accurate to the character that appears in Batman comic books. Oldman is the one good cop in the city of snakes and he is about to give up, when the Batman convinces him that you can never give up hope.
**SPOILER WARNING**
Liam Neeson's Ducard/Ra's Al Ghul is probably the finest Batman villain since the Joker. Director Chris Nolan cleverly pretends that Ra's Al Ghul (supposedly played by Ken Watanabe) and The Scarecrow (played effectively by Cillian Murphy) are the central villains of the piece however, by the end of the film, Ducard reveals himself as Ra's himself (Watanabe's then dead character was actually a decoy) and Batman must make the crucial decision as to whether or not he can defeat his master. Neeson's portrayal of Ducard is far superior to that of Qui-Gon Jinn in the Star Wars Prequel. Ducard is angrier and is not as gentle and frustratingly annoying as Jinn.
I cannot stress how superior this film is to any superhero films you have seen before. It is on a par with Superman itself. Granted I am a Batman fan, and have been since the age of three, naturally I thought it would be good and I was right. However, my friends, who dislike comic books, wholly agreed with me, one of them even remarked that it was one of the greatest films she had ever seen!
The nipples on the batsuit are gone. The Caped Crusader is dead. The Dark Knight lives. Embrace the franchise's return.