Batman Is Dead, Long Live Batman!!

Rating: 10/10 (15 June 2005)

Finally, the Dark Knight achieves cinematic justice with Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins". After Tim Burton's strange, art-house approach and Joel Schumacher's camp-on-steroids versions, moviegoers are given a Batman feature made with dignity, intelligence and respect.
The title says it all: the film charts Bruce Wayne's growth and transformation into the Caped Crusader. Only this time, much more of the material delves into Bruce's psychology, which grounds the entire film into a reality more akin with the Bourne films than a comic book. Everything about Batman is explained; his weaponry, his tactics, the people around him, everything. Not a moment is wasted in David Goyer's script, his best since "Dark City".
Each character has an important role to play in Bruce/ Batman's life. Unlike the previous four films, Bruce Wayne is center stage for most, if not all, of the proceedings. Christian Bale takes full advantage of this, making his performance the now definitive Bruce Wayne/ Batman of the silver screen. Nolan surrounds Bale with a top-notch supporting cast that's all talent and no ego.
The villains, no longer the focus of what was never their films to begin with, have never been better (at least in a dramatic sense). Their relation to fear and how it functions plays into the very theme of not just "Batman Begins", but Batman himself. Ken Watanabe, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy and Tom Wilkinson give it their all. The good guys, played by Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman and Katie Holmes, are fleshed out enough to create a surrogate family for Bruce Wayne. Performances such as theirs help keep the film grounded in reality.
Gotham City is no longer towering statues and neon-colored city blocks, but an actual American city sprawling in its own decadence. Even the gadgetry and the Batmobile seem plausible, if not insanely expensive. In closing, Nolan has created a film worthy of a hero such as Batman. No longer content with just "comic-book movies", the Dark Knight now has a full-fledged MOVIE to call his own. In fact, as far as adventures go, this is the most dramatically competent I've seen (and that includes Indiana Jones -- honestly, how much do you really know about his character?).
I am amazed by how much time the script took to develop everything, and it tells an honest-to-goodness story, instead of filling in the blanks and insert-action- sequence-here. Bravo to all involved; it's about time a live-action film gave as much respect to Batman as the animated series did. Here's hoping that Batman Continues. (This is not a spoiler, but I would like to put in my vote for Mark Hamill in a certain role for the next film. That is all.)