Holy Good Movie Batman!

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2005)

I Love Batman, and I have been digesting every scrap of information on this film since it was announced. Promises were made and mostly kept and we are left with a great Batman movie, although still not the definitive article.
+ POINTS Christian Bale is terrific, in a different way to Keaton, Bale's Wayne is less enclosed because we spend more time with him and discover how he becomes the Dark Knight. Liam Neeson also deserves a special mention.
The Batmobile is awesome, and hopefully they'll get an Oscar on the sound design for that, because it really roars. By far the best batmobile.
Batman is very well interpreted as a symbol of fear, and director Chris Nolan uses shadow and illusion to good effect, with Batman often just a blur in the background. The Batsuit looks great too.
The look of the film is very original and beautiful, although i prefer the Gothic style from Batman '89. Still kudos for making it look distinctive and a believable environment that does not make Batman look out of place.

Points There are some small negatives. The action is often over edited and it would've been nice to see more wide shots of Batman fighting, especially during the final battle.

Michael Caine was good as Alfred although I felt that he tried to hard to be funny when a look would've been more effective than a one liner. Commissioner Gordon also gets a woeful line late on.
Although the villains should take a back seat it would've been nice to spend a little more time on the Scarecrow, as he was very menacing but underdeveloped
I think this is a really good film and deserves to make a lot of money, just for being dark and bold and for the most part very clever. I think it's a very good way to set up Batman and hopefully they will be able to make a sequel that will surpass this and possibly form what could be a daring and classy franchise.