Sweet redemption for the Dark Knight.

Rating: 9/10 (13 June 2005)

This one threatens Tim Burton's first as contender to the throne. The only advantages remaining for the original (modern) Batman are the atmosphere (Burton is the real dark knight here) and Jack Nicholson's irreplaceable Joker.
My only real concern was with the plastic look of the cityscape miniatures, a problem I recall from most every other Batman movie. I still have yet to be sold on Gotham from air, though everyone is moving through it much more convincingly. Otherwise, the Gotham grounds are appreciable, from the Manor mountainside to the undercity. Wayne's travels also give Wally Pfister plenty of vistas to capture, starting right away with the detention camp and further up.
For Batman Begins' length, it makes great use of the cast. Purists might balk at the large cast of villains (Joe Chillthe elder Wayne's murderer, Carmine Falconi, Scarecrow, and Ra's al Ghul), but they all essentially serve to represent different aspects of the true villain, Bruce Wayne's own tortured psyche. No, I didn't ruin the movie, unless you came to watch exquisite Bat-gadgets, squeaky Bat-nipples on body armor, or anything in gaudy balloon letters. Batman has always represented the driving power of personal guilt, and this comes across well in Batman Begins.
Christopher Nolan makes quite a bit from his mostly British casting, especially the paternal (and Irish, yes) Liam Neeson. I missed Gary Oldman as Not-Yet-Commissioner Gordon, expecting him to be a usual villain; regardless, he made a good, standoffish young lieutenant. The Asian in me wishes that Ken Watanabe was put to more effective use, but I believe he was given barely enough screen time. There is only one (other) marginalized character, though her involvement is still integral to the plot.
One could take the story in different ways, as there are many different interpretations of the Batman mythos. Personally, I didn't read all the comicsI thought Lucius Fox was a mortal enemy just from reading previews. Nolan and (David) Goyer's screenplay barely skims the "World's Greatest Detective" aspect, presumably from Wayne's lack of training in that regard at this early point. And it certainly isn't linear until the save-the-city action kicks in. What we are given is an entirely plausible origin for one of the bastions of legendary fiction. Batman's design in this iteration borrows more from Jane's Monthly than DC serials, taking the Batmobile off the hot-rod track and onto urban streets.
A few spots of humor help to expand the fear dynamic, especially where Alfred (Michael Caine) and Fox (Morgan Freeman) are concerned. Plenty of inventive Foley and an ethereal Hans Zimmer soundtrack help round out this "Episode One" of the comics-to-movies world. So long as the focus remains on quality rather than spectacle, the world of Gotham will remain a viable backdrop for the Caped Crusader. (I wouldn't mind seeing a few reworkings of the "latter" movies, myself.)