Christian Bale is Batman.

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2005)

To my surprise I have to say this is now my favorite Batman movie yet. Why? Simply put, they finally have cast the right guy to be Batman, a Batman that can stand tall and carry the movie without the help of overly flashy villains who simply say one liners and have stupid plans that really go nowhere. Bale is great as the caped crusader as he actually looks the part both in face and in stature. It also helps that he has the voice for it as he doesn't have to whisper to sound tough. Sure Keaton has his backers, but he gets to many points simply because he was the first (though he was better than Kilmer and Clooney). We have an interesting plot here about how the Batman came into being and believe me he is first and foremost in this flick. The villains are good, perfect casting for the Scarecrow and he is like the comic book, but never does he overact and try to steal the show he is just an element of the plot. All the actors here were good, the story was good, simply put this was Batman as the Dark Knight, and yes this movie was dark. In fact, a bit more darker and an R rating might have been more appropriate. The action is great as no longer does it rely mainly on computer generated graphics, but more on stunts. The city of Gotham also looked great as it looked like a real city rather than a caricature of one with all the action taking place on one obvious set or another (ala the last two Batman movies). A nice twist was thrown in here and there as well, though I thought it was headed in the direction it went. The Batmobile looked rather cool too, it matched the one of the first and second movie in that it looked like a real vehicle rather than just a big toy. So if you go see this Batman, don't look for a goofy embarrassing comedy, but rather a sleek, dark movie more reminiscent of the Batman in the comic books.