Batman Torment Begins

Rating: 3/10 (16 June 2005)

Oh dear. A woefully poor screenplay spoils what could have been a great tale. Its derivative tripe. So much has been borrowed (and not given back) from recent trendy films, that some scenes actually feel like watching Star Wars, The Matrix, and Equilibrium, to name a few.
What makes this worse is that the whole story is worked to a backdrop sentiment of 'the criminal justice system is the only way and although fighting crime is good we must work within the law and legal system'. My beef here is that its a story about a vigilante!! Why does Hollywood feel the need to ruin such a story by plastering it with political correctness. Are we scared to make a film where the viewer can work this out for himself? OK so this is not the only film to have been spoilt by over-wrapping in morale values but it was so blatant it scares me.
Christian bale is the one saving grace about this film but even his acting is half-baked at times, delivering sentences as he didn't know what the meaning was. I do wonder why high calibre a-list actors are so congruent with delivering such empty stereotypical lines in the first place. I guess I could say that 'money talks' but the likes of Liam Nelson and Michael Cane must surely be offered more substantial scripts.
Does anyone think that ninjas teach sword fighting with actual swords? (training in the style of 'I want to kill you with a samurai sword'). I was led to believe that ninja gurus were very wise. Perhaps they would opt for blunt sticks for maybe the first couple of lessons. Once Bruce had learnt these kung-fu skills, I thought we were going to be treated to cleverly choreographed ninja-style fighting on the streets of Gotham. Fans of the original TV Series (or even the comic book) will recall the many elaborate punch-ups. All we had was a bat head jump in and out of shot for a second together with a crunch sound or two (Whilst we're on special effect I should also mention there was also a fair bit of up and down on a rope type stunt work). But why learn the Kung-Fu? Maybe I was expecting too much of this type of film. Maybe fans of 'the bat' will like it. Maybe I should stop moaning. Its ironic however, that a film about 'controlled anger' left me with exactly that feeling during the film and writing this review.