Epic!... Well worth a look...

Rating: 9/10 (8 July 2012)

Beautifully shot with some stunning CGI; chiefly used for the cityscapes of Gotham, and they look great. The sets and locations all blur seamlessly together and make for a visual treat; Nolan certainly has an eye for this kind of thing. All the performances were excellent; especially Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, he really nailed it. I must also give praise to Michael Caine as Alfred; a role he could have been born to play, I thought he was perfect. Katie Holmes was also very good as Rachel Dawes, as were Liam Neeson as Henri Ducard, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon. I will give honourable mentions to; Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow, Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone, Rutger Hauer as Earle and Ken Watanabe as Ra's Al Ghul. Oh, and if you look carefully you might spot a young Jack Gleeson (currently on TV's 'A Game of Thrones') in a minor role.
I'm sure that many people saw 'The Dark Knight', the sequel to this film, and wet back to re-watch this one. I have, of course, seen both but decided to re-watch them in order so I can get some perspective before the third instalment is released in a couple of weeks. I had forgotten just how epic this film was and how it manages to hold your attention virtually all the way through. All the characters are quite believable (despite being based on a fantasy comic book) and their motivations are made clear. Something that many filmmakers forget but something that is vitally important when it comes to keeping the attention of the audience. For me, one of the best origin story movies I've seen and one I have no problem in deeming HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
My score: 9.1/10
IMDb Score: 8.3/10 (based on 414,263 votes at the time of going to press).
MetaScore: 70/100: (Based on 41 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes 'Tomatometer' Score: 85/100 (based on 261 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes 'Audience' Score: 90/100 'Liked it' (based on 969,838 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.