A Realer, More Human Batman (spoiler warnings)

Rating: 9/10 (15 June 2005)

Good things: 1- the director knew the franchise. 2- the movie had much more character development in Batman and in his parents and Alfred. (more than any of the other films), but without being heavy handed or boring. 3- with the batman cowl on, Christian Bale's lower face looks like it could be Michael Keaton. Continuity is our friend. 4- also, in the batman suit, Bale made his voice lower and growlier, meaning it was conceivable that people who met both him and Bruce Wayne wouldn't know it was him by him voice. 5- Also important, the growlier voice sounded almost perfectly the same as the voice actor from the Batman animated series. Thank you for the nods to the franchise's other incarnations. 6- Alfred was a human being. 7- Very beautiful scenery and buildings (not overly artsy or overly Gothic like the other films) They were more believable in their realism. 8- very good casting on everyone but Katie Holmes, (see below for why). It was beautiful to have famous actors in the movie not just in the bad guy parts. Props to Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman (I think thats him name, he was the villain in The Fifth Element, and everything else I think he has ever been in). 9- wonderful amounts of continuity at the end of the film. They delicately set it up for the rest of the movies-- bat cave, Wayne manor, Wayne industries...etc. 10- enough research on Japanese fighting techniques and Ninja Skills to make the costumes, props, and their movements believable. It was also an interesting way of explaining Batman's skills. I don't know if its in any of the other franchise bits, but I thought it was believable and good. 11-deadpan humor opposed to that cheesy one liner stuff from the t.v. show and last couple of movies. Just enough, not too much.
Bad things: 1- the new Alfred was very different from the old one, accent-wise this was damn annoying. 2- in the action sequences, they decided to use the newer trend in movie-making where they don't slow down the combat at all. Perhaps they were trying to make a point that Batman was really fast, but it means that in most of the fights the audience couldn't tell what the hell was going on. 3- small nitpick- using Liam Neeson for the mentor part did sort of make the audience want to shout in the sword fight bits- "Remember Bruce, a jedi can feel the force FLowing through him." But they kept this to a minimum. 4-also, in the sword fighting scene, I was waiting for the classic line "There can be only one!" followed by decapitation and attack by bad special effects. 5- to the director- We have all seen a million eps of Law and Order, and there is no way in hell Katie Holmes will ever be a believable D.A. Sorry, but no. 6- small nitpick-- slightly destracting was the fact that the guy who played Crane was so damned pretty. I think it was the guy from Smallville. It was like "oooo bishonen...huh? what was he saying again?"
Very enjoyable for a Batman fan. Better than at least the last two batman movies. I saw it on IMAX, which was very cool as well.