The best of the best in superhero movies

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2013)

Even though much acclaimed compared to most adaptations, Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins is still much underestimated with regard to its actual worth, depth and greatness.
Like most, I despised the Schumacher Batman movies but was a big fan of Tim Burton's earlier work with the character. I thus had huge reservations about a franchise reset. And after seeing Batman Begins the first time, I was left unconvinced.
But this is one of those rare movies which grew on me after each time I saw it rather than the usual decline. And now that I grasped its philosophical implications and the depth of Bruce Wayne's development, which obviously escaped me the first time, I realize that Batman Begins is much more than a movie, let alone a mere comic book adaptation.
Even though it is loaded with some heavy reflexions about life and justice, there is no lecturing here. Nolan masterfully manages to take us into the deep confines of the nature of law and justice, and uses real, important issues as a springboard to send Bruce Wayne into the Batman character. Where justice is absent because it is in the hands of those who seek to avoid it, Wayne finds that he cannot save Gotham by himself. He has to become more, a symbol around which people will rally and will regain hope. And indeed, don't we all have the feeling that this is what the world needs when the corrupt go free and nothing can seem to help it?
At the same time, Nolan illustrates that justice is a relativistic idea, that one's justice is different than another's. The League of Shadwos is convinced that its actions are driven by a concern for justice, and thus Wayne cannot reason with Raz Al Gul for both of them are reaching for opposite ends of the same principle.
Another important theme carried by the movie is that actions are more important than intentions. Few people on the political, academic or public stage really grasp this, let alone put it into action so powerfully.
Nolan's Gotham and characters are real to the point that Batman Begins is a superhero movie which isn't a superhero movie. It rather is the very believable story of a tormented young adult who, confronted with the ugliness of the real world, finds that he has the tools to help make the good fight, but that in order to fight for justice, he must not follow its accepted rules and will have to hide his identity in order to fulfill his purpose.
With a solid cast, splendid photography and top notch direction, Batman Begins is one of the all time neglected greats. Without question a milestone for mature comic book adaptations, character development, and for political reflexion without any lecturing.