The biggest budget ninja movie of all time

Rating: 7/10 (2 August 2006)

***possible spoilers***
I really liked this movie, but it doesn't wear very well with multiple viewings. There's too much intellectual babble. It's interesting the first time but it becomes tedious when you see it again. Once you know the outcome of batmans inner turmoil, you just want to get on with it and watch the action scenes.
The full acknowledgment of batmans status as the ultimate ninja is this films greatest quality. As a fan of ninja movies, i loved the training scenes early in the film. The fight scenes were also handled in a very interesting way. The way they're shot is very cool and i expect the technique to be copied in the years to come. The director kind of lets your imagination fill in the blanks with tight blurred close ups where you can't see what's going on and loud sound effects. This may not sound very cool if you're a fan of elaborate fight choreography but it works very well. You get a sense of real brutality and it surprises you.
The film does a good job of making you believe that a character like batman could exist in real life and goes to great pains in helping you suspend your disbelief but that comes at a price.... It's endlessly talky and overly serious.
Compared to other batman films, i would say it's the second best after the first Tim Burton movie. When i first saw it i thought it was the best but Burtons movie definitely holds up better with multiple viewings and is a tighter film overall. Compared to other recent super hero films, it fails to measure up to Sam Raimi's excellent Spiderman series, but it's better than most of the rest.
It's good enough to make me anticipate sequels but tighter pacing could have made it a classic.