Gritty, realistic and fun - The perfect origin story

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2015)

Having seen the 2 sequels spawned off this film before enjoying it i went in with extremely high expectations as i loved The Dark Knight, i mean who doesn't and despite the overly harsh backlash TDKR has seemed to pick up i was convinced it was the best film ever made when i first watched it... Looking back i may have been wrong but it certainly wasn't "The Godfather 3" of its trilogy and instead was a pleasant send off.
So when i realized i hadn't even seen the first film in this heavily loved franchise i immediately sat down and watched. The film features a terrific ensemble of actors, Bale is great as Bruce Wayne but his Batman is often unintentionally funny when he opens his mouth, Bale puts on an overly gruff and "manly" voice instead of opting for the obvious and copying Kevin Conroy and although this is off-putting it works well in the basis of this story as Wayne is a lost man and it seems as he merely puts on the voice in the heat of the moment and stuck with it.
Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy and Liam Neeson all excel in their roles, and although "Murphy's" demise is underwhelming it is true to the character roots, his character "Scarecrow" a men obsessed with fear and manipulating others with his toxin and mask is often used as leverage for other villains and usually ends up embarrassed and crippled with his own fear and the film doesn't divert far from this notion
Nolan did a great job setting up an often misguided franchise and helped set up an incredible world, Gotham looks stunning and all the characters are believable yet fun... And the film has hardly any flaws and the best part of the whole film is Gary Oldman who plays Commissioner Gordon, in a role he was born for.