Different, but not bad.

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2005)

This film has an entirely different taste to it. When I heard Christain Bale had been cast as Batman, I had my doubts (that's why I never saw this film on the big screen).
Well, I rented the DVD out of curiosity, and I'm glad I did. While I think Christian Bale did an okay job as Batman (a little too puny), he was adequately cast as a young Bruce Wayne though.
In the comics and cartoon, Batman hardly ever shows facial expression or emotion; in the film, Bale's performance as Batman was too emotional and ridden with facial expressions. On the other hand, Bruce Wayne always shows emotion and facial expressions (which Bale did), so he pulled off Bruce Wayne nicely.
The real stars of this film are Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman. Wow! They are both very fantastic actors and it's wonderful to see them shine on the screen. Katie Holmes was okay, but you can tell she's too preoccupied with something else.
The whole feel of this film is very dark; the film is closer in feel to those Batman Beyond cartoon series episodes that used to run on the WB rather than any of the previous Batman films (even the batman symbol is different!).
The "martial arts" scenes were choppy and looked like they belonged at Six flags. So other than that, the film was pretty good. Overall, I rate it eight out of ten stars.