Not as cool as Burton's Batman.

Rating: 6/10 (2 September 2005)

Bam! Pow! Kazam! Batman Begins (currently at 117 on the IMDb 250!?). OK, there were several elements I really liked. Bruce Wayne's training in the first 45 minutes was pretty cool, as were the deeper than usual themes of justice and revenge. The way Wayne acquired Batman's wonderful toys was explained nicely too, such as having the two ears manufactured at a different place than the actual mask to avoid suspicion. The movie was suitably dark and Christian Bale was more than acceptable as the lead. That all said, the movie seemed overlong at two plus hours, perhaps being the cause of the frenzied-to-a-fault climax. The last half hour was a mix of rushed details and plot points, resulting in a nearly awful watch. The fighting and action itself was nothing great either, often consisting of quick edits and the camera being so close as to lose focus of what is actually going on. All in all, a decent movie but Burton's version still reigns supreme in my book. Oh yeah, the suped-up, armored dune buggy didn't really work for me as a Batmobile either, nor did the "look" of Gotham.