Batman Begins

Rating: 7/10 (22 July 2015)

While I wasn't totally blown away by Nolan and Bale's interpretation of how "it all began", I think it has its moments. Despite a busy plot where the League of Shadows adopt a broken Bruce Wayne, needing guidance and a path to a better him, train him in martial arts and how to engage, out- think, and outwit the enemy, and attempt to invest their philosophy on annihilating injustice (through whatever means necessary) among other things (dealing with Rutger Hauer's managing of his company, working in weapons which might not have been Pops Wayne's desired property in the business; trying to recover his shaky relationship with Holmes' assistant DA; building his crime-fighting lair, costume, weapons behind the symbol of the bat, what he fears the most due to being trapped in a well as a child; contending with a mind altering drug being used by Cilian Murphy's crazed attorney (he's the scarecrow villain); trying to recuperate from the loss of his parents and the nature of having to live up to his father's honored reputation; learning how to be the kind of crimefighter his father would be proud of...), I think there are distinctive personalities that work. Michael Caine as Alfred (never giving up on Bruce), the butler who has kept his affairs in order, Hauer as the company's chief operating executive in the company (with an obvious interest in attaining power in the company), Morgan Freeman as an old company employee in charge of a section of the company that dealt in "abandoned weapons designs" (Bruce's go-to guy for kevlar, the elaborately designed batmobile, among other things), and Murphy (the devious, cold- bloodedness is brought out well; that and he plays a prick, douchebag authentically) all bring it even if Katie Holmes (a target of undeserved vitriol) doesn't quite achieve what the part really needed, and Bale, while brooding and providing enough angst and inner anguish, speaks in that dark tone that has been quite the victim of mockery. Liam Neeson, as Bruce's mentor and adversary, is a bit stone-faced and delivers his lines as a man rooted in his philosophy to the point that when he talks about genocide to an entire city it feels like little more than crushing out ants. The action scenes are sparse, but not altogether satisfying to me. They don't have the pizazz I was accustomed to with Burton. The police chasing Batman in the batmobile, and the effects of the toxin on people, to me, are the film's best moments. Gary Oldman plays it straight in a part that he's seldom seen in...a straight-arrow cop totally in favor of justice. He plays the character with valor all the way. This isn't Romeo is Bleeding Oldman, for sure. Tom Wilkinson even shows up as a gangster running the criminal underground, victim of Murphy's toxin when he threatens to expose the plan to poison the city's water supply. A ton of faces, a lot of subplots eventually converging, and Bruce's developing into Batman: there's no way around a lengthy movie. Holmes, if anything, suffers from not having the right chemistry with Bale, but it works both ways. She just lacks this passion and energy the part kind of needs.