It's good, not great.

Rating: 6/10 (27 June 2005)

Here we have a film that could have easily gone wrong in so many directions but actually proved you can revive a dying franchise. It had the atmosphere and the cast to give new life to the cape and cowl.
However the film was flawed. I guess it varies from person to person as to what they want to get out of Batman, but this movie had everything I didn't want to see and not enough of what I love about the character.
I felt there were large portions of the movie, like when Bruce is gathering his resource to make all the bat stuff, that could have easily been a montage and had the same effect. It felt like the entire second act of the film could have easily been reduced to three 2 minute scenes and nothing would have been lost.
The first act of the movie and the last act are engaging and exciting. But the loss of momentum in the middle killed it for me. By then end I was trying to get back into the action but I just wasn't in the mood. I think there should have been more focus placed on the villains. The conflict seemed more like a weak device than a real story. I had other problems too (like I didn't much like the costume or the bat mobile and Katie Holmes and Rutger Hauer could easily been cut from the movie with little or no damage to the plot among other things), but most of them stemmed from my knowledge of the comic and its an adaptation so you have to let things slide.
Like I said before, the cast is great and the atmosphere is right. The movie had kinks, it wasn't perfect and I don't know that I would say I loved it. It does, however, have all the right ingredients for a superior sequel. So let's hope.