Batman Begins With a Vengeance

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2013)

Back in the late 90's, early 00's, I was introduced to Tim Burton's 'Batman' and 'Batman Returns' and I immediately turned my back on the overly light, and crumbling Christopher Reeves 'Superman' series. Here was a story about a man who gives up his life to catch the bad guys who murder and steal, just like the one who killed his parents and goes out every night to protect the city and stop the bad guys, even if he has to spend the rest of his life doing it, and even to my five or six-year-old mind, to me that was fantastic. Whilst the pretty okay 'Batman Forever' and the utter failure of 'Batman & Robin' still leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' brings in a fresh new turn at the Dark Knight, and explores every nook and cranny of the origin story, even the ones that were not fully explained even in the comics. With a good, new, sharper and a more darker, stormier Knight, played by the brilliant Christian Bale, 'Batman Begins' proves to be the grittiest of them all, even without the overuse of special and visual effects, because they focused on something that the last two Batman's did not have, a dark, gripping and emotionally hooking story, and at 2hrs and 20mins, it tells that story with perfect pacing and shows no point of slowing down from the moment the logos hit, all the way until the Batman spreads his cloak and soars into the night's wind for the closing image. Christopher Nolan delivers a Batman for the new generation whilst giving the fans of the old generation the Batman that they deserve, desperately need, and the Batman that they have been crying out for, and that my friends is something to aspire to.