Let the intimidation begin!

Rating: 10/10 (17 June 2005)

Now, I suppose I'm what you could call a longtime Batman fan. (Er, not of the comic books, though. I hardly ever read comics because, frankly I don't have the time for it..) As such,I was pretty much first in line to see the latest incarnation of the Dark Knight on the silver screen. So, I thought I'd post a short review here.
My history with the previous four Batman movies (Okay, so technically there were five films before this one if you count the 1966 movie.) is as follows: I loved the first movie, liked the second one and thought the third one was kinda meh. As for the fourth one, let us never speak of it again.
Now, onto Batman Begins..
Seeing that Warner Bros. had assembled a massive all-star cast and crew (Chris Nolan, David Goyer, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe..) when I went to see it I figured that it would either:
a) rock, b) be OK, or c) be the next Ishtar
To my great delight, the answer is most definitely and without a shadow of a doubt the first choice. For one, the acting is impeccable. I wasn't quite sure if Morgan Freeman could really shine in his role, but he does, as always. As for Christian Bale, though I knew that he is indeed a very talented actor, I also had my doubts about him being right for the part of Bruce Wayne/Batman. But he takes both sides of the role and does them justice, and then some (I'll be damned if there isn't a tiny bit of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman in his rendition of Bruce Wayne as he provides this vain and shallow alter ego to his true identity, which is oddly appropriate). Alfred, played by the stately Michael Caine, excels in his role and manages to bring out new dimensions of his character. In fact, just about the whole cast shines, and essentially all the characters feel much more fleshed out in this movie than the previous iterations.
As for the action, stunts, music, audio and special effects, they are all exquisite and expertly executed. One thing that I noticed is that for the most part there is a distinct lack of CG effects, as Nolan opted to take a more traditional approach to the special effects, explosions and such. The result is a satisfying visual experience that has a great feel to it. The CG in this case simply provides the icing on the cake, instead of trying to be the whole cake, as is the case with too many action films today..
I did have one minor gripe about the film. The angles during the fight scenes were kind of close up and quick-cut, unlike Asian martial arts films where the camera is drawn further back to give a better view of the action. But, as I said, this is a very minor gripe, and it doesn't detract from the experience in any significant way. In a way it also fits in very well with the visual style of the film (you'll see what I mean).
I have no reservations about saying that I absolutely loved this movie, and this is something that I don't say often about movies. Non-fans need not worry, either, as Batman Begins is very accessible to newcomers. To sum it up in three very short sentences: It rocks. Go see it. NOW.