Fun (albeit far-fetched) and visually striking bat-fantasy

Rating: 8/10 (28 November 2019)

Young Bruce Wayne, scarred by his parent's death, searches for meaning and redemption amongst the world's criminals and becomes a growling cowled vigilante, adopting mise en scÃ¨ne from his childhood chiroptophobia. The first of Christopher Nolan's popular bat-trilogy finding the caped-crusader (Christian Bale) battling his old teacher Ra's al Ghul for the fate of Gotham City. The film introduces the classic bat-characters, conflicted Commissioner (to be) Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Alfred the Butler (the always great Michael Caine) as well as Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) a love interest for Dark Knight's millionaire playboy alter-ego, and Lucius Fox, purveyor of cool, black bat-gadgets. There is lots of gritty, gravelly tough-guy talk punctuated by fights, high-speed chases, and acrobatics (all of which are physics-denying in the extreme). The story, while implausible, is entertaining enough and the script good (although some of the humour falls a bit flat). The only thing I really didn't like was the hero's ability to glide great distances using his temporarily rigid cape as wings - it made for a cool image the first time, but got silly-looking fast. The film closes with a set-up for the second, and best, entry in the trilogy, 2009's outstanding "The Dark Knight".