The Godfather of Reboots

Rating: 10/10 (7 August 2016)

I believe that Batman Begins depicts Gotham and the titular character as originally intended. Despite the fact that DC has received a lot of recent flak, Marvel, James Bond, Mission Impossible, and even Jason Bourne have quite a few reasons to thank this entry into the Batman canon for their own reboots and/or reinventions.
Christian Bale plays a conflicted Bruce Wayne/Batman in a way that helped James Bond rediscover his similar feel and origins a year later in Casino Royale. Bale handles the role well, particularly in the early pre-Batman scenes and later playboy billionaire ones. Kudos also to Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, and Liam Neeson who provide bits of irony, comic relief, and even introspection here and there. I would also recommend the short animated anthology Batman Year One, from which Batman Begins gets much of its story.
I also enjoyed Cillian Murphy as the creepy psychiatrist Dr. Jonathan Crane and Michael Wilkinson, who makes a terrific gangster. Katie Holmes received some criticism for her role, but I was not strongly offended by her acting, though she is one of the weaker points in the film.
The best character in the film, and the overall trilogy but particularly in this film, is Gotham City itself, which comes across as one of the best dystopias in film history. The Narrows may be lost, but Batman Begins put the genre in capable hands and sets a high bar and deserves the full 4 out of 4 bat signals.