"Batman Makes His Dark and True Return, Without Schumacher."

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2005)

As a young boy, Bruce Wayne watched in horror as his parents were killed right in front of him, which leads him to become obsessed with revenge. Leaving Gotham, Bruce Wayne seeks counsel with the dangerous but honorable ninja cult leader Ra's Al-Ghul, Bruce returns to his now decaying Gotham City, which is overrun by organized crime. The discovery of a cave under his mansion, along with a prototype armored suit, leads him to assume a new persona, one which will strike fear into the hearts of men who do wrong; he becomes Batman.
What the makers of Batman Begins wanted to do was to make the audience forget about those Bat Nipples, those bright neon streets and horrible puns made by horribly casted villains. Nolan and co have not only brought the franchise back to life by obliterating Schumachers version, but to some have out-done Burtons classic Gothic original.
Written by David. S. Goyer and under the direction of Nolan, who has done no wrong in the directing chair, Batman becomes what he originally was in the comic books. With this new fresh start we see how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, and in doing so, we get a more human and round character of Batman, unlike in the former series. More true to the comic books then Burtons and more entertaining then Schumachers, this Batman is able to regain the fans it once lost...and gain some new ones.
Nolan doesn't throw action at us from the start like the latter films do, it takes it's time to build up emotion and the character of Bruce Wayne. For those who actually did enjoy Schumachers mess, will find this movie a tad slow and boring, because Bale doesn't become Batman till half way through the picture. It's safe to say that the best Bruce Wayne is Bale hands down, he is able to bring both characteristics from Keaton's and Kilmer's style, to make this Bruce Wayne perfect. While some may not be digging the whole Batman voice, it's actually more true to the comics then the others have done. Batman is suppose to have a dark harsh voice.
Some of the fight sequences were hard to follow are not all that entertaining, the two that pop into my mind would be the first fight in the prison, the editing is so fast and the camera is too close up for people to actually see what's going on. The second fight sequence is when Batman goes into the city and fights the "henchmen" ninjas, it seemed to slow paced and not hard hitting enough. Other then that, the action sequences were very entertaining and for the most part, better then the other Batman films. The Batmobile chase scene is a sensation for the eyes to watch.
This Batman film has the best performances of any other, Bale is the new Bruce Wayne/Batman and he knows what works and what doesn't. Murphy is delightfully evil and eccentric in his performance of The Scarecrow, this is the best performance in the film. Murphy is an underrated actor, who will eventually get more and more recognition. Oldman is one of the best bad guy actors, so seeing him in a new refreshing role really shows his diversity. Neeson is able to show his experience through this role, he acts as a teacher to the others in his performance. He knows what to do and gets to the point. Wilkinson, with his little screen time, is able to stand out as a high point. Good performances all around from Freeman, Cain and Hauer.
Now, I was a huge fan of the old Alfred and the new one seems a little to energetic to me, Cain was good, but I just got the sense of miscasting here. I can see the role being played by an unknown actor and it would have worked better. Katie Holmes of course was a weak point, her character seemed to have no emotional attachment/chemistry with Bruce Wayne, and Holmes to Bale for that matter. She is so out of place in this style of film, and Wantanabe basically stands there and says a couple lines, nothing more.
The film is a great restart for a new franchise, which is undoubtedly going to get better and better with such villains as The Joker and The Riddler, hopefully done right this time. With the great cast and director in the same positions, I see BATMAN on a scale higher then that of Spiderman and X-men.