How the Legend Truly Began

Rating: Null/10 (22 July 2010)

I'm guessing they had two movies planned and decided to cram them both in Batman Begins.
Granted, there's a lot of back-story written about the infamous Dark Knight so they made two separate movies in this reboot. No complaints here; both stories, I'll name "Bruce Begins" and "Error and Trial," were great.
"Bruce Begins," or the first half, was NOT the movie I was looking forward to, back in 2005 when I was waiting for this to come out. When I watch a superhero movie, I want just that: to see a superhero immediately and throughout to the end, much like what Burton did for the original Batman waaay back in 1989. Well, far be it from me to be proved wrong. Dead wrong.
"Bruce Begins" was exciting, insightful, thoroughly crafted, beautifully shot and gave a lot of the background that I was unaware of in regards to the fall and rise of Billionaire Bruce Wayne (played wonderfully by Bale.) And no, I'm not referring to the background of his parents dying in the alley – DUDE! That's been overplayed so many times, it'll never reach an emotional peak, though that's the motivation within Batman. Nevertheless, the always wonderful Neeson (who played, well, not to spoil it, the "Mentor") gave an excellent performance. But, unfortunately, he also leads us to problem #1 in the film.
I'm aware the plot all ties in towards the finale, so there really aren't any coincidences, but when the "secret plan" is revealed by the mentor, it went from a realistic (as much as any comic book adaptation can be) movie to the level most superhero films fall to. However, it's easy to get past as good as the film is so far.
Basically, "Bruce Begins" shows the journey of the lost-soul heir who never quite got his fill of justice when his parent's killer was also killed by someone else. He still wants to avenge their untimely and meaningless demise by cleaning up the scum of Gotham City, so he leaves his hometown and scours the Earth to learn both how to fight and what makes the criminal tick, first hand. He's "rescued" by his mentor and trained in multiple arts. Unfortunately, for the trainer, the student, Bruce, favors justice over murder.
Bruce escapes, while saving his mentor from a fire Bruce helped start, destroying the home base of the mentor, his minions and the evil plans to destroyGotham. There I said it – the silly part. But, not only is that not really a spoiler, but where else would evil-doers travel to? Metropolis? No, this is a Batman movie.
Slowly, "Bruce Begins" transcends into what I think is the weaker of the two stories: "Error and Trial." Weaker is such a negative word here, as the story's second half was nearly excellent, but just not as good as the movie's beginning.
Here, we will see Bruce return home, reunite with loved one(s) and don the famous black suit. You'll get it all: the reasons behind each toy, weapon, cape and vehicle you've grown up with in regards to Batman. Of course, there's more: not one but two (or three, or four? It's hard to keep up) villains, but that's just the Batman movie's motto: more opponents arewell, expected.
Nicely, though it's a trend in the (then) 5 Batman films, they introduce new (to audiences) baddies: Scarecrow (Murphy) and Ra's Al Ghul. Unfortunately, however, they're not only the weakest of all the movies to date, but the most uninteresting. Still, they're played brilliantly by the actors involved.
Each bad man is complimenting the next one in one large scheme in order towell, I don't want to ruin it, but (way unfortunately) along the way there seems to be an extreme lack of Batman's detective skills – wasn't he part of Detective Comics? For the most part, he relied on both his trusty, life-long friend and servant, Alfred (excellently played by Caine) and Fox (also wonderfully acted by Freeman.) This Batman was more brawn and vengeful than the last 4 actors to portray him. Yep, I'm including Quahog Mayor: Adam West.
To be honest, this review seemed kind of down. Let me shine a light on this dark knight. This movie was thrilling, had a excellent score – one of my personal all time favorites and matches Elfman's awesome introduction to the caped crusader, brilliantly shot – the cinematography was gorgeous, the plot was intense, the acting phenomenal, contained original action sequences and it certainly set the bar extremely high, literally begging any superhero/comic book movie to challenge the depths of its creativity. And since 2005, though some have been good, only The Dark Knight – this movie's own sequel – topped it.
I guess, according to my review of the original Batman, I liked this one less, though that's an apples/oranges comparison. While the original 1989 classic is perfect for what it was – a true comic-book fairy tale, this one's a more grown-up, realistic – for the most part and thoughtful adaptation of a hero that's been around for literally generations. Bypass some dialogue that simply doesn't fit, evil-plots that are borderline silly, the bumps, bruises and blunders of Batman's first outings that are a tad-bit hard to watch and one of my biggest pet peeves – the absolute and thoughtless destruction Batman leaves behind in his GTA road chase, and I will still highly recommend this adventure due to all the greatness that overshadowed its weaknesses. And this is coming from a die-hard Superman fan, so you know I mean it when I say: SEE IT!