The way to do it

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2005)

Comic book movies are difficult to be made in great films... Comic books are a great art form that don't always become "translated" in to good movies. They are either mediocre efforts or due to their stylistic "geniouses" (ie Spiderman and the first 2 Batmans) surpass mediocrity...
The best way to tackle such a movie is to make it character-centered - with this way classics can be made (Superman 1). This is what Batman Begins does - it is based on the character of Bruce Wayne and how he is forced to become Batman.
To achieve this "character-centered" feel - superhero movies should go back to the origin of the superhero... This is where batman begins succeeds like the classic superman 1. The original batman and batman returns are also very good films but their greatness are due to Tim Burton's genius creating "highly-stylized" movies; but these films leave you with a bitter taste as the question : "who is this guy and why does he have this weird hobby?" remains unanswered...
This is ("... Begins") an unmissable film that made me an even bigger fan of Christopher Nolan's work (Insomnia, Memento) but with a few distractions - like the stupid one-liners that all the characters use so we won't forget that this film's origin is a comic book and the weird voice Wayne uses when he is Batman that sounds like "... a 7-foot man that has been smoking since childhood... (from HItchhiker's Guide to the galaxy trailer)".