The Bat is Not Only Back, He's Finally Begun

Rating: 10/10 (20 June 2005)

SPOILERS
The genius at WB who decided that the Batman franchise should hit the 'restart' button should be in charge for about every movie at Warner Brothers. How they figured Chris Nolan, director of thrillers like "Memento" and "Insomnia", was the perfect choice for the film is a work of thought I don't understand. How they happened to bag not one, but two of Hollywood's hottest and most talented film composers is beyond me. How they bagged an all-star cast and found someone to play Batman that was better and more fitting than Michael Keaton baffles my mind. And how they somehow came up with a film that can almost too easily be called the greatest superhero film after "Spider-Man 2" leaves me in shock. "Batman Begins" is an unequaled masterpiece in the genre it exists in. In the past, Batman films have followed the same formula of villain origins and focus on their characters. Meanwhile Batman took a back seat in the bat-mobile and was nothing more than a pawn to save the day with rather uninteresting side-stories to the villains. Bruce Wayne never came off as an interesting character, we were more concerned about seeing him in the bat-suit kicking ass. This time, the story revolves around Bruce Wayne, him conquering his fears, finding a way to fight crime, walking the fine line between justice and vengeance and of course his creation of the terrifying 'symbol'-- Batman. We see Bruce's progression in character from his childhood when his parents died to the point where he nearly became what he hated most and decided to study the criminal mind around the world. The explanation as to why he dresses up like a giant bat is key to what the movie makes out to be a psychological thrill. Fear. "To become fear, you must first conquer it." says Bruce's trainer, Ducard.
The story, which revolves so closely around these characters, but specifically Bruce, is more complex than any superhero film that's been released and is realized with such a dark atmosphere and realistic nature. David Goyer has written his best script here, evoking some of the most genius lines I've heard in film, namely "It's not who I am underneathbut what I do that defines me." which is a line that can be broken down to the deepest of 'words-to-live-by' conversations. The writing was very well done and quite smart making it easy for the actors to give a grade A performance. Every actor fit their role perfectly. Christian Bale made it known when he was Batman and Bruce Wayne. The actor created an alternate voice for Batman, making him out to be a creature of the night. Batman had a low, raspy and more often than not, furious voice that struck the up most fear in to villains. One of the best scenes that showed the fear batman struck in to the hearts of others was when he fed Crane his own fear gas, and Crane saw Batman as a fanged, gray, vampire creature, drooling blood and all. Michael Caine made Alfred out to be strong, but at the same time this lovable, maternal figure that truly cared about Bruce. Caine didn't deliver one line bad. Neeson tricks the audience beautifully into thinking he's good and then out of his mind and no one could've fit the role better for Jim Gordon than Gary Oldman. The man can ACT and damn well too. All and all, this all-star cast was just what it was and more: An all-star, grade-A cast.
Chris Nolan is a director who knew how to create Batman the way he should be. Dark, frightening, tortured and trying to make his life between a playboy billionaire and superhero work. Nolan and Goyer understand that, unlike other superheros, Batman is totally plausible. He's not an alien, he didn't get bit by a nuclear spider, he's not a mutant bat. He's a manJust one human. Anyone could potentially harness the anger and control of fear to be Batman and that's what they went on. Gotham looked like a real modern city, not the goth-esquire city of Burton's films and not the exaggerated, naked statues holding 10 mile highways on their shoulders in good ole Joel's films. This Batman is set in the real world, only few things are exaggerated to keep the spirit of the absurdity. The fun is still there, but the attention to relating Batman's world to ours is great so we can relate to the world and the characters. The audience feels more in touch with Batman as the story revolves more around him and isn't the same formula as the last four films.
"Batman Begins" isn't just the best Batman movie or superhero movie, its one of the best movies in many years. There isn't such a thing as a flawless movie, especially a flawless action movie concerning a comic book superherobut this is as close as it gets folks. The ingredients were all there: A great cast, great director, great writer, great composers, an excellent story, involved characters and the perfect atmosphere and vision to set it all up. I'm all for the sequel to "Batman Begins", but its somewhat important that it stands on its own as well, just as Director Nolan said. It was the right way to bring the character back to the screen and gave audiences a story that actually related them to the Dark Knight. "War of the Worlds" will be great no doubt, and "Episode III" will get a lot of money simply because of the title "Star Wars" in front of it, but "Batman Begins" gets the artistic glory. A masterpiece indeed, I could watch it over and over again. Thank you Nolan, thank you Goyer, thank you Bale and the rest of the cast and crew involved in this amazing film. Roughly a decade and a half after Burton's movie, I can finally sayBatman has begun.
**** out of ****