Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2005)

The Batman films have always been a disappointment to me. Despite all the hype and the seemingly endless praise by other Batman fans, for me Batman Begins continues in the tradition of disappointing Batman films. And after watching two brilliant Spider-Man films, I can't quite understand why Hollywood can't give Batman the same treatment.
What I liked: 1. Christian Bale was the best of the Batmans to date, edging out Michael Keaton for that honor. Although I don't think Keaten's Batman was nearly as interesting of a character which I'd have to blame on the writers rather than the actor.
2. Seeing so many good actors in one film like Michael Kane, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, and Rutger Hauer.
What I disliked: 1. Action scenes were confusing and hard to follow. Too many close-ups and switching camera angles resulted in it being hard to tell what was going on at any one point in time. I can't appreciate a fight scene if they don't present it in a way that I can really watch.
2. Bruce Wayne is given a bunch of really neat toys, and immediately knows how to use them to perfection. Yes, I know he was trained as a fighter by Ducard, but this doesn't explain all of the abilities that Batman suddenly picks up once he gets the toys. Take for example the scene where he's driving on rooftops in the Batmobile. This was a little bit unbelievable. If they were going to show us how Bruce Wayne became Batman, they should have come up with a better way of explaining how he suddenly mastered the use of all of these tools. The way they portray it, any black belt could be Batman if they had the same toys.
3. Villains...too many of them, and none of them make any great impression. Scarecrow did not seem like that big of a threat once they were done with him. Zsasz amounted to zero. Ra's Al Ghul was beaten up in the first hour of the movie by Bruce Wayne. The only good villain that the Batman movies have ever had is the Joker from the original Batman.
4. Motives. These were a little weak. Al Ghul, Ducard, and Company wanted to destroy Gotham City because it was immoral. How many times has this storyline been recycled? The bad guy always wants to a) rule the world or b) destroy X location and kill millions. It's pretty hard to take them seriously when we, as the viewing audience, KNOW that their plot has no chance of succeeding from the moment it comes out of their mouth.
5. Bruce is trained by Ducard to face his fears and join their Shadow warriors or whatever. Then just as Bruce is ready to lead the ninjas, they suddenly inform him that he has to execute a guy first. 1 minute later the building is on fire and Bruce is trying to kill the guy who he was just about to go to work for. The whole plot twist was so abrupt that it just seemed to fall flat and didn't make a whole lot of sense.
Overall I'd say if you really like Batman that you'll either love or hate this film. It's a pretty ridiculous movie, but it can be entertaining if you don't expect much from it. If you are the type that tends to analyse a film too much, you won't like this one...because it's not exactly what I'd call a classic. I'd put it in Tier 2 of superhero movies under Spider-Man 1 & 2 and right over the horrible X-Men films.