Amazing two-part film; the most epic Batman of them all...

Rating: 9/10 (18 June 2005)

This movie was simply amazing. This is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. It is just cinematic ally overwhelming. The plot, the characters, everything is fleshed out.
Batman does not make an appearance until an hour or so into the movie, and to be honest if the movie had ended right before it I wouldn't have minded. Batman was not the important part here. As a matter of fact, the movie sort of fell apart a bit after Batman was introduced. The absolute greatest part of this movie is the hour-long homage to Samurai and Gong-fu movies. Bruce Wayne is presented as a warrior, someone looking for his path. For the first time in any Batman movie, we get to see that Bruce is the real hero. In the other movies it's so simple to think of it as two personalities, but here we see Bruce Wayne donning a Batman costume, not turning into Batman.
This movie was just spectacular.
Minus one star for having the Scarecrow's role diminished at the end. I would have liked to see more of him. Otherwise it's perfect.