Bats are nocturnal!

Rating: 10/10 (3 July 2005)

The title of this comment is an actual line from the movie. Bruce says it when Alfred wakes him in the afternoon, the day after his first night out as a superhero. This is the kind of humor you can expect from the film. It sometimes appears in unexpected situations, which makes it that much better. The Batman films can't really be classified as comedy, but they all had funny bits, and this one is no exception.
That said, the action is certainly not boring. We get to see the young Bruce Wayne in flashbacks and nightmares, and we get a better idea of why he became Batman in the first place. Then we see him training, occasionally getting his butt kicked, and learning how to navigate Gotham City as a shadowy ninja-like crime fighter.
The actors all did very well, even Katie Holmes. That one surprised me a little. I'm no fan of hers, and I wasn't sure she belonged in a Batman movie, but she pulled off her character pretty well. Really, the female lead characters in the Batman movies aren't there to be realistic, wonderful characters. They're there as a contrast to the city itself - Gotham is huge, dark, Gothic, and filled with crime and other horrors. Each of the female leads embodied a different idealistic quality. The Katie Holmes character was the pretty assistant D.A. only interested in making sure justice was done in every situation. Remember Vicki Vale? The Kim Basinger character was the intrepid reporter looking to write a fair and revealing story about Batman, to show the world his true motivations. Blah blah blah. They're secondary, important to the plot but ultimately forgettable, for the most part. Katie Holmes was no exception, and she did a decent job of it.
Christian Bale was absolutely the right choice for this Batman. He has such a wide range of talents when it comes to acting, it's almost difficult to believe he's only one person. Really, would anyone think the same actor could play the lead in a live-action Disney musical about overworked children AND one of the best incarnations of Batman on screen? Usually not, but there you go. He's funny in the right places, and he's able to convey a lot of emotion with his face and voice, a talent that is all too rare these days. Also, his role as the psychotic Patrick Bateman in "American Psycho" proved he's got the chops to play dark and demented. I've thought of Batman that way since the early Tim Burton films, with Michael Keaton.
Michael Caine was the perfect Alfred. He was able to show us how much the butler really loved the Wayne family, and when the parents were killed he assumed the role of surrogate father to the grieving child left behind. Caine was also good at conveying that sense of aristocratic attitude I saw in the older versions of Alfred without going over the top.
I love Morgan Freeman, so I'm biased on this one. I love everything he does, including this role. Lucius Fox was every inch the eccentric inventor. He seemed like he was glad to see his creations finally put to good use. Plus, he got to ride in the car, and he got to show Batman how to use all the cool gadgets on the utility belt. Great role, played by the right actor.
At first, I thought Cillian Murphy was the guy from Eurotrip. I looked him up, and he isn't. While I can't quite remember what else I may have seen Murphy in, it doesn't really matter. I loved him as Scarecrow. It was interesting to me, to see what kind of villain Scarecrow really was. No super powers at all, no mutations, no gadgets except the mask and the psychotropic drug he used to work his evil magic, but it worked. Hey, Batman doesn't have any powers either. He's got gadgets though, and lots of training. Scarecrow has a background in psychiatry, drugs and a cool villain mask. And with these few tools he was able to bring Gotham City to turmoil within the course of this almost two-and-a-half hour movie. The mark of a great villain is his ability to do a lot of evil with very little power or help. This guy is one of the greats.
Really, there is no way to spoil this movie. I could sit here and type the script verbatim, and those who read it would still enjoy the movie. There would still be surprises, if only visual ones. It's worth the price of admission just to see what Gotham City looks like in this film. And they managed to make it look real, like a city that might really exist somewhere out there.
That's the word for this film: real. Batman is seen as a real guy, doing things other real people could do with the right training and enough money. Scarecrow/Dr. Crane is a realistic - if slightly unbalanced - head shrinker who simply gets overly fascinated by the mind of the criminal psychotic. Everything ties together in the end, and there is some good foreshadowing to get us hooked on the Batman story until the end of time.