Dark, brooding, expensive, and excellent

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2010)

First off, I'll say that I saw Michael Keaton and George Clooney as Batman, and I remember the TV show. In reading some of the reviews posted here, I realize that I missed a lot of Batman over the years. Apparently this franchise went way wrong (uh, did it start with the Clooney version?), and people were nervous about seeing this one.
All I know about the Batman cartoon is that his parents were killed leaving the movies after having seen "The Mark of Zorro." Not a Warner Brothers movie, so you can forget that.
This film purports to tell the story of how Bruce Wayne became Batman. I'm not sure how much it sticks to the cartoon Batman, but it's terrific just the same. Bruce (Christian Bale) struggles with his anger and bitterness over the death of his parents. He becomes involved with the League of Shadows, a group with a very extreme mission, where he learns a lot of survival techniques. Wayne finally settles on trying to do some good for the broken down, crime-ridden, mob-infested Gotham -especially when he learns that the League of Shadows plans to annihilate it.
No expense was spared either for the cast or the effects, and there are some amazing ones. The casting is inspired: the handsome Bale is a perfect Bruce/Batman, who manages to hold his emotions inside; Michael Caine as Alfred the Butler - fabulous casting, and one really sees the bond beween Alfred and Bruce; the brilliant Tom Wilkinson as the evil Carmine Falcone; Liam Neeson as an instructor in the League of Shadows; Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox, who works for Wayne's company, which is in danger of being stolen from Bruce. The only off-note for me was the casting of Katie Holmes as an assistant district attorney. She came off like a high school student. Age-wise, as a childhood friend of Wayne's, she's in the right age range, but Holmes seems much younger than her years.
This is a dark, brooding film that combines the effects with human drama. Really a great film.