Tim Burton can rest at ease...

Rating: 7/10 (19 June 2005)

While Chris Nolan scored some style points, he fails to capture the magic and fun that Burton so successfully did in the early nineties before tiring of the series and letting Joel ruin it. I'm not a comic book reader so I don't give any slack to this stuff. It either works on its own or it doesn't. BATMAN BEGINS... doesn't.
My biggest problem with this film was pace. The story was so big that I felt rushed through every moment and a lot of characters felt underdeveloped. Nobody was introduced with any bravado. They were just sort of added to the story. I felt that Gary (always brilliant)Oldman's Detective Gordon could have had a terrific introduction but instead he's just sort of at the police station with the terrible child actor playing young Bruce.
Lots of bad acting in this puppy. Outside of Bale, Oldman, Freeman and Cillian Murphy, I was none too impressed. Michael Caine actually made a pretty terrible Alfred. Michael Gough was much better casting. Lots of people didn't have much to do like Rutger Hauer and Ken Watanabe. Although Cillian Murphy was good, his character wasn't given much to do at all. Ultimately, he was a pretty pathetic villain. And at the end of the day, the entire plot of this movie was just some half-arsed rip off of the plot of Burton's Batman.
Now Jack Nicholson... that was a villain. Tom Wilkinson probably inspired a little grave rolling for Jack Palance. Even Kim Basinger is remembered fondly compared to Katie Holmes' less than believable DA turn. Although she wasn't as bad as I thought she was going to be. By the way, that little kid from inner Gotham's city? You know the one. The one who thought his friends wouldn't believe he saw Batman and then OH SO COINKYDINKY wound up with Katie Holmes in the end? GIVE ME A BREAK! PUKE!
Also, the end of this film was a total rip off of SPIDER-MAN (not that I liked that one much either). Can't these writers and directors be original? There are a couple of nice things in this movie. It's not like it's CATWOMAN or anything... but seriously, folks... we're giving this thing too much credit. The score was only so-so, nothing compared to Burton's awe-inspiring score by Danny Elfman (the Prince stuff we can always lose).
Below are the only superhero/comic book movies I feel have actually worked as films on their own two legs that you can see and enjoy without having read a comic book.
SUPERMAN SUPERMAN II X-MEN X-MEN 2 BATMAN BATMAN RETURNS
By the way, I'm friends with someone who wrote for BATMAN at DC and they weren't too impressed by this film either.
Oh yeah... and Liam Neeson's mustache was horrendous. I mean, I kept waiting for it to crawl off his face.