Extremely competent, exciting reboot of the BATMAN franchise

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2009)

Got to admit, I did NOT want to like Christopher Nolan's film version BATMAN BEGINS (2005), a retelling of the Batman legend. Mainly because I love Tim Burton's highly original, groundbreaking films BATMAN (1989) and BATMAN RETURNS (1992). Well, Christopher Nolan did well with BATMAN BEGINS, a strong, provocative, sprawling epic retelling of how a conflicted young man, Bruce Wayne, battled his inner demons and conquered his deepest fears to emerge into a crime-fighting hero Batman.
Christian Bale is excellent as young Bruce Wayne and, while I still think Michael Keaton is the best, I can accept Bale because this is the young version of Bruce Wayne and telling how he emerged into Batman whereas in Burton's films, Batman was already established. Also, the tone of Burton's flicks were more lighthearted, even though they were still rather dark films. Nolan's BATMAN BEGINS is more realistic and serious, but it still works. Again, Bale really gives a strong performance in this film displaying a variety of emotions with conviction and depth.
The early stages of BATMAN BEGINS are told in random fashion. The film starts showing Wayne being trained in Tibet by ninja warrior Henri Ducard (wonderfully played by the superb Liam Neeson). Both Wayne and Ducard are students of Ras Al Ghul (larger-than-life Ken Watanabe). Wayne is being trained in all facets of martial artistry to make himself almost indestructible. Flashback to Wayne's childhood. As a boy, young Bruce is friends with Rachel Dawes and while playing, he is attacked by bats. This manifests itself as extreme fear in Bruce, but his father Thomas Wayne (solid work by Linus Roache) instills in him that he must fight his fear. The scenes of young Bruce and his father are effectively touching without ever devolving into sappiness. And it shows how a father's guidance can help shape and mold a boy into manhood.
Of course, we know what happens to Bruce's parents! Leaving the theatre one night, a random thug named Joe Chill kills Bruce's parents. A distraught young Wayne rebels and runs away scouring the world trying to understand the criminal mind. Fourteen years later, returning briefly for the parole hearing of Chill (he was caught soon after the murder), Wayne is going to kill Chill, but someone beats him to it. Crime boss Carmine Falcone (deliciously played by Tom Wilkinson) has Chill killed because he was going to testify against him. When Bruce admits to Rachel (excellent work by the underrated Katie Holmes) that he was going to kill Chill, she slaps him and tells him his father would be ashamed. I found this scene to be particularly effective. Holmes got way too much flack for her performance IMHO. She really brings a sweet innocence, yet some serious inner strength, to the role of Rachel Dawes. Plus, Bale and Holmes have great chemistry in this!
Now, flashforward to the present and Wayne's training with Ducard and Al Ghul. They want him to go back and destroy Gotham with his newfound abilities and powers. It is then that Wayne realizes that Ducard and Al Ghul are no different than men like Chill and Falcone. They are all selfish, evil men who think the world is their playground. Wayne refuses and in the melee, destroys Al Ghuls temple, killing him, but saving Ducard.
Upon returning to Gotham after a 7-year absence, Wayne re-establishes himself in the city. Respectively, we meet Wayne's butler Alfred (Michael Caine), Wayne Foundation Chairman Earle (Rutger Hauer), Wayne Foundation Development Head Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), and Batman's future ally Police Sgt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman). The veteran actors Caine, Hauer, Freeman, and Oldman are all superb in their roles and have an amazing rapport with the young Bale. There is a kind of dignified camaraderie amongst all these characters. Wayne has Fox introduce him to all those "wonderful toys" that he will use in his new role as the Caped Crusader.
After taking down Falcone, Batman must contend with the Scarecrow (brilliantly played by Cillian Murphy), who was in cahoots with Falcone and, as it turns out, Ducard (the real Ras Al Ghul!), who has been plotting his revenge against Wayne and Gotham City.
BATMAN BEGINS really does good job of jumpstarting the Batman story, while still having satisfying doses of action and humor along the way. The cast is uniformly excellent and the humor really emerges out of the dialogue and is not forced at all. Nolan does fantastic job of having a serious, realistic tone, but yet BATMAN BEGINS never seems boring.
A couple of complaints:
*The action scenes, while exciting and visually arresting, are kind of difficult to discern at times, especially at the climax. In Burton's films, the action was exciting while still being discernible. I know this is a function of the ninja-warrior like training of Wayne, but when he fought Al Ghul's ninja warriors at the climax, I felt that action should have been slowed down since they all had the same abilities. I felt cheated by that scene, which should have been better.
*I think Bale as the REAL Bruce Wayne (not the ineffectual playboy) is way more interesting than Bale as Batman! It's OK here since Bruce Wayne has much more screen time than Batman, which is the opposite of Burton's films where Keaton's Batman definitely had more scenes than Keaton's Wayne. Also, I liked the fact that Keaton as Bruce Wayne was ALWAYS the real Bruce Wayne, a reclusive billionaire. I think they could have pulled that off with Bale, too. The playboy stuff seemed kind of tacked on and didn't come across well. I find Bale's Batman, with his super raspy voice and cowering like a real bat to be a tad odd at times!
But, overall, this is definitely a well-executed, provocative, well acted film which happens to be about a superhero!