Not for Batman fanatics...

Rating: 8/10 (21 June 2005)

Everybody knows the movie industry has been on a craze for super heroes, but Batman is definitely not a "common super hero". No superpowers, no extraordinary strength, no heat vision, etc... which make it easier for any company produce a Batman movie, right? WRONG! Even though these features mentioned above cannot be found in a guy like Batman, his past brought so much grief to his character that it is difficult for an actor to really play the role of the Dark Knight. Only two guys did it: Michael Keaton (Batman, Batman Returns) and Christian Bale (Batman Begins). The actor MUST follow this simple rule if he ever wants to play Batman in a movie: change his voice. It obviously keeps the real identity of Batman. It sounds picky, but Bruce Wayne CAN'T be in the same mood as Batman, as it happened previously with Val Kilmer and George Clooney (Batman like: "Hey, I'm Bruce Wayne"). Batman Begins' purpose was: introduce everybody to the backgrounds of this fantastic hero. Consequently, the fight scenes in this movie precisely explain how Batman learned the apparent "invulnerability" when fighting thugs in the streets of Gotham City. Also, the introduction of Lucius Fox, an extremely important character in Batman's stories, seemed to fit like a glove to excellent actor Morgan Freeman. Another indispensable character, Ra's Al Ghul is flawlessly explained in the movie. Now, if you're a Batman fanatic like me, you will also notice some cons: for a guy who was merely driving what seemed to be a transformed black Cadillac around Gotham City, and had no idea on who Jack Napier AKA "Joker" was, a 4WD, GPS controlled tank is just too much. At that time, not even 10 Lucius Fox together would have even considered the possibility. High tech artifacts are dispensable in this movie, considering the primordial times in the life of such a hero. It would be a better idea if the writers put this one as Batman 2099 and slightly introduced the beginning of Batman's "career" as in a flashback, no tanks and ultra high tech water vapourizers, of course. Two thumbs up for Michael Caine (the best Alfred so far), favourite actor Liam Neeson (Ducard) and, of course, Christian Bale (the best Batman, along with Michael Keaton).