Is batman a Nolan archetype?

Rating: 9/10 (20 June 2007)

What I enjoyed most in "Batman Begins" was its effort to be realistic: Batman's suit is made of a special material, whose properties are realistically described and portrayed. His car does things we have seen in TV shows and in footage from real car chases: realism is more important than speed in this car and in the film itself.
But don't be fooled: Nolan does not try to convince us that a "batman" could exist thanks to a strong will, intensive training and modern technology. Realism is just the perfect guideline to make a fiction more complex, deeper, and more interesting to analyze (if you want to), with a richer texture and many details that you can pick on second viewing.
This batman does not live in our universe, but at least his universe is almost as complex as our own, and not that oversimplification of the previous batman films. Nolan creates an interesting atmosphere, as he does in his other films, and brings back his usual obsessions on identity, the illusions of mind and the actions that define us.
And after all... in what film do you hear someone talking about "jungian archetypes"? Another touch of realism and a psychological joke, something you could expect from the director of "Memento".
9 out of 10. I can't wait to see "The Dark Knight".