Thrilling, action-packed and expertly made superhero reboot

Rating: 10/10 (19 April 2012)

Batman Begins is Inception director Christopher Nolan's reboot of the famous Batman film franchise based on the DC comics superhero. Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher had both had their time in the Batman films, and Chris Nolan brings a completely new feel to it, concentrating on elements such as fear and delivering quite a dark, psychological film. It stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Liam Neeson, Cillian Murphy, Katie Holmes, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Tom Wilkinson and Ken Watanabe. The film starts by explaining Bruce's fear of bats and then travelling to Bhutan after his parents death and being trained as a ninja by Liam Neeson's Henri Ducard. Ducard teaches Wayne to master his fear and become more than just a man, saying that if he makes himself more than a man, committing himself to an idea, he will become an immortal legend. Bruce returns to the crime-struck and corrupt Gotham where he transforms himself into the double personality Batman, the Caped Crusader, to fight crime. He does this with the help of Alfred, his butler played by Caine who is like his father. Also assisting him is Sergeant Gordon (Oldman), one of the few cops who is not corrupt, Freeman's Lucius Fox, who provides Bruce with his equipment and childhood friend, now DA, Rachel (Holmes). Wilkinson plays crime lord Falcone and Murphy plays Dr Jonathan Crane, the fear-inducing Scarecrow. This film is fantastic in every aspect, with great acting, great action scene, an interesting plot and good themes. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's score is amazing, one of the best film scores of all time and Christopher Nolan does a superb job of directing. The only minor problem I had with it was that the Scarecrow seemed to be underused, and it sometimes starts to feel a little rushed in places. However, Batman Begins is a brilliant movie and the sequel, the Dark Knight, takes things to a whole new level. It is an epic start to a trilogy.