Daringly different and a heckuva lot better.

Rating: 8/10 (20 October 2006)

Alright, so first things first: the "Batman" movie franchise only had one way to go, and that was up. After the painfully dreadful last one with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, even filming a post-it note reading "Batman Rocks!!!" for two hours and sending the videotape into national theater release would have been seen as an improvement.
But this really IS a good Batman movie. This time, we're not seeing a comic book superhero movie. We're gently guided through a solid plot that culminates in the birth of Batman, at which point we're prepared to suspend our disbelief and say "alright, so I guess Batman could really exist after all". Even the bad guy is semi-plausible (even though he, obviously, plans a wacky batman-style supervillainy stunt which would be far-fetched in any other movie).
Another thing is that the movie feels very much like an action-adventure from the mid-80's. Nolan's decision to use as little CGI as possible really shines through and melds with his relatively old-school camera style nicely to create a film which at most times feels like a forgotten classic from the days of the "indiana jones" movies.
Definitely worth a viewing!