The best Batman movie and one of the best 'comic' films ever

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2005)

I've never been a fan of movies based on comic books and I'm pretty sure that I never will be. We are flooded by movies like X-men, Spider-man, Hellboy, Daredevil, Batman,... because the makers of this kind of movies know that the majority of the (teenage American) audience loves movies about the eternal battle between good and evil and seem to have an enormous need for new heroes. That most of those movies don't have a decent story or some good acting to offer, doesn't seem to bother them at all. As long as everything looks as spectacular and flashy as possible, they are happy with it. But I'm not that kind of person. I prefer movies with a believable, touching story and interesting characters over all that computer animated eye candy. So why did I give this movie a try than? The reason is quite simple, I read a lot of good reviews about it and because it still had a rating of 8.3/10 after 45,831, I was very curious about it.
The title "Batman Begins" already says enough about where you should place this movie in the line of other Batman movies. It's a prequel and starts telling the story where Bruce Wayne is still a child. He witnesses the murder of his parents and is convinced that it was his fault. He seeks revenge, but when the murderer is shot in front of his eyes, he flees to Asia where he seeks counsel from Ra's al Ghul, a dangerous ninja cult leader. Here he learns all the things a perfect fighter should know off, but it doesn't take long before he realizes that Ra's al Ghul's way of live isn't the correct one either. He decides to go back to Gotham City, which has become overrun with crime and corruption. He also finds out that the company which he inherited is slowly being taken over from him. That's when he decides that he will be the new crime-fighter in town who will strike fear into the hearts of the criminals. He becomes Batman and, with the help of some other people, he starts saving the city from the apocalypse...
What surprised me the most about this movie was that it took its time to develop the story and the character behind Batman. We get to know him from his childhood on and gradually see him evolve from Bruce Wayne into Batman. But not only Batman feels more realistic as usual, so do the bad guys. OK, it's still a comic book movie, but for once you don't get bad guys who believe they are penguins or something like that. The fact that all the characters in the movie looked more realistic was new to me and I admit that I liked that new approach. What I also liked was the way the city was created. The computer animators have done a very fine job creating Gotham city and the many action scenes looked even more spectacular thanks to their work.
I liked the acting and the computer graphics, the story was OK and this is by far the best Batman movie that I've ever seen. Does this also mean that this is one of the best movies in general that I've seen this year, like so many people claim? No, not really, but I admit that it is a lot better than all those other comic book movies. This one definitely stands above all those other movies, almost making them feel like some cheap rip-offs. Still, it's not exactly my kind of movie and that's why I believe that the 8.3/10 is overrated. I know that not many people will share my opinion on this, but I believe that a rating of 7/10 for this movie is a lot more realistic.