I'm sorry, but I hated it.

Rating: 1/10 (20 June 2005)

I can see that I am in a distinct minority here, but I really found this movie quite hard to sit through. I can also understand why people loved it...it looks great, the cast is top rate, and the direction is stylish and serious. It is also such a huge improvement on the cheesy nonsense of some of the previous movies. So where did it all go wrong for me?
I was right there at the start, I loved the scenes of Bruce's fall and recovery, and I was really engaged when Morgan Freeman was getting out the Bat-based goodies. It really fell apart for me when the plot veered off into stuff about an unidentified bad guy (obviously Liam Neeson's 'sensei' character) plotting to stick some hallucinogenic gas into the air with the aim of destroying the city because the city is bad. Somehow it just became convoluted, but without the necessary tension to keep me interested. By the end it was a matter of supreme indifference to me if Batman lived or died.
Such a shame, and hence the harsh rating, but I am very hopeful that the next movie will sharpen up the plot a long way, but retain the excellent style of this movie.