A Magnificent Beginning to a new franchise

Rating: 9/10 (23 November 2013)

After the appalling Batman films that began to come out in the 1980s I was simply not interested in seeing this movie, simply because I expected it to be the same old rubbish that I had had to put up with growing up. Even now I am finding that my favourite of the original Batman films, being Batman Returns, is starting to get on my goat, but that probably has to do with the fact that comparing that film to Christopher Nolan's masterpiece is like comparing pop-art with Picasso. However, as I have mentioned, I had no interest in this film when it hit the big screens, and would have basically ignored it (and missed out on a marvelous piece of storytelling) if it were not for one of my bible study leaders showing this film on a film night.
Normally I don't like reboots, unless of course the series that is being rebooted, such as the Batman franchise, was a pretty poor offering to begin with. The way they rebooted the Star Trek franchise was quite interesting, but using time traveling Romulans to kill Kirk's father thus irrevocably changing the time line. However, that is irrelevant when it comes to the Batman movies because it is clear that they simply wanted to start again. Further, this is the first Christopher Nolan film that I had seen, and I suspect that at this time he was still a fairly unknown director – but not anymore after the success of his Batman trilogy.
Nolan has a way with characters, and flawed characters at that. I always liked the idea of Batman being the Dark Knight, that is a vigilante that can be a dark as the villains themselves, yet having that essence of purity in him that causes him to pursue justice, and stand against injustice. This is seen during his training where he refuses to execute a murderer simply because he has not had a fair trial. We also see a change in the character of Bruce Wayne, were at first he wants vengeance against the murderer of his parents, in the eye for an eye example (though this falls down when a murderer kills two people because the murderer can only die once, meaning that in effect the second murder goes unpunished). After returning from his jaunt around the world's underworld, Wayne returns with a new sense of justice, no longer does he seek vengeance, he seeks justice, and we see this when he doesn't kill Facone, but rather strings him up to a spot light so that the authorities may try him.
I have also noticed that with this franchise they bring in two villains as opposed to one. In this one we have Ras A Ghul (a Batman villain I had not heard of from my junior days when I watched the animated Batman series – but then they only ever used the Joker, the Riddler, and maybe Catwoman). The other one they use is Scarecrow, though he seems to play second fiddle to Ras A Ghul (until you realise that their plans are actually connected – except that Scarecrow simply seems to be a rogue psychiatrist who runs Arkham Asylum, the institute for the criminally insane).
I must say though that Batman Begins does not delve as deep into the nature of reality as Inception does, but I suspect that that is not the point. In another way it seems to explore the nature of our psyche, and the parts of us that make us who we are. However, we notice that Bruce Wayne does leave a double life in a sense, but that is suggested because unless one knows who Batman is one cannot seek vengeance against those that he loves. He does seem to try the billionaire playboy for a bit, but it does not seem to be much in his character, because he is a dark and brooding individual that is haunted by the death of both his parents, something that we witnessed as a child.