Superior blend of realism and superhero fantasy

Rating: 9/10 (23 February 2007)

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)
The idea here--and it is an admirable one--is to account for in a realistic way how the fictional character Bruce Wayne became Batman the superhero. Why did he become a crime fighter? How did he become so skilled, so tough and so motivated? How was he able to come up with such effective gadgetry including the super hi-tech Batmobile? And why did he chose the bat as his motif? From what I can tell it was screenwriter David S. Goyer who asked himself these questions and saw that answering them could be made into a kind of blockbuster prequel to the Batman movie phenomenon. But it was director Christopher Nolan who made it work.
Nolan also directed the sensational Memento (2000) a story about a man who is only able to remember what has happened during the last minute or two and has no memory of anything before that up to the time he suffered a head injury. He has to write down where he parks his car so he can find it later, and he keeps pictures with notes on people he sees regularly because he can never remember them or any interaction he has with them. Memento is a stunningly brilliant film that skyrocketed Nolan to fame.
Goyer wrote a number of screenplays before Batman Begins, none of them of much importance. I happened to have seen the film Arcade (1993), for which he wrote the script, a harmless, undistinguished scifi for teens but nothing else of his. Nonetheless, Goyer is a natural for something like Batman Begins because he is a writer of comics who attended the USC film school and (or was) a collector of comics. He cares about comics and comic book heroes and he knows enough about film to write a script that might work. He and Nolan share credit for the script.
The story begins in Tibet where a young Bruce Wayne learns how to fight like a ninja and gains insights into himself and who he is. There are flashbacks to his childhood in which he falls into a dry well and is terrified by the bats that fly out over his head as he lies trapped. He sees his parents murdered in a holdup. This motivates him to become a crime fighter.
The later part of the movie shows Bruce Wayne discovering a cave under the Wayne Mansion, interacting with the loyal family butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and getting help with his crime-fighting inventions from tech and forensics expert Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). Katie Holmes plays Bruce's childhood friend who has become a prosecuting attorney fighting bravely against the crime and corruption that have become rampant in Gotham City.
There are an number of nice touches and the visuals are really arresting. The Batmobile itself is fascinating to watch in action, especial during one of the most spectacular chase scenes ever envisioned, as Batman directs the vehicle up a ramp to the top of a building and then leads the cops on a chase as the Batmobile leaps from one building to another! Some of the early action is a bit beyond belief (although the intent is realism), most notably when Bruce Wayne manages to fight his way singlehandedly out of the ninja mountain training camp and has the strength in one arm to stop the fall of ninja leader Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) and hold himself and Ducard at the precipice of a cliff and then pull Ducard up. Near the end of the film as Batman shoots up from the ground on wires and glides and springs from rooftop to rooftop with the greatest of ease, the action becomes clearly comic book like.
Regardless, this is without question the best superhero movie I've ever seen. It is not only a commercial triumph for Nolan and everybody connected with the picture but, given the genre, an artistic and creative one as well.
See this for Christopher Nolan who is quickly becoming one of Hollywood's most successful directors.