A new and much improved vision of Batman

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2005)

Batman Begins goes a long way in erasing (*shudder*) all those Batman sequels from my memories. It took making it a prequel, abandoning all established location and plots of the original set of movies and a shot of anti-TimBurton in the arm to make it work. And for me, it certainly worked.
There are some iffy bits, to be sure. Batman has always had a problem in terms of making a "normal" person super-heroic. He falls further and gets hit harder than should really be possible with a few bruises to show for it, no matter what kind of training he's had. The romantic parts are a little thin and sometimes jerky. Finally, the movie lifts some moments directly from other movies, including some recent comic book adaptations.
I also heard complaints from co-viewers that it took too long to get around to Batman being Batman, but I credit the movie with covering bases that most Batman products simply gloss over: where does his STUFF come from and why any of this high-tech wizardry is only available to him.
All that said, the movie is fun, exciting and fairly smart. It has a surprising amount of wit, especially from Alfred/Michael Cain. The fight scenes work well, the action scenes work well and you even get a good sense that the bad guy really has some sort of idea exactly what he's doing and why. The idea of Batman as a symbol is covered, and Batman even gets off a few good quips while battling his foes.