Excellent!!! Just plain and simple excellent !!!

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2005)

Well, I always loved the Batman movies. But in the later years, as I grew up, I have found them more and more over the top comic book like. Okay,Batman IS originally a comic book, but they tried too much to make a cartoon out of a real movie. Especially when it came to the villains.
Don't get me wrong, I laughed my head off, at Jim Carey as The Riddler, and Tomy Lee Jones was okay as Twoface. and And Jack Nicholson as The Joker was excellent, even Arnold was okay. But Danny Devito's The Penguin, made me want to puke. As always, Danny did a good job, but the character almost destroyed the movie with its outrageously disgusting parody of a comic book villain.
Well, enough about the old ones. Batman Beginns, Is on an entirely other level of quality. The plot is extremely much more thought through. Every detail has been made more believable. Especially how Bruce Wayne came to be Batman. To my great joy, they dropped the more or less psychotic avenger attitude of the previous Batmans. Here is at last, a sane Bruce Wayne!!!! The guy who played him, did an excellent job portraying a person who actually manages to defeat his inner demons. All right, there sure is an element of vengeance in his fight against crime. But his main motivation is to do something with what has happened to his beloved city. He like his father, sees the pain and suffering of other people, and does what he can to help.
Ironically it is the main villain who helps him become a whole person, who learns him how to discern vengeance from justice. That being said, Liam Neeson was incredible as an villain. He perfectly portrayed a person who in a way had noble intents, but who had strayed off the path, and into madness. It was this example that showed Bruce how not to be. Liam's character had let himself be consumed by vengeance, whereas Bruce thanks to seeing that, managed to stay on the right track.
I must say that when I first saw Liam, I gave a inward sigh. I should have known better, but I highly doubted he would be able to portray a villain, as he always seem to be some sort of a "hero". But his characterization hit bulls eye. I actually shuddered in discomfort a few times, from seeing the fanatic madness, of his character. In my opinion, he is by far the best Batman villain so far.
There is not much to say about Kate. She did the job in a good but not very memorable way, and I think that she looked much too young to have the kind of job she had.
Gary Oldman on the other hand, did the best characterization of Commissioner(I know he wasn't that yet in this movie) Gordon, to date. It always amazes me to see how much of a chameleon this actor is. If you see this movie, and then you see The Fifth Element It is almost unbelievable that it is the same actor who plays Zorg and Gordon.
Morgan Freeman is one of those actors that hightens the quality of a movie simply by being there. And so it was in this movie to. He has this PRECENSE on screen, that very few can duplicate. He managed to make this in fact very small role, into one of the major characters of the movie.
The butler. I am sorry to say I don't know the name of the actor. But I was glad to see that they had kept true to the only realistic character of the old movies. Although there was a new actor, he managed to pick up right where the former was, with his characterization of a loyal butler, who becomes sort of a surrogate father to Bruce. And this time we got to see more clearly the deep friendship that was between the two of them. Alfred, really was more of a dear family member, than an employee.
I am sorry, I seem to have taken off completely here. I'll try to stop now. JUST RUN TO THE NEAREST CINEMA AND SEE THIS MOVIE. THIS IS WITHOUT DOUBT THE BEST BATMAN MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And think of this! They are already planning a new one! I sure as anything will be there!!!
Well, thats all folks.