Worth the wait!

Rating: 9/10 (17 June 2005)

(Spoilers...) Like most people who have written a comment on this movie, I'm very positive about it.
It takes a very good movie to deliver the goods after a year of waiting, but that's just what this one did. From the beginning to the end, it was a blast! One of the things that I loved about "Batman Begins", is that finally we get to see where the Dark Knight gets his toys.
The Batmobile in this movie is a failed military project from Wayne Enterprises. The new car doesn't have the stylish "batwings" the old cars had, but it's much more realistic because of that! The only thing that's wrong with it in this movie is that nobody who worked on this project at Wayne Enterprises recognizes it when it's involved in a televised chase through (and over) Gotham City! The rest of his equipment is from the same source: an obscure area buried deep within the Wayne Towers (Wayne Enterprises headquarters) under supervision by Lucius Fox, a brilliant engineer who was "promoted" to this department to keep him out of the boardroom.
Christian Bale is excellent as Wayne/Batman, a role which sounds simple, but isn't! (Great actors like Clooney & Kilmer have failed!) With Bale's character, you can see the man "clearly has got issues", as he himself says (as Wayne about Batman) at one point in the movie. I would have liked to see a bit more of his playboy-routine (I'm buying this hotel...), but that's just me.
Michael Caine has proved again what a talented man he is. Even though he has a limited role in this picture, he makes it a significant contribution to the story. He puts more of a father figure in his Alfred, which makes the character seem more real.
At the end of the day, "Batman Begins" delivers what it's title promises: We see the beginning of the Batman. We see his fears, his drive, his training, the discovery of the Batcave and, as mentioned before, the origins of his equipment. All this is brought to the viewer in a fascinating story.
Nolan has really made this "Batman Begins" work, and even though it's no competition for his earlier "Memento" (wich is one of my favorite movies of all time), it's a movie he can put on his resume with pride!