Missed opportunity

Rating: 7/10 (19 June 2005)

A movie of grand proportions but few recognizable human characters, Batman Begins is yet another example of modern Hollywood: make it bigger, louder, faster, pricier- and worse. Christian Bale makes an interesting Bruce Wayne, although he becomes a husky-voiced cypher with the batsuit on (but let's face it, anybody's going to look ridiculous wearing a suit of armor, cape and pointy ears). Michael Caine brings an understated passion to his portrayal of Alfred, the ultimate sidekick- although a proper English butler with a Cockney accent is a bit distracting. Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman are fine as always; hopefully, though, their much better work in much better movies isn't overshadowed by this newfound success with the popcorn crowd. On the other hand, the movie is burdened with lots of "what-the-heck-is-this" performances- most notably, Tom Wilkinson as an Italian crime boss portrayed badly by a British stage actor, and Katie Holmes as a grownup (stick with Dawson's Creek, honey). And finally, Cillian Murphy (the Scarecrow, a guy with a bag on his head)and Liam Neeson (a guy with a phony goatee nearly on his head), as two of the least threatening movie villains ever. Hey Cillian, nice costume- what's the matter, was your "scary ghost" outfit at the cleaners?