Finally, someone nails it

Rating: 9/10 (23 June 2005)

In Christopher Nolan's capable hands, the Batman franchise finally gets the formula right: drop the camp and embrace the darkness. "Origin of superhero" stories are notoriously difficult to do well because we all know where they're heading. Fortunately, Nolan and co-writer David Goyer have focused on the right thing: it's not just how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, but why. Fear - where it comes from, how we beat it, and how it can be turned against others - is the theme here, and the Nolan/Goyer script is all the more interesting for it. They also recognize the imperative of telling a good story, offering us a well-crafted action/mystery plot which never drags despite needing to cover a lot of detail and carry a large freight of emotional and ideological complexity. Christian Bale is perfectly cast as the Dark Knight. He's fresh enough for most viewers to accept him as not just another Hollywood star in a rubber suit, and talented enough to pull off what ends up being a pretty complex character: both terrified and terrifying, sometimes simultaneously. He's impressive enough to be a credible superhero, yet fallible enough to be endearing. The big-name supporting cast are excellent, with the exception of the relentlessly banal Katie Holmes who plays Gotham's fearless, mob-busting ADA as Joey Potter in a nice suit. But she's a minor quibble. It all comes together here: a great script, engaging characters, wonderful production design, neatly deployed music (which right from the outset cleverly makes potentially tedious expository scenes feel like part of larger sequences), gorgeous cinematography, imaginative but never overpowering use of CGI, and perfect pacing. "Batman Begins" doesn't quite follow the mythology laid down in the graphic novels (which isn't internally consistent anyway) but it does prove what their readers have long known: it's not just the pretty pictures, guys - it's those wonderfully tortured characters, their desolate urban milieu, and the way it all grips your dark imagination. Nolan knows that, and he really nails it here. This is the Batman movie you've been waiting for.