Starts like a train and peters out a little

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2011)

Taking a queue from Superman (1978) Chris Nolan goes back to the origins of Bruce Wayne and how he became Batman. Taking time (just under an hour like Superman) to flesh out the back story and provide the audience with a strong understanding of what makes Bruce Wayne do what he does.
The first hour or so of Batman Begins is perfect, the training montages, the flashbacks to childhood through the death of Wayne's parents to his exile in the criminal world. Liam Neeson is perfect as his mentor and Christian Bale was an excellent casting decision, refreshing to pick a man rather than a younger guy to appeal to the younger crowd.
However as we move into the latter part of the film I feel it lose momentum. As much as I admire Cillian Murphy as an actor I don't see him as Scarecrow and he doesn't really hit the right note for me. I loved Tom Wilkinson as the gang boss I feel he was greatly underused. Katie Holmes does try to give her character some balls but comes across a little whiny and unsympathetic to Bruce, perhaps this is a writing flaw.
Anyway Neeson returns for the films showdown which is quite good and we have the calling card from the Joker at the end. One thing this movie does is set up the foundations for The Dark Knight which in my opinion is a superior film.
So for me this is a great Batman movie but in terms of origin of superhero movies Superman remains my favourite.