Genesis of the Batman

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2012)

This, the first part of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is as much about how and why billionaire Bruce Wayne became Batman as what he does once he has; in fact he doesn't don the bat suit until an hour into the film. In the prologue we see a young Bruce Wayne fall into a well where he is terrified by the bats he disturbed; creating a life long phobia. The first time we see him as an adult he is in a Himalayan prison; he is released and invited to train to become part of an organisation called the crime fighting organisation; League of Shadows. Upon completing his training he learns that the league's methods are radical in the extreme... they intend to destroy Wayne's home city of Gotham and everything in it because they believe the world needs to be cleansed of its corruption. Gotham is indeed a corrupt city but Wayne is determined that it can be saved. He returns home and uses the resources of Wayne Industries to create his Batman persona.
This takes almost to the half way point of the film; in the second half we see him start his fight against those corrupting the city; the first person he goes against is local mobster Carmine Falcone; he may be the city's best known mobster but unbeknownst to him he was working for others; the psychiatrist Dr. Crane used Falcone to smuggle psychotropic drugs into the city; he used these to experiment on patients at the Arkham Asylum in preparation for the attack on the city being planned by the League of Shadows. If Batman is to thwart the League's plans he will have to confront his deepest fears and risk losing everything he has. He has few allies; just a policeman, Sgt. Gordon; his butler Alfred; Assistant DA and childhood friend, Rachel Dawes and demoted company researcher, Lucius Fox.
Before watching this put any memories of the camp '60s TV show or the '80s films out of your minds; this is a complete reboot that is in no way connected to them and tells the story from the characters beginning. The first half of the film is less action packed as it deals with how Bruce loses his parents, struggles to come to terms with that loss and is trained by the Henri Ducard of the League of Shadows... this doesn't mean this section was any less interesting; in fact I found this to be an essential as it gave us the necessary insight into Batman's motivations rather than just expecting the viewer to accept that Bruce Wayne likes to fights crime dressed as a giant bat. The second half is packed with plenty of exciting action and it is fun to see some of Batman's famous gadgets; especially the new and imaginatively designed bat mobile. The gadgets aren't overdone though; he doesn't always have just the right piece of highly specialised kit!
The cast is full of top quality actors including Christopher Bale as Bruce Wayne, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman and Rutger Hauer... but it doesn't feel like an 'all-star cast' film where everybody gets a chance to show off; each of the cast plays their part well without overplaying it. This has a far more realistic feel than previous Batman films; the villains are entirely human without over the top mannerisms or camp costumes and because so much time was spent introducing the Bruce Wayne character he is the real character and Batman is just a costume he wears and even that is given a practical justification. I'd certainly recommend this to fans of intelligent action films; even if you don't usually like superhero films this one is worth checking out.