Great!

Rating: 9/10 (20 June 2005)

After seeing the last three awful Batman movies I had to be coaxed to see this one. I was very glad that I went. This is not only by far the best Batman movie I have seen but the best comic adaptation film outside of the Spiderman movies! What always bothered me about Batman and my main sticking point with the Michael Keaton film was that he had all this elaborate equipment and this super high-tech batcave and it was never explained how he got it. Also, you wondered how nobody would be able to figure out who he was, especially the person who built the batmobile in that movie. Finally, we have a movie that explains everything and does it well.
Also, Batman doesn't appear till more than halfway through the movie and we don't really care. The character of Bruce Wayne is fascinating and the director did such a good job of telling the murder of Wayne's parents that it was difficult to watch the scene without crying yourself.
Liam Neeson is super in this film as a teacher to a troubled Bruce Wayne, schooling him in Ninjitsu and other fighting arts. Morgan Freeman is excellent as an employee of Wayne Enterprises who was pushed aside after the senior Wayne was murdered and who is in charge of a lot of R&D military equipment that he provides for Bruce. And of course Michael Caine makes a super Alfred! Then there is "Sargent" Gordon, who seems to be one of the few non-corrupt police officers that Batman immediately identifies as someone he can trust for help.
There are many memorable scenes in the film, especially where Bruce is making his first batarang and designing the Batman suit. The city looks a lot more realistic than any of the previous films (even though it doesn't look like the Gotham of the comics) as does the bat signal (it appears in the sky distorted, as it should).
I hope the director can do as well with a sequel and not be tempted to go off on the "camp" road that the other series of Batman films followed.