Batman Flies High Again!

Rating: 10/10 (30 June 2005)

After Joel Schumacher destroyed the Batman series with Batman & Robin (1997), with it's extremely camp take on the Dark Knight that made the 60's T.V. Show look like Citizen Kane, Warner Bros. and DC Comics called upon English writer/director Christopher Nolan (the mastermind behind Following, Memento and Insomnia) and a mostly British cast to save the franchise. Whereas Tim Burton's Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) went for fantasy, Nolan's Batman Begins goes for realism and near enough achieves it.
Even though this is still a superhero movie it also achieves its goal of playing like human drama. The all-star cast boasts an extremely engaging Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gary Oldman, in his best performance since Leon, as Lt. Jim Gordon, Katie Holmes, showing off her wonderful talent, as District Attorney Rachel Dawes, the always fantastic Michael Caine as Bruce's butler Alfred, a wonderfully creepy Cillian Murphy as Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, Morgan Freeman, brilliant as usual even though he is playing one of the smaller parts, as Lucius Fox and the always amazing Liam Neeson as Bruce's trainer Henri Ducard, redeeming himself after being forced into the background in Ridley Scott's action - driven Kingdom of Heaven.
One more thing that should get a mention, and an Oscar nomination, is that fantastic score by movie music giants Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard that fits the films mood perfectly.